Germany’s Bundestag opens debate on a reserve law that ends “double voluntariness” and targets 200,000 reservists by 2033

Germany’s Bundestag held the first reading of the Reserve Strengthening Act on 15 October, a bill that would let the armed forces require reservists to serve and that aims for a reserve of at least 200,000 men and women by 2033. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius presented the draft, which the federal cabinet approved on 1 July, according to the Federal Ministry of Defence.

The ministry expects the law to enter into force in early 2027. A vote follows the first reading.

From voluntary to mandatory

Under the current system both the reservist and the employer have to agree to a period of service, a rule the ministry calls “double voluntariness”. The bill ends that. It would also pull the rules now spread across the Soldiers Act into a single new Reservists Act, with one category called reserve service.

The limits on how much a person can be called up depend on prior active service. The ministry gives a range of three to twelve weeks per year and six to twelve months in total. As an example, someone with less than one year of continuous conscript service could serve at most six months in total until the age of 45, with no single period longer than three weeks a year.

Age limits are 45 for conscripts with under one year of service and for those who served as voluntary military service volunteers, and 65 for career and temporary soldiers, with an extension to 68 possible in individual cases. Reservists with more than a year of conscript service could be required to serve abroad in EU and NATO states, including on ships and aircraft. Deployments that need a parliamentary mandate stay voluntary. Service in a state of tension or defence continues to follow the existing conscription law.

Employers and pay

Employers would be heard before any call-up. Notice would be delivered eight weeks ahead, up from four, and employers would have two weeks to respond. They could still ask to defer indispensable staff in peacetime. Changes to the workplace protection law would raise the reimbursement for hiring a replacement and add support for small and medium-sized firms. Reservists would receive a higher foreign-service allowance and wider travel-cost reimbursement.

Pistorius said the bill sets the course for “an even stronger reserve” and called the 200,000 target “ambitious, but necessary”, according to the ministry.

Infrastructure bill read the same day

The Bundestag also held the first reading of the Bundeswehr Infrastructure Acceleration Act on 15 October, after which it went to committee. The bill creates a Bundeswehr Construction Act and amends ten existing laws to speed up planning and approval for barracks, depots, training areas and transport links. It gives certain military projects greater weight in approval decisions and would allow the Bundeswehr to build itself in especially urgent cases, mainly crisis or war, in place of the usual arrangement under which the federal states build on its behalf. Parliamentary State Secretary Hartmann described the planned building programme as unprecedented since the force was founded in 1955. Relief from environmental rules would apply mainly until 2033, and the ministry says environmental and nature protection still applies.

The reserve bill follows a separate step this week, when the budget committee approved new counter-drone and air defence purchases, reported in Germany approves net-launcher counter-drone systems and new Patriot units to replace those sent to Ukraine. Another European state is building up its own manpower: see France’s first national service recruits finish training and join units; ministry plans 10,000 by 2030.