Building for the Bundeswehr
Berlin prepares to invest tens of billions in Germany’s military infrastructure. Plans flow from an orientation – pursued since 2014 – on a possible war against Russia.
BERLIN (own report) - On the initiative of the German Defence Ministry, the federal government and the Länder governments are working together in a joint effort to accelerate the realisation of military construction projects. It is part of a wider commitment to massively strengthen the German armed forces. More than 60 billion euros are to flow into the maintenance, upgrading and expansion of Bundeswehr properties and facilities across Germany over the next few years. Plans include the building of new accommodation for rising troop numbers, needed not least to implement the planned reintroduction of compulsory military service. The acquisition of new weapon systems also requires new specialised buildings for their storage and maintenance. The state of Bavaria has taken a lead here, having already passed into law various planning exemptions to facilitate military construction projects for Bundeswehr expansion. The state’s government in Munich has also removed the so-called “civil clauses”, under which universities were able to refuse to engage in research for military purposes. The expansion of military infrastructure is part of the Bundeswehr's reorientation on a potential war against Russia. This is not new: Berlin initiated such moves back in 2014.
Enormous demand
On the initiative of Germany’s defence ministry, the federal government and Länder governments are clearing the bureaucratic path needed to ramp up investment in military infrastructure across the country. Existing barracks accommodation for soldiers is to be renovated and new accommodation facilities built. The defence ministry has also announced planning extensive building work on training and command facilities, airfields, port facilities and a total of sixteen ammunition depots, along with army hospitals and various “service buildings”.[1] The ministry announced in February that it has “budgeted 24 billion euros over the coming years” for “a total of 7,000 construction projects”.[2] A good six months later, there is already talk of “over 60 billion euros” to be spent “through to the 2040s”. According to the German defence ministry there is “an enormous demand for infrastructure” in order to “modernise and expand” the Bundeswehr’s portfolio of properties. “It is time to roll up our sleeves,” declares Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.[3]
“A new departure”
The Federal Ministry of Defence (BMVg) wants to get implementation of the planned military infrastructure expansion “up to the necessary speed”. To achieve its ambitious goals the ministry is counting on “close cooperation” with the “Länder and their building and planning authorities”. Mobilisation of the organisational capacities of the Länder for the expansion plans was kicked off at the beginning of this year by an initial ‘Conference on Infrastructure’. A joint ‘Federal-Länder Project Group’ has now come up with 38 measures designed ‘to strengthen the military infrastructure’, presented at a second conference in September. The measures are primarily aimed at “accelerating processes” and “simplifying procedures’. The point is to “significantly expand capacities” for military construction projects.[4] The ministry wants to “increase Germany’s military potential as quickly as possible” in a “major joint effort”.[5] The second conference featured a joint declaration signed by the BMVg, all the Länder and the Federal Institute for Property Assignments (BImA) in which they commit to “federal cooperation for the purpose of strengthening the Bundeswehr”. This is supposed to be in “the spirit of a new departure by all those involved”.
Strong backing from Bavaria
Bavaria is one of the Länder pushing hardest for this ‘new departure’. It supports the expansion of military infrastructure with a special vigour, last July passing an ‘Act for the Promotion of the Bundeswehr in Bavaria’. To reduce obstacles to construction measures at Bavaria-based Bundeswehr sites, the state is making legislative amendments to Bavaria’s Monuments Protection Law, State Planning Law and Building Code. New exemptions are intended to facilitate and accelerate the realisation of military construction projects. In addition, a law has been passed that declares the ‘civil clause’, which some universities have been using to refuse engagement in research projects for military purposes, to be ‘inadmissible’. Bavaria’s Ministry of Science and the Arts now has the right to oblige universities to carry out military research “at the request of the Bundeswehr”. Bavaria has also made schools legally obliged to cooperate with Bundeswehr recruitment personnel and is expanding the army's access to pupils. In addition to youth officers, Bundeswehr ‘career counsellors’ are now explicitly allowed to recruit young people “within the framework of school events”.[6]
The ‘core mission’ of the Bundeswehr
As Defence Minister Boris Pistorius explains, the beefed up military infrastructure is an “essential prerequisite for the effectiveness and resilience of the armed forces.”[7] In addition to materiel - especially weapons - and military personnel, the Bundeswehr is also having to adapt and align its properties to the army's revised ‘core mission’.[8] In this context, Pistorius regularly speaks of a “turning point” to the new era proclaimed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in February 2022. In fact, Berlin began much earlier to revise the ‘core mission’ of the Bundeswehr. The change began 2014, as German politicians sought to re-equip and upgrade the troops for a military confrontation with Russia. Until then, the Bundeswehr's activities had focused on wars of intervention and counterinsurgency, particularly in Asia and Africa. The scenario of a possible war against Russia, a major industrial and nuclear power, places a whole new set of demands on the German armed forces that are very different from those of conducting missions against weak states or non-state actors in, say, Afghanistan or Mali. So in addition to upgrading weapons capabilities and troop structures, Berlin is also seeking to reshape the Bundeswehr's property portfolio across the country with the construction plans.
‘Central pillar’
The reactivation of compulsory military service, a policy the German government is currently preparing, is an important factor driving the upcoming military infrastructure measures. The future return of conscription must also be understood in connection with the decision to prepare for a possible military confrontation with Russia. It is all part of a more aggressive German foreign policy designed not only to demonstrate a stronger “will to shape events” and take the lead, but is also to be ready for “more military engagement” – a stance that has been demanded for more than ten years.[9] This stance is driving the arms build-up and the rapidly expanding military budget. Pistorius has since added to this the aspiration that Germany should become the “central pillar” of conventional warfare in Europe.[10]
[1] Pistorius verkündet 38 Maßnahmen zur Stärkung der militärischen Infrastruktur. bmvg.de 24.09.2024.
[2] Zeitenwende auf dem Bau: Pistorius will Infrastrukturprojekte rascher umsetzen. bmvg.de 27.02.2024.
[3], [4] Pistorius verkündet 38 Maßnahmen zur Stärkung der militärischen Infrastruktur. bmvg.de 24.09.2024.
[5] Zeitenwende auf dem Bau: Pistorius will Infrastrukturprojekte rascher umsetzen, bmvg.de, 27.02.2024.
[6] Gesetz zur Förderung der Bundeswehr in Bayern. Bayerisches Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt Nr. 14/2024
[7] Pistorius verkündet 38 Maßnahmen zur Stärkung der militärischen Infrastruktur. bmvg.de 24.09.2024.
[8] Zeitenwende auf dem Bau: Pistorius will Infrastrukturprojekte rascher umsetzen. bmvg.de 27.02.2024.
[9] Neue Macht – Neue Verantwortung. Elemente einer deutschen Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik für eine Welt im Umbruch. Ein Papier der Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) und des German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). Berlin/Washington, Oktober 2013. See also: Die Neuvermessung der deutschen Weltpolitik.
[10] Defence Minister Pistorius speaks in the Lithuanian Parliament. bmvg.de 01.10.2024. See also: Come a long way.
