The German economy cannot cope with young people first completing mandatory military service, and only then entering the labor force, Steffen Kampeter of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) told the Financial Times. Are his concerns warranted?

Germany got rid of compulsory service in 2011, through strictly speaking, it was not abolished but merely suspended. This suspension may be lifted for national defense needs — should the country be threatened or under attack. Since then, young men must no longer undergo medical examinations to determine their physical fitness for military service.

But now, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has cautioned that Europe is facing a growing security threat. "According to the assessments of international military experts, it must be assumed that Russia will be in a position to attack a NATO state, or a neighboring state, from 2029 onwards," Pistorius said last summer, speaking with the German daily Frankfurter Rundschau.

Pistorius has promoted a range of measures to address this threat, including a proposal that would reintroduce a kind of compulsory military service. These measures would strike a balance between the current model of voluntary military service and selective service.

The German military, or Bundeswehr, currently has about 181,000 active personnel. Its ranks are set to grow by over 10% to 203,000 by 2027. The Financial Times reports that the German armed forces will need around 80,000 additional recruits over the next 10 years to meet its

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