(23 Sep 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Düsseldorf, Germany – 4 September 2025
1. Wide of servicewomen and servicemen on temporary duty taking military oath
2. Mid of German soldiers standing in formation taking military oath
3. Mid of German military personnel standing in formation taking military oath
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Berlin – 25 August 2025
4. SOUNDBITE (German) Friedrich Merz, German chancellor:
++STARTS ON SHOT 3++
“Germany, due to its size and economic strength, must have the strongest conventional army on the European side of NATO."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rostock, Germany – 4 September 2025
5. Mid of soldiers with rifles during exercise
6. Mid of helicopter fly-over
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Berlin – 17 September 2025
7. SOUNDBITE (German) Thomas Wiegold, defense policy expert:
++STARTS ON SHOT 5, PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 6 – 10++
"On the one hand, the Bundeswehr must try to become even more attractive. There are approaches like better pay. That’s one way, but a very important way is fundamentally addressing the equipment shortage. Because a force that doesn’t have enough tanks, doesn’t have enough ships, and also doesn’t have enough barracks is not particularly attractive to applicants."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rostock, Germany – 4 September 2025
8. Mid of soldier with machine gun on deck of ship
9. Wide of war ship
10. Mid of German flag on ship
11. Mid of military speedboats during exercise
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Berlin – 17 September 2025
12. SOUNDBITE (German) Thomas Wiegold, defense policy expert:
++STARTS ON SHOT 11, PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 13 – 15++
"Above all, I believe that what is happening now is the preparation for a possible future conscription. In Germany, not only was conscription suspended 14 years ago, but the entire apparatus for managing conscription was also dismantled. It is now slowly being rebuilt."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Düsseldorf, Germany – 4 September 2025
13. Mid of German soldiers standing in formation during a military ceremony
14. Mid of German soldiers holding rifles during a military event
15. Mid of soldiers standing
STORYLINE:
Germany has committed billions to beefing up its military’s equipment after years of neglect. Now it is trying to persuade more people to join up and serve.
More than three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine kick-started efforts to revitalize the Bundeswehr, the challenge of strengthening the German military has grown along with fears of the threat from Moscow.
Alongside the higher military spending that Germany and NATO allies agreed on this year, the alliance is encouraging members to increase personnel numbers.
Berlin wants to add tens of thousands of service members.
“Germany is the country that must have the strongest conventional army in NATO on the European side,” said Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
He hasn’t defined that goal in detail, but the tone underscores a shift in a country that emerged only gradually from its post-World War II military reticence after reunification in 1990.
Earlier this month, the military’s top brass watched as a ferry packed with armored vehicles was escorted out of the Baltic port of Rostock, drones were intercepted in the air and on the water and fighter jets circled above.
That was part of an exercise focused on moving troops and equipment to Lithuania — an ally on NATO’s eastern flank where modern Germany is stationing a brigade abroad on a long-term basis for the first time.
Germany suspended conscription for men in 2011 and subsequently struggled to attract large numbers of short-term volunteers.
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