At the end of February, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) aroused the desires of the military and armaments industry with his announcement that he would invest 100 billion euros in the Bundeswehr and that he intends to spend two percent of gross domestic product on defense in the future. In Bavarian politics, too, hopes for a billion-dollar business are growing. On Monday, the parliamentary group of the Free Voters (FW) presented a paper in which, for example, they called for higher investments in personnel, equipment and locations of the Bundeswehr in Bavaria. “It would be nice if every third euro was spent here in Bavaria,” said the defense policy spokesman for the FW parliamentary group, Bernhard Pohl. The federal government is responsible for distributing the money.
According to the Bundeswehr, there were around 240 properties in 90 municipalities in Bavaria. For several years now, the state has been investing more in equipping the locations, instead of closing one barracks after the other as in the past decade. In 2019 and 2018, just as an example, at least 190 million euros went into new buildings, conversions and renovations. One of the largest projects is currently the construction of a new Air Force officer school in Roth, cost estimate: 200 million euros.
More soldiers
With the war in Ukraine and the “turning point” proclaimed by Scholz in the Bundestag, even more money for the military will flow to Bavaria in the coming years – from which the individual Bundeswehr locations, but also the Bavarian armaments industry, will benefit. “If you want peace, you also have to prepare for war,” said parliamentary group leader Florian Streibl on Monday. However, money alone is not enough to sustainably strengthen the Bundeswehr. “We also have to think about it.”
Specifically, the Free Voters demand, for example, the introduction of a mandatory community year for young people who are to be served in the armed forces or in the social or health care sector. “We need to have more soldiers again. But recruiting personnel is not easy at a time when there is almost full employment,” Bernhard Pohl justified the demand, which has also come from other parties in the past.
The suspension of conscription in 2011 was a “big mistake,” said the defense expert, and he also attacked the coalition partner CSU – without naming it, of course. The end of conscription goes back to the defense minister at the time, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU), but was supported by a broad political consensus.
Tour of the barracks
Pohl’s party colleague and colonel a. D. Richard Drexl criticized the fact that in the course of this decision “locations were massively reduced” in Bavaria – also with the approval of the then CSU-led state government. The air force in Bavaria, for example, is “only in fragments” today. It is urgently necessary “to rebuild our defense capability,” demanded Drexl, who has been President of the Bavarian Soldiers’ Association since 2014 and has served in the Bundeswehr for more than 40 years.
The fact that the German rearmament plans are also understood as an economic stimulus program for the arms manufacturers was shown by the skyrocketing share curves of the large corporations the day after Scholz’s speech on the turning point. Even the Free Voters make no secret of the fact that they hope for a strengthening of the armaments industry. “It’s obvious that Bavarian industrial sites are in good shape,” said Drexl, criticizing the federal government’s recent decision to buy F-35 fighter jets from the United States for the Air Force.
How exactly the Bundeswehr in Bavaria will benefit from the federal government’s 100 billion package is unclear – the money, which is to come from a special fund laid down in the Basic Law, has not yet been approved by parliament. It is also not so clear what the Bavarian bases actually need. Defense politician Pohl therefore wants to tour the barracks in the coming weeks to find out about the concerns and needs of the army.