Preparation for large-scale troop transport, the fight against espionage and sabotage: For the first time since the Cold War, Germany is developing a comprehensive defense concept. There is still a lot missing.
What needs to be defended now? When security authorities, politics and business met on Thursday in the Julius Leber barracks in the north of Berlin at the invitation of the Bundeswehr’s Territorial Command, the troops in particular left little doubt about the seriousness of the situation. “In my opinion, we are not at war, but we have not been at peace for a long time either,” says the commander of the Territorial Command, Lieutenant General André Bodemann. Germany is threatened daily by cyber attacks, disinformation, espionage and sabotage. He warned that the country would soon have to be much better prepared than before for a tough military conflict, its own defense and possible troop transport on a large scale.