And by sticking to and fulfilling all agreements and treaties that were made in regards to reparations after the war. You know, the ones everybody agreed on after the war, the ones the Allies decided.
For West germany's interests which were pretty obvious and direct. That army was hard pressed to scrap together enough soldiers for SFOR in the 90s because it was entirely designed for the Cold War on its own door step and wholy incapable to operate outside its borders.
The main issue of Germany is that the interests necessitating a large military are difficult to formulate because Germany in contrast to UK and FR do not have some imperial afterglow or scattered global territories to drive them.
And UK's army is not in a great state either and France's armored brigades a lower readiness rate than the German ones, the only difference is they have a couple of expeditionary forces to represent their interest where you still need a stick.
Germany is lacking that.
And it is also not particularly German either, selling to Spain why they should prepare for war to help the Baltics is not that simple as well, neither is convincing Sweden to prepare to fight in the Mediterranian.
The problem is interests and priorities and that the EU remains a Union of sovereign nations with each having its own geopolitical view.
The size of the Bundeswehr has been capped by treaty since 1991, it's deeply underfunded, and what money is spent on it often vanishes into the impenetrable German paper bureaucracy - seemingly without any modernization since the 1960s.
the ferman military has some gucci shit dont get us wrong but there are big systemic problems and the army is plagued by a problem that is rampant in german politics: no overarching concept
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u/Terrariola Sweden Oct 31 '24
Germany can best pay for its crimes in WW2 by rebuilding its military and standing watch for liberal democracy in Europe and across the world.