German rearmament

The issue of German rearmament has a long history. From the end of the Second World War in 1945 until the creation of the two German republics in 1949 - the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) - Germany was demilitarised and divided into four zones of occupation by the Allies. However, the question of a potential rearmament of the country emerged as early as 1950, in the context of the Cold War. The Korean War and the Communist threat underlined the urgent need to organise European defence. The Prague coup (1948) and the Berlin blockade (1948-1949) raised concerns about the possibility of a major crisis in Europe, especially as the Soviet Union (USSR) had acquired nuclear weapons in the same years. The creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), signed in Washington in April 1949, did not initially involve Germany.

However, the need to rearm West Germany was supported by the American government and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer officially demanded the right to raise an armed force capable of protecting the country from the Soviet threat. But the memory of the war and the Allied military occupation made the search for a solution more difficult. In the summer of 1950, Jean Monnet, the French Planning Commissioner, proposed organising Europe's defence within a supranational framework. At the same time, the United States asked its allies to prepare the rearmament of West Germany. But Monnet was also trying to prevent Germany from turning away from the European Coal and Steel Community project. He therefore presented his project to the President of the French Council, René Pleven. Pleven proposed the creation of a European army that would integrate future German units into a single European military and political authority. However, this European Defence Community (EDC) project was finally rejected by the French National Assembly in August 1954. Cooperation on defence and security was then organised within Western European Union, a body created in 1954, while German rearmament took place within NATO from May 1955.

Situated at the centre of the main front line of the Cold War, Germany occupied a decisive position for the various protagonists. In the East, the GDR had the Nationale Volksarmee, created as part of the Warsaw Pact. In the West, the creation of the Bundeswehr However, it reached its target of twelve armoured divisions (each with around 16,000 men) from the mid-1960s onwards. Then, in the 1970s, it reached a total strength of 495,000 men, not counting the mobilisation capabilities of 1.3 million active or reserve soldiers. At that time, the Bundeswehr is mainly made up of conventional armed forces, i.e. units that are not intended for nuclear warfare, such as the army, characterised by its armoured forces. In 1980, these armed forces numbered 345,000 soldiers in peacetime and more than a million men in defence. The air force, on the other hand, was transformed from the late 1950s into a nuclear «strike force», within the framework of NATO and its special relationship with the United States. The US set up depots in Europe, including Germany, and authorised certain allies to carry out nuclear raids. However, these warheads remain in the custody of the United States. Any independent strategic nuclear role for the Federal Republic and its Bundeswehr is excluded from the outset.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the United States called for greater German participation in NATO. At the time of the Kuwait war, it called for the support of the Bundeswehr, within the framework of the Alliance. But German public opinion was vehemently opposed to any form of intervention outside the «NATO zone». It was not until 1994 that the Federal Constitutional Court finally approved this type of intervention. This marked a major turning point in German foreign policy, as the country began to take on more responsibilities abroad.

As a result, in the context of its commitments outside Germany, the Bundeswehr distinguishes between operations abroad and «recognised missions».»^[1]. Operations abroad are aimed at maintaining a secure environment and are generally mandated by the UN or the EU. The European Parliament (Bundestag) must give its prior consent to the participation of the Bundeswehr to such armed operations abroad. This does not apply to «recognised missions»: these allow the Bundeswehr to demonstrate its defence capability within NATO. In addition to this Bundeswehr is involved in international disaster relief and evacuation operations in crisis zones. Generally speaking, it is important to stress that since reunification and until 2022, unlike other countries, Germany maintains an army in the hope that it will never be deployed in a high-intensity conflict.