German Military Forces - Strack-Zimmermann plans to mobilize 900,000 reserve forces.
Germany's FDP defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann urges the government to activate 900,000 reservists amid increasing threats from Russia. According to Strack-Zimmermann, who is also the chairwoman of the Bundestag Defense Committee, Russian President Vladimir Putin is "mobilizing his people for war" against the West. She expressed concern over the recent surge in Russian weapon production and the printing of textbooks that portray Germany as an aggressor. Moreover, she mentioned the training of schoolchildren in weapons as another worrying trend.
To counter these developments, Strack-Zimmermann proposed the activation of the roughly 900,000 reservists in Germany. However, the first step would be to locate and register these reservists, many of whom have left active service years ago. The Bundeswehr has so far failed to keep track of these individuals. She believed that half of them could be persuaded to participate as reservists, which would significantly enhance the nation's defense capabilities.
Patrick Sensburg, chairman of the Reservist Association, has previously recommended identifying the health status and availability of all former Bundeswehr members in order to prepare them for home defense and territorial and alliance defense. Reservists are defined as former Wehrdienstleistenden and long-serving soldiers of the Bundeswehr. However, this does not include former soldiers of the DDR-Volkspolizei who never served in the Bundeswehr after its disbanding.
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- The Bundestag Defense Committee, led by Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, is calling on the German government to engage the services of 900,000 reservists due to escalating threats from Russia.
- The Federal defense of Germany could potentially be bolstered by the mobilization of soldiers from its reserve force, as suggested by Strack-Zimmermann in response to perceived threats from Russia.
- The German Armed Forces, or Bundeswehr, have struggled to maintain contact with reservists, making it challenging to activate them in times of crisis, as pointed out by Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann.
- In a reaction to Russia's alleged mobilization for war against the West, Funke Media Group echoed Strack-Zimmermann's concerns over the rise in Russian weapon production and aggressive propaganda towards Germany.
- The FDP, a German political party, supports Strack-Zimmermann's proposal to mobilize reservists in response to perceived threats from countries like Russia, and Berlin must take this issue seriously as potential conflicts could arise.
- The training of schoolchildren in the handling of weapons, as reported by Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, is a disturbing development that Germany should closely monitor, given the tense international relations with neighboring countries like Russia.
- While the German defense forces grapple with the implications of a potential war, rooted in the increasing threat from Russia, activating reservists could provide a much-needed boost to the nation's defense capabilities, following the recommendations of both Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann and Patrick Sensburg.
