The German military or 'Bundeswehr' is under-equipped, used only for deployment in other parts of the world and is currently incapable of defending its own territory. In essence, the army in post-reunification Germany was designed for peace - not war. Now the conflict in Ukraine and the threat from Russia have changed all that and authorities in Berlin are planning to build the “biggest conventional European army within NATO”. Thomas Schnee reports from Berlin about Germany's shift away from pacifism.
On the very day that Russia invaded Ukraine in February, a brief post on the LinkedIn network by the head of the German army, Lieutenant-General Alfons Mais, immediately made the headlines in Berlin.
