Will Germany now become a serious military power again?

The Chief of the German Army is angry. Alfons Mais’s words were coloured by evident frustration when he said that the Bundeswehr had been ‘caught with its pants down’ in the current crisis in Ukraine: 

‘The options we can offer politicians to support the alliance are extremely limited’

Such outspoken political criticism is rare from high-ranking German military figures, which gave Mais’s rant even more resonance. He was particularly frustrated that he and others had raised concerns for years. ‘But our arguments to draw conclusions from the annexation of Crimea and put them into practice failed to cut through,’ he said. Mais admitted: 

‘That does not feel great! I am pissed off!’

Others, too, have raised concerns about Germany’s readiness to support the Nato alliance and defend its own interests against foreign aggressors as needed. Berlin’s military spending had stagnated for some time and actually decreased as a proportion of GDP throughout much of the Merkel years until international pressure led to a turn of this trend in 2019.