German Army Is Shrinking and Aging, Report Finds

An annual report on the state of the Bundeswehr found that it had ’too little of everything,' according to Berlin’s commissioner for the armed forces.

A soldier fires a machine gun from a Leopard 2 tank toward the Bundeswehr Tank Battalion 203 at the Field Marshal Rommel Barracks in Augustdorf, Germany, on Feb. 1, 2023. Martin Meissner/AP Photo

Germany’s military is aging and shrinking, German Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces Eva Högl has warned, as the country debates a bid to massively increase defense spending in the wake of a recent election.

In an annual report released on March 11, Högl wrote that despite a recruitment drive sparked by the outbreak of war in Ukraine, there were 181,200 personnel in the Bundeswehr in 2024—down from 181,540 in 2023.