Photographs of male and female soldiers, dressed in uniform and wearing berets or helmets, as they fly a military plane or a Navy ship. About the photographs, several questions: “What does it matter, when the world is more hostile to us?”, “What does it matter, when we have to show our strength again?”. The latest recruitment advertising campaign for Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr, has raised eyebrows in the country. The roots of the discontent are deep, historical and uncomfortable, but the trigger for the scandal has been a word: that return that aroused restlessness among the Germans and a memory of the Wehrmacht, the name of the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany since 1935 to 1945.

Many Germans have interpreted this announcement as changing the narrative of never again, the mantra of Germany's process of coming to terms with its past, to the need to show strength again.. “Which marketing agency shoots such texts and who also gives the go-ahead? As much as I stand behind our Bundeswehr and our soldiers, this one again awakens terrible memories in me,” wrote a German user on Twitter..

The campaign has had an impact on a population that is mostly pacifist, but which has experienced a change in defense policy after the war in Ukraine. Shortly after Vladimir Putin invaded the country, Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz gave his speech in which he spoke of the Zeitenwende, that turning point in which he announced a historic increase in the military budget to improve the Army. “We will have to invest significantly more in the security of our country to protect our freedom and our democracy,” Scholz said.. But there is still a long way to go from political voices to a historic change permeating the population, as the alarmed critics show.. For the social and mental Zeitenwende of the new reality in which Germany lives, years remain.

After years without making large investments in the armed forces, the war in Ukraine changed that policy and also the mentality of a part of the population that for years opposed increasing the power of the Bundeswehr. One of the most recent polls found that, since the invasion, a majority of Germans agree that their country should invest more in its defense capabilities.. A record number, 47%, feel personally threatened by a military conflict in which they could be involved. “In Germany, the concept of legitimate military defense against an aggressor is still something people have to get used to, since they have no such experience in their history: especially in the great European wars of the 20th century, Germany was the aggressor.” explains Minna Ålander, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Relations and an expert on German foreign policy, to El Confidencial.

Germany's Bundeswehr has launched a new ad campaign, saying “what counts when we need to show strength again”.

The alarmed reactions and pushback it has gotten is indicative of how long the mental Zeitenwende will take pic.twitter.com/WEF6a6UDZL

— Minna Ålander 🌻 (@minna_alander) May 3, 2023

But believing that the armed forces need more investment does not go so far that the German Army will regain its appeal as not only an acceptable but a desirable career path.. The Bundeswehr has been launching advertising campaigns for some time after years with fewer staff than it would like. By the end of 2020, 18% of positions above junior ranks were vacant. In some of the Army factions, the numbers were even worse, with less than half of the fighter pilot positions filled.. The problems in filling the positions are due, in part, to the lack of attractiveness that the army has for young Germans, due to its historical connotations, scandals in recent years by far-right groups or financial incentives.. In 2018, it barely managed to recruit 20,000 new soldiers, 3,000 less than the previous year, the lowest number since the creation of the armed force at the end of World War II.. By 2031, the Bundeswehr aims to reach 203,000 soldiers, although it is estimated that about half of the current soldiers will retire by then.

Advertising strategies to try to increase the number of recruits have gone from a series on YouTube, Die Rekruten (The Recruits) to attract the attention of young people, to ads like the one that has caused the indignation of a part of the population. “Getting used to the idea of having strong armed forces (again) will take some time and many German citizens are still wary,” says Ålander.. “On the other hand, several rather high-profile scandals about far-right extremism among Bundeswehr soldiers, one of which led to the disbandment of a special unit in 2020, have been very damaging to the image of the armed forces. And it doesn't help build trust.”.

The shadow of extremism

One of the scandals that Minna Ålander refers to is the dissolution of one of the units of the so-called Kommando Spezialkräfte (KSK), in which far-right extremist behavior was detected. This was not the first time that the elite forces of the Bundeswehr had been embroiled in a controversy like this.. In 2017, one of the members, nicknamed Hannibal, led a network that was dedicated to accumulating weapons and ammunition supposedly to face a future civil war..

The unit that was dissolved had been under investigation since, years before, the German media discovered that the special forces held a farewell party in which they gave the Hitler salute, listened to music with extremist lyrics and participated in a game based on throwing their heads. of a pig. In a subsequent investigation into the same unit, Defense Ministry spokesman Arne Collatz announced: “This is, once again, it has to be said, some pretty perverse hazing and drinking rituals.. It's about sexual violence and harassment. These are far-right incidents, such as wearing black T-shirts with 88 printed on it [a number that in neo-Nazi circles symbolizes the Hitler salute banned in Germany] or designating Asian comrades as fillis [a racist denomination],” he said..

German officials have said they are determined to root out far-right extremism in the military, but the scandals have been enough to make the perception of the Bundeswehr negative for part of the population.. However, analysts point out that this is not a generational issue and that while young people are not attracted to their military, millennials are heavily influenced by the pacifism of the generation of '68.. In addition, this generation lived through the moment of the “end of history” after the Cold War and German reunification, in which the idea that military power is a thing of the past was further solidified..

Recruit numbers in the Armed Forces have plummeted since conscription was suspended in 2011.. Despite the war, the situation has not radically changed and many young people are not willing to accept a modest salary in a job where they can put their lives at stake.. Since there is no way to force them, the Bundeswehr bets on publicity, although some analysts suggest that this strategy will not make the army stronger. “The Bundeswehr will not stand up again with a 70-second ad. We do not know exactly how much this campaign costs. All we know is that he spent a total of 35 million euros on advertising in 2020, for example.. That was a lot of wasted money back then. It will probably stay that way,” wrote Josef Kraus, a German professor and author, in an opinion piece.

The best strategy for the ministry

What could be the best option to increase the number of members of the Bundeswehr, which has fallen from 317,000 to 183,000 in the last two decades? “It was a mistake to suspend conscription,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said earlier this year.. Despite the fact that he later clarified that it was not among the government's plans to reactivate military service, the statement served to start the debate among the population. “The first thing the Ministry of Defense should do is represent the armed forces as trustworthy and a bit boring, that would be the best,” says a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Relations..

“Explaining the need for a strong military deterrent may be better. That would be a narrative framework that people might feel less uncomfortable with because it indicates that, at best, if deterrence works, you don't need to use military capabilities.”.

Facing the perception of the Bundeswehr by the German population, Minna Ålander believes that emphasizing Germany's role in European security could help make the vision more positive. “That the military presence of Germany on the eastern flank of NATO increases the security of the allies and makes them feel more secure, and not the other way around,” he clarifies.. The country is so integrated into the security structures that its neighbors, allies and partners no longer fear the German armed forces, but instead trust it to be a military power.. The question is whether the Germans trust their military institutions. “Part of the Zeitenwende should be to foster that trust and communicate very carefully what a central piece of the puzzle Germany is for European security and that therefore what Germany does or doesn't do matters,” says the expert..

The slogan “What does it matter, when we have to show our strength again?”, has caught the attention of many Germans. Another question is whether that was the intention of those who created the advertising campaign. Speculation aside, the image with the text has been removed from the Bundeswehr website.