The chief of Germany's reservist's association recently revealed that the country's reserve forces only exists on paper, is a fraction of its official size and lacks the proper equipment and training.
Patrick Sensburg, president of the Reservist Association of Deutsche Bundeswehr, made the revelation. Sensburg is a retired lieutenant colonel of the army and a former conservative member of parliament. (Related: German defense minister says his military is incapable of defending the country, which means it's worthless to NATO.)
Speaking to the German newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung, Sensburg noted how the reserve force of the Bundeswehr, the German Armed Forces, is badly run and considerably underfunded.
Officially, the Bundeswehr's reserve force consists of around 930,000 people. But Sensburg noted that only around 34,000 of these are active or have some kind of modern training. The disparity comes from the fact that every single individual in Germany with previous military service is officially counted as a reservist.
Sensburg further noted that most of these reservists are being trained under very poor conditions.
Reservists have to beg the regular army for uniforms and performing even routine military training exercises like target practice is very difficult to achieve.
Worse yet, reservists have no military vehicles. According to Sensburg, they may be able to use civilian cars at best and training maneuvers are bizarrely performed "on foot."
Sensburg added that morale and interest in the training are so low that officers would be "happy if only a third of the soldiers notified turn up" when military exercises do happen.
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But Berlin wants to make its armed forces more effective after years of under-investment and deliberate defunding. Making sure the country's reserve forces are properly functional is seen to be an important part of this plan as reservists can play a wide range of roles in times of crisis, including filling roles taken by the regular army.
However, Sensburg warned that Germany is likely very far from being able to meet these goals without significant investments and programs to help raise morale and interest in serving in the reserves.
Regular German army also woefully unprepared
The Bundestag, the German parliament, last year approved a 100 billion euro ($111 billion) fund for the German army. But Eva Hogl, the parliamentary commissioner for the country's armed forces, warned that "not a single euro" of the fund has been spent.
Hogl warned that this excruciatingly slow start of a drive to boost the country's military makes Germany even less prepared for a potential Russian invasion than it was when Moscow began its special military operation in Ukraine.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine actually prompted Germany to announce a massive increase in military spending and a commitment to increase the yearly military budget to two percent of the country's GDP – a major shift from Germany's formerly pacifist policies.
And yet, months after the fund has been approved, this supposed major shift in policy has yet to bear any fruit.
"In 2022, not a single euro or cent of this special fund has been spent," said Hogl in her report to the Bundestag. She added that the Bundeswehr has even less military equipment now than it had at the beginning of 2022 due to the constant military aid shipments to Ukraine.
She added that the army barracks were in a pitiful state, with some lacking functioning toilets and clean showers. Soldiers also lack proper exercise facilities, kitchens, healthcare facilities, ammunition depots and armories.
Watch this episode of the "Health Ranger Report" as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, discusses how the German armed forces are running out of munitions to send to Ukraine.
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