Germany’s Defense Pivot Needs More Than Just Money
The country emerged from World War II chastened and wary of military culture. This legacy lives on.
Politics won’t solve all.
Photographer: RALF HIRSCHBERGER/AFP“Germany is back,” says Friedrich Merz, the country’s likely next chancellor. That sentence once would have caused dread on the continent. Now, Germany’s neighbors are pleased to see Berlin shouldering more responsibility for their collective security. A huge step in that direction is new legislation that allows greater borrowing for defense spending, which passed through parliament on Tuesday and should give Merz the financial means to make the country fighting fit.
What will be harder is changing the German mindset. Dragging a country that was happy to leave its militaristic past behind into an age of defense-readiness will be a massive challenge.