report<\/a> by German Foreign Policy, in the event of war, conscientious objectors will be deployed in civilian roles specifically designed to support troop movements and other military operations.<\/p>\nThis development is aligned with demands outlined in a position paper by the German Firefighters Association, which states that the public must be empowered to independently manage \u201cextreme or prolonged disaster situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concurrently, the federal government plans to integrate civilian disaster and civil protection organizations more closely into future planning for a potential military conflict with Russia.<\/p>\n
This strategy is detailed in a recently disclosed policy document on civil protection issued by the Federal Ministry of the Interior.<\/p>\n
According to Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, the document represents \u201cnothing less than the greatest modernization drive for civil protection and civil defense in recent decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
The federal government has allocated \u20ac10 billion for its implementation. Under this framework, civilian disaster response teams must prepare for the high probability of being called upon to provide operational support to the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr).<\/p>\n
Federal government to establish \u201cCivil Defense Command\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Interior Ministry\u2019s new policy document on civil defense during times of crisis and war, Germany will require \u201cgreater integration between civilian and military planning\u201d moving forward.<\/p>\n
To achieve this, the Interior Ministry will establish its own steering committee, the \u201cCivil Defense Command,\u201d specifically tasked with executing the \u201cOperational Plan Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n
This comprehensive operational plan regulates all activities to be carried out within Germany during a state of war, ranging from the transit of foreign Allied troops to a new eastern front, to securing critical infrastructure and managing mass casualty care.<\/p>\n
Interior Minister Faeser emphasized that military and civil defense must be \u201ctightly interconnected,\u201d describing the Bundeswehr and civil protection services as \u201ctwo sides of the same coin.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the minister, any effort to expand Germany\u2019s \u201ccomprehensive defense\u201d must not only strengthen the armed forces but, above all, reinforce civil protection and civil defense capabilities.<\/p>\n
The new policy document, titled the \u201cCivil Protection Pact,\u201d is being presented as a \u201cnew, fundamental pillar\u201d of the Federal Republic\u2019s security architecture.<\/p>\n
According to the Federal Ministry of Defense, the Bundeswehr will no longer be available to assist in domestic civil protection during an emergency, as military forces \u201cwill be occupied with entirely different tasks on NATO\u2019s northeastern flank.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consequently, the ministry stresses that \u201cGermany must prepare itself for this scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n
The militarization of civil protection<\/p>\n
Under this framework, officially civilian aid organizations\u2014such as the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), fire departments, and the German Life Saving Society (DLRG)\u2014alongside military reserve forces, are being systematically integrated into civil protection planning.<\/p>\n
In addition to allocating new funds, the defense and interior ministries have agreed on structural support measures.<\/p>\n
For example, the framework conditions for voluntary service, upon which German civil protection heavily relies, will be upgraded.<\/p>\n
The federal government\u2019s emergency warning mobile application, NINA (\u201cEmergency Information and News App\u201d), will be expanded to include nationwide guidelines and recommendations regarding public shelters.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, a specialized medical task force is being established to handle \u201cmass casualty events\u201d in the event of \u201cheightened tensions or a state of defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
The federal government plans to equip this task force not only with \u201ctens of thousands of modern protective suits for chemical, biological, and radioactive scenarios,\u201d but also with a sufficient supply of tourniquets to stop severe arterial bleeding from blast injuries.<\/p>\n
To ensure that \u201cchildren learn how to behave in emergencies at an early age, facilitate the transfer of this knowledge within families, and stimulate interest in volunteer work,\u201d Berlin plans to integrate civil defense topics directly into school curricula.<\/p>\n
Finally, a \u201cnew draft legal framework\u201d has been announced. This legislation will empower all relevant institutions to prepare and streamline emergency operations during peacetime crises\u2014such as \u201chybrid attacks\u201d\u2014well ahead of an official declaration of a state of defense.<\/p>\n
Firefighters demand tighter cooperation with the military<\/p>\n
The impetus for these measures and the integration of civil defense into war preparations does not originate solely from the state apparatus.<\/p>\n
As early as March, the German Firefighters Association published a position paper calling for civil defense structures to prepare for a military conflict with Russia, explicitly citing \u201ccurrent insights from Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The association\u2019s paper calls for the promotion of voluntary service, warning that the mobilization of military reservists for \u201cnational defense\u201d is expected to cause \u201csignificant personnel shortages that will directly impact the operational readiness of fire departments and aid organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, the German healthcare system is projected to face immense pressure due to the \u201cincreased transport and treatment of personnel wounded in military operations.\u201d<\/p>\n
These challenges will be compounded by the demanding logistics of supporting the transit of NATO forces moving through Germany toward the Eastern Flank.<\/p>\n
Beyond peace, before war: Hybrid warfare seeks legal codification<\/p>\n
To mitigate these anticipated shortages, the association advocates for the \u201creintroduction of a service model to replace compulsory military service,\u201d which would integrate future conscientious objectors directly into the militarized civil defense network.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the domestic population is to be trained to \u201cact independently, meet their own basic needs, and implement primary protective measures\u201d during \u201cextreme or prolonged disaster situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among other measures, civilians will be expected to maintain self-sufficiency for several days. Citizens must acquire basic self-protection and first-aid skills, and develop \u201crisk competence in dealing with natural disasters, technical failures, and armed conflict scenarios.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the association, a \u201cresilient and capable population\u201d is a prerequisite for maintaining the functionality of German society in a crisis or war.<\/p>\n
The Firefighters Association is also demanding a distinct legal status for \u201chybrid threat situations\u201d to bridge the transitional phase between peace and war.<\/p>\n
This proposal implies expanding the state\u2019s legal and coercive authority well before a formal state of emergency is declared.<\/p>\n
Civilian support for the armed forces<\/p>\n
The demands of the German Firefighters Association closely mirror the provisions of the Civil Protection Pact. Both documents align with the previously published Green Paper on \u201cCivil-Military Cooperation 4.0.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that report, an expert panel comprising representatives from the military, domestic intelligence, the Interior Ministry, the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), and the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers called for the systematic integration of civil society into war preparations.<\/p>\n
The authors of the Green Paper asserted that while Germany is \u201cnot yet at war\u201d with Russia, it already operates within a geopolitical \u201cgray zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consequently, they proposed concrete measures to ensure \u201ceffective cooperation in a military crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
The core focus of these proposals is \u201ccivilian support for the armed forces in wartime or at potential escalation thresholds during peacetime,\u201d which has now been formally addressed through the implementation of the \u201cOperational Plan Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peacetime martial law<\/p>\n
The authors of the \u201cCivil-Military Cooperation 4.0\u201d Green Paper argued that a threat from the East necessitates a national \u201cclosing of the ranks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under their proposal, all citizens and institutions must understand their designated roles. National and collective Allied defense must not only be rehearsed but actively implemented in the near future.<\/p>\n
The paper also emphasized the necessity of new legislation tailored to \u201chybrid threat\u201d scenarios. Under these proposals, military police would be granted the authority to enforce coercive policing measures domestically during peacetime, prior to the declaration of a state of emergency.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the jurisdiction of the Bundeswehr\u2019s relatively new homeland security forces would be clarified and distinguished from civilian police authority.<\/p>\n
Within the framework of military and national service, the authors suggest establishing a multi-year service model dedicated entirely to civilian and disaster relief duties, scaled to match the duration of standard military service.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, these proposals aim to extend \u201cemergency laws\u201d into peacetime to mobilize the broadest possible range of civilian capabilities for wartime readiness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From fire departments to disaster relief organizations, Germany\u2019s civil institutions are actively preparing for a potential military conflict…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[43180,12040,43181,865,43182,43183,2940,6363,2878,41,5635,5636,3537,17],"class_list":["post-84525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-bilateral-relations","tag-brussels","tag-david-mcallister","tag-european-union","tag-free-movement-agreement","tag-healthcare-workers","tag-immigration","tag-population-cap","tag-referendum","tag-swiss","tag-swiss-economy","tag-swiss-peoples-party","tag-swiss-voters","tag-switzerland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116753758217218223","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}