{"id":1528,"date":"2026-04-01T15:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/1528\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T15:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:22:14","slug":"berlin-is-rearming-and-its-neighbors-are-weighing-the-risks-and-benefits-of-the-new-german-hegemony-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/1528\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin is rearming, and its neighbors are weighing the risks and benefits of the new German hegemony | International"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Victory Column is one of the few monuments to Germany\u2019s former power that remained standing after World War II<\/a>. From its summit, the golden angel that Wim Wenders filmed in Wings of Desire overlooks the city. Below, the statues of the stern Prussian field marshals Roon and Moltke, and that of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, still stand, a lasting symbol of Germany, or perhaps an anachronism.<\/p>\n

It might seem like a monument from another time, from when this country was a power that frightened the world. But that was before the defeat of 1945 and year zero. Before the Cold War. Before 1990 and reunification, the refounding of the Federal Republic as a European power of peace, an economic giant, and a political and military dwarf.<\/p>\n

Germany is undergoing another transformation. Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in 2022<\/a> and Donald Trump\u2019s return to the White House a year ago have changed everything. Christian Democratic Chancellor Friedrich Merz, leading a coalition with the Social Democrats, has set out to make the Bundeswehr \u2014 the federal army \u2014 the strongest conventional (i.e., non-nuclear) armed forces in Europe. It is time for rearmament, and as always when this country militarizes, questions arise. Are the ghosts of the past returning? Or is it a blessing that Germany is finally taking its defense seriously?<\/p>\n

The response ranges from those who, on the one hand, celebrate that Europe\u2019s largest economy is assuming its responsibilities in the face of the Russian threat and American hostility \u2014 a gain for the entire EU \u2014 to those who worry that increased defense spending will create an imbalance among the 27 member states and, in the long run, lead to tensions. And there is yet another, more hypothetical and, for many, worrisome scenario: that the far-right Alternative for Germany<\/a> (AfD) party comes to power and this formidable arsenal falls into its hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat prevails in Europe right now, among our partners, is the hope that Germany will do its duty,\u201d says Nils Schmid, Deputy Defense Minister and Social Democratic MP. He quotes a statement made by the current Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, in 2011, during the financial crisis: \u201cI fear German inaction less than German power.\u201d \u201cThat remains true,\u201d Schmid tells EL PA\u00cdS. \u201cSince German troops are fully integrated into NATO\u2019s common command and German soldiers are fully committed to Alliance tasks,\u201d he guarantees, \u201cthere is no risk of Germany acting independently.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGerman rearmament is necessary for Europe,\u201d says historian Liana Fix, affiliated with the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations think tank, in a telephone interview. \u201cThe most difficult question is how to spend the money, now that it\u2019s available, and how to mitigate the power imbalance that German defense spending could create with other countries that can\u2019t match it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fix has opened the discussion in political and academic forums by publishing an article in the journal Foreign Affairs entitled \u201cEurope\u2019s Next Hegemon: The Perils of German Power<\/a>.\u201d There, she cites, among other precedents, the case of German reunification. At the time, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opposed it, believing that a reunified Germany would pose a threat to European security. French President Fran\u00e7ois Mitterrand also harbored concerns. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl\u2019s response was to abandon the Deutsche Mark in favor of the single currency, the future euro. A possible response now could be joint borrowing for defense spending, which Berlin rejects, or, more ambitiously and for now unlikely, the creation of a European army, which Spain is promoting.<\/p>\n

The scale of Germany\u2019s rearmament, as detailed by Fix in her article, is staggering. In 2025, Germany spent more on defense than any other country, in absolute terms. Its military budget is the fourth-largest in the world. By 2029, it will exceed \u20ac150 billion ($174 billion) annually, triple the amount spent in 2002. Now, it is preparing to reintroduce conscription<\/a>, initially voluntary. \u201cIf the country continues on this path,\u201d the expert concludes, \u201cit will once again be a major military power before 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is true that these figures exist within a context, and that context is far from ideal. With the economy stagnating for years, a rampant industrial crisis due to competition from China, and the specter of the end of prosperity looming, it is difficult to imagine Germany becoming a true hegemon. But the transformation is underway.<\/p>\n

The automotive industry, in crisis, is recycling factories. In an industrial district in northern Berlin, near the former site of the Wall, a former automotive parts plant is being prepared to manufacture components for artillery ammunition. \u201cRheinmetall Out,\u201d reads graffiti on the exterior, alluding to the owning company, a true industrial hegemon.<\/p>\n

\"\"German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (left) and Australian Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy (right) pose in a reconnaissance and combat vehicle during a visit to the Rheinmetall Defence Australia plant in Ipswich on March 27.DARREN ENGLAND (EFE)<\/p>\n

By removing the constitutional debt limit a year ago, Berlin granted itself a margin for arms spending that no other European partner enjoys. This marks a turning point in a Europe where France was the military power and Germany the economic one. The balance has been disrupted, although Paris retains an all-powerful card: the atomic bomb<\/a>. It is the only EU country that possesses it.<\/p>\n

Paul Maurice, head of Franco-German relations at the French Institute of International Relations, explains that \u201cin terms of personnel recruitment, [Germany] is far from having the largest army in Europe.\u201d But he adds: \u201cFinancially, yes: the resources dedicated to defense will allow it to purchase equipment like no other European country can. What is somewhat worrying is that it is becoming this great power while others, especially France, are not, due to their financial problems.\u201d And he asks: \u201cWhat will [Germany\u2019s] 152 billion euros be used for? For the German defense industry? Partly for the U.S. defense industry?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mixed feelings in Poland<\/p>\n

In Poland, the European partner that spends the most on defense proportionally, already approaching 5% of GDP, pro-Europeans believe that German rearmament is good news for a Europe threatened by Russia. The nationalist right, on the other hand, is stirring up historical fears of German militarism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s schizophrenic,\u201d observes historian Pawel Machcewicz, \u201cbecause they accuse Germany of being pro-Russian and, at the same time, when Germany builds a strong army, they say it\u2019s a German attempt to dominate Europe.\u201d \u201cMy concern,\u201d he adds, \u201cas a historian and as a Pole, is the AfD. If the AfD comes to power, or enters a coalition government, what would that mean for Germany\u2019s direction? And for the German army?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs in other European countries, there is a risk of the far right here,\u201d admits Deputy Defense Minister Schmid, \u201cbut reducing military spending in Germany won\u2019t be very convincing because there could be a government led by the far right. It would be tantamount to telling Germans: \u2018Do nothing\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Germans are doing something, and this forces the rest of the world to recalibrate the relationship. \u201cI think that, for our European partners, it is time to examine whether the old demons of history define their view of Germany,\u201d Schmid points out. \u201cOr whether it is the experience of the last few decades that defines it, which has shown that Germany is a stable democracy and a country that looks to Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Victory Column is one of the few monuments to Germany\u2019s former power that remained standing after World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[452,18,479,1461,393,5,1462,1459,1460,1458,770,325],"class_list":{"0":"post-1528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-afd","9":"tag-berlin","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-francois-mitterrand","12":"tag-friedrich-merz","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-helmut-kohl","15":"tag-kremlin","16":"tag-margaret-thatcher","17":"tag-otto-von-bismarck","18":"tag-rheinmetall","19":"tag-wim-wenders"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}