As he sat in his restaurant in the Lithuanian capital, Liutauras Ceprackas, a chef, said he was one of the many Lithuanians who worry about a Russian invasion. He is not sure, he said, that his country\u2019s 15,000-soldier army is big enough to stop one. Increasingly, he is not certain an American-led NATO would, either.<\/p>\n
That is why, three generations after Nazi Germany brutally occupied his country in World War II, Mr. Ceprackas, 51, is glad that Berlin has permanently stationed thousands of German soldiers in Lithuania.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they kill just one German,\u201d Mr. Ceprackas said, referring to the Russian Army, \u201cit\u2019s going to be a war with Germany.\u201d That possibility, he added, \u201cwill keep us safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s 45th Armored Brigade is the first full battle brigade to be permanently based outside the country since the fall of Nazi Germany more than eight decades ago. Its deployment in Lithuania is a symbol of how fast Europe is changing amid fears of increased Russian aggression in the continent\u2019s east.<\/p>\n
The brigade\u2019s deployment also reflects Germany\u2019s increased willingness<\/a> to act as Europe\u2019s shield amid wavering support from President Trump and the United States, which for eight decades guaranteed the safety of American allies in Europe. It was during the brigade\u2019s investiture ceremony<\/a> on the central square in the capital, Vilnius, last year, that Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany first vowed to build Europe\u2019s largest conventional army.<\/p>\n The warm reception from Lithuanians for the brigade, which will reach its full complement of 4,800 troops in 2027, also reflects a changing attitude among Germany\u2019s neighbors to Berlin\u2019s growing leadership role.<\/p>\n Some of Germany\u2019s big European allies remain wary<\/a>, but smaller, more exposed partners, like Lithuania, view Berlin\u2019s rearmament as a welcome new security guarantee, even if that means a German presence in countries that were victim to Nazi brutality in the 1940s. Lithuania, with a population under three million, borders the Russian territory of Kaliningrad and Belarus, a Russian ally.<\/p>\n \u201cThis brigade is so strong and so well equipped that it\u2019s like we have a second army in Lithuania,\u201d Laurynas Kasciunas, a Lithuanian former defense minister, said in an interview.<\/p>\n The gratitude has been good news for the German soldiers stationed around Vilnius.<\/p>\n Last year, Andrius Tapinas, a Lithuanian television anchor, told viewers that when they saw German soldiers, they should buy them a beer. It was not a contentious request. In a poll commissioned by the Lithuanian Defense Department in December 2024, a large majority of Lithuanian adults<\/a> supported the presence of the German brigade.<\/p>\n Businesses have also hopped on the bandwagon, with a coffee chain and a national supermarket chain giving discounts to German personnel showing their military ID.<\/p>\n The German soldiers themselves, new to foreign deployments, expressed surprise at the cordial treatment.<\/p>\n One major, who under German military regulations could be identified only by his rank, told a typical story. He was recently marching with dozens of his men, he said, on a weekly 7.5-mile training exercise, when a jogger approached the column from the opposite direction.<\/p>\n \u201cShe thanked us \u2014 in halting German \u2014 for being here,\u201d the major said.<\/p>\n Other German soldiers based in Lithuania described entire school classes waving at them and older men shaking their hands or saluting. They also said they had been thanked many times when appearing in uniform in public.<\/p>\n That good will may seem surprising given the past.<\/p>\n Lithuania was twice occupied by German soldiers \u2014 once during World War I, when the country was still part of the Russian empire, and later for three years during World War II, when the Nazis oversaw the killing of almost the entire Lithuanian Jewish population.<\/p>\n