Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the roll call of the German Army tank brigade in Lithuania [Photo by Bundesregierug \/ Guido Bergman]<\/p>\n
In a detailed interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung last weekend, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (Christian Democrats, CDU) outlined the ruling class\u2019s programme of war and great-power politics. According to Merz, Germany must build \u201cthe strongest conventional army in Europe,\u201d exceed NATO targets and prepare for a period in which \u201cthe law of the strongest\u201d will once again apply. The era of a \u201crules-based order based on international law\u201d is over, he said, adding that what matters now is \u201cstrength.\u201d<\/p>\n
These statements are nothing less than an open declaration for war and unrestrained rearmament. Merz called for Germany to once again become the dominant military power on the continent\u2014if necessary, independently of Washington. Although he emphasised that he wants to maintain the nuclear alliance with the US, which grants Germany the ability to participate jointly with the US in firing nuclear weapons, he then explained that, due to growing transatlantic tensions, a joint European alliance with France on nuclear weapons could also be necessary in the future.<\/p>\n
In the same breath, he did not explicitly rule out Germany\u2019s own nuclear armament should nuclear cooperation with France not materialise. He merely stated that the time is not yet ripe for such a discussion and pointed out that at least two treaties\u2014the Two Plus Four Treaty and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty\u2014actually \u201cpreclude\u201d this path. When pressed by the F.A.Z. that \u201cthe largest country in the European Union will not be able to avoid an honest discussion on this issue at some point,\u201d he replied: \u201cThe time is not ripe for that. My concern now is conventional defence.\u201d<\/p>\n
This statement is a warning: the federal government is first massively upgrading its conventional weapons and, when the time is \u201cright,\u201d will not shy away from nuclear armament. Provocative comments calling for a \u201cGerman bomb\u201d appear repeatedly in the mainstream media. In August, the Handelsblatt noted in an article headlined \u201cStrange … must we learn to love the bomb?\u201d: \u201cThe technology is not the problem. The decision for or against a European and, ultimately, German nuclear force is a political one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The openly declared goal of creating \u201cEurope\u2019s strongest conventional army\u201d means Germany\u2019s return to the role of an imperialist military power. The 2025 defense budget already includes \u20ac62.43 billion from the regular budget and \u20ac24.06 billion from special funds\u2014a total of \u20ac86.49 billion, more than ever before since the end of World War II. By 2029, the defence budget is set to rise to over \u20ac150 billion, which would correspond to around 3.5 percent of gross domestic product. In addition, around 1.5 percent is to be spent on war preparedness for infrastructure, bringing total war spending to 5 percent of GDP. That would be more than \u20ac215 billion and around 45 percent of the total federal budget for 2024.<\/p>\n
The agreed rearmament, which was decided with the votes of the Left Party<\/a> and the Greens<\/a>, is comparable only to that undertaken by the Nazis on the eve of World War II. Ten thousand new military and 1,000 civilian jobs will be created, while billions will be poured into new weapons programs: 35 F-35 fighter jets, 60 CH-47 transport helicopters, several hundred new combat, infantry, and wheeled armored vehicles, warships, drone systems, missile and air defense systems, and even its own space command. Germany is thus on its way to becoming the largest military power in Europe and the third-largest arms manufacturer in the world after the US and China.<\/p>\n Parallel to military expansion, there is also economic expansion towards a war economy. Under the headline \u201cDie Panzerrepublik\u201d (The Tank Republic), the current issue of Der Spiegel describes the boom in the German arms industry. The report provides a shocking insight into the speed with which the entire economy is being converted to war production.<\/p>\n In Unterl\u00fc\u00df, Lower Saxony, Rheinmetall has opened Europe\u2019s largest ammunition factory\u2014a plant that is expected to produce 350,000 shells annually by 2027. The company also builds rocket engines and is expanding into Spain, Hungary and Slovakia. Salzgitter AG is once again producing \u201carmour steel,\u201d which has not been available for decades, and is bundling its military activities under the brand name Salzgitter Defence.<\/p>\n The automotive supplier Schaeffler, the printing press company Heidelberg, the laser specialist Trumpf, and even car manufacturers such as VW and Porsche are entering the arms production business. Der Spiegel openly speaks of a new \u201carms industry miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n The government is actively promoting this process. Public loans, EU funds, and energy subsidies are being diverted to military purposes. Economic, industrial, and defence policies are merging into a single state project\u2014a kind of dirigiste rearmament policy strongly reminiscent of the war economy of the 1930s. Then as now, state-financed arms contracts serve as an economic engine, and society is ideologically trimmed to be \u201ccombat capable.\u201d<\/p>\n This development is not limited to the economy and the military. Merz speaks of a \u201cblocked republic\u201d that needs \u201cfundamental changes.\u201d The federal government is already working on reactivating military service. The chancellor\u2019s language is that of an authoritarian state in transition to mobilization: the population must learn to make sacrifices; democracy must be \u201ccombative\u201d and \u201ctake action against its opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n The costs of rearmament are borne in every respect by the working class. As cannon fodder on the war fronts and in the form of historic social spending cuts. While the citizen\u2019s benefit welfare payment is being cut and social budgets first frozen and then slashed, hundreds of billions are being poured into tanks, missiles and other war materiel.<\/p>\n The unions are being ideologically integrated\u2014with appeals to \u201cnational responsibility\u201d and \u201cdefence industry productivity.\u201d The arms industry advertises \u201cpatriotism in the workplace\u201d and attracts skilled workers with comparatively higher wages and comprehensive government contracts.<\/p>\n Schools and universities are being integrated into militarization\u2014for example, through visits by youth officers and open advertising for the army. Propagandists in the bourgeois media defame criticism of armament and war as \u201cunpatriotic\u201d or \u201cpro-Russian\u201d and celebrate the resurrection of the German arms industry as a sign of economic strength and national self-assertion. The \u201ctank republic\u201d is glorified as a modern economic miracle, financed by government debt and social spending cuts.<\/p>\n