Auf Wiedersehen citizen's army

“We are off the hook!” Not surprisingly, Berlin’s alternative pacifist daily Tageszeitung has responded enthusiastically to news that future generations of young Germans will no longer have to worry about military service. On 3 January, the final wave of 12,150 conscripts presented themselves for duty in barracks across the country. After 50 years, military service in Germany will be suspended on 1 July 2011. As a result, the Bundeswehr, which will be reduced by 25%, will employ 185,000 soldiers. TAZ is amazed that the reform, which heralds the end of the “citizens’ army,” which is often described as “one of the cornerstones of democracy” in the country, has been accepted without protest by the German population. The new professional army will involve a greater cost to the taxpayer, notes TAZ, which wonders about the wisdom of undertaking such a transition in a time of economic crisis.