Thousands of young adults in Saxony could find a letter from the Bundeswehr in their letterbox in the coming year. As the State Statistical Office announced on request, 17,619 male German citizens born in 2008 were living in the Free State at the end of June. When they come of age next year, they may be subject to new rules on military registration and military service.
The background to this is a draft law by Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD), which aims to recruit more soldiers for the Bundeswehr. Although compulsory military service has been suspended since 2011 and military service is therefore voluntary, the new model is intended to systematically register young people again. The law still has to pass through the Bundestag and Bundesrat.
Return of conscription
According to the plans, all those who come of age after January 1, 2026 will receive a letter with a QR code. This will lead to an online questionnaire, which will ask about educational qualifications, height, weight and basic willingness to do military service, among other things. The information is intended to provide a better picture of how many young adults per year are eligible to serve in the armed forces.
The military service itself is to remain voluntary. However, it is planned that young men with German citizenship will once again be subject to compulsory military service from 2027 - regardless of whether they actually serve later on.
Where Saxony's potential recruits live
Regionally, most males born in 2008 with German citizenship live in the major cities: in Dresden (2,402) and Leipzig (2,282), followed by the Erzgebirgskreis (1,502) and Mittelsachsen (1,377). The fewest members of this cohort are in the district of North Saxony (900) and the city of Chemnitz (932).
In total, 34,415 people with German citizenship who were born in 2008 were living in Saxony as of June 30.
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