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.
