Looking for new female soldiers
Bundeswehr attracts underage recruits
March 31, 2024, 7:08 a.m
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War and hot spots make the decision to become a soldier even more difficult. However, current statistics from the Bundeswehr show that this does not deter young people in particular. Overall, the number of applicants has increased slightly compared to the previous year, although the proportion of women has decreased.
The Bundeswehr hired around 18,800 new soldiers last year. The proportion of minors among recruits has increased again: 1,996 soldiers were only 17 years old at the time of their recruitment. This corresponds to a share of 10.6 percent after 9.4 percent in the previous year. This emerges from an overview that the Federal Ministry of Defense provided upon request.
The SPD, Greens and FDP had agreed in the federal coalition agreement that training and service with weapons should be reserved for adult soldiers. The Defense Ministry now said that 17-year-old applicants would only be hired “if they pass a comprehensive physical and psychological aptitude test.” The military training also takes into account extensive protection regulations for minors: “Specifically, this means: no participation in guard services or foreign missions, use of the weapon only for training purposes.”
A total of 15,935 men and 2,867 women took up service in the Bundeswehr last year, making a total of 18,802 recruits. That is slightly more than the year before: in 2022, the year of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the number of new recruits rose by around twelve percent to 18,775. However, the pre-Corona level was not reached. In 2019, 20,170 soldiers started their service.
Of the 4,356 recruits who were hired in 2023 from North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous federal state, around one in ten was only 17 years old at the time. NRW, which accounts for around a quarter of the 18,800 new hires nationwide, is in line with the national average.
In Lower Saxony, however, the number of new soldiers has recently declined. 1,895 men and 379 women were recruited from the state, making a total of 2,274 recruits. A year earlier, 2,463 recruits from Lower Saxony were counted. While the proportion of women fell slightly from 18 to 17 percent compared to the previous year, the proportion of minors increased slightly – from 7 to 8 percent. In 2023, 181 recruits from Lower Saxony were only 17 years old. This puts Lower Saxony below the national figure: Overall, one in ten new soldiers here was not yet of age.
The number of recruits has also fallen in Schleswig-Holstein in 2023. The Bundeswehr recruited 823 men and 155 women there. That was fewer than in 2022 with 920 men and 187 women. In 2021 the numbers were 679 men and 144 women.
Urgently looking for new female soldiers
The proportion of women has now fallen slightly to 15 percent, following an increase to 17 percent in the previous year. In 2019, the proportion of women was also 15 percent. According to the Ministry of Defense, women who are not of legal age did not register with the federal government in 2023. This is also clear from the example of Hamburg.
The number of young Hamburg women who started their service in the Bundeswehr last year has fallen significantly. While 232 soldiers and 59 female soldiers were newly recruited from the Hanseatic city in 2022, last year there were only 276 in total. While the number of men remained unchanged at 232, fewer Hanseatic women, only 44 women, decided to train and serve with the weapon.
The number of Hamburg residents who were still underage when they were hired fell even more significantly: from 28 male and 2 female 17-year-olds in 2022 to just 17 young men last year.