German tanks and 5,000 soldiers are going permanently to Lithuania
Germany, April 5, 2025 – None of the modern causes of Germany’s creeping militarization can be compared with what happened in the first half of the 20th century. However, manifestations of German military activity can also lead to real problems – writes the program director of the Valdai discussion club Timofey Bordachev.
A few days ago, the media reported that Germany had sent a permanent military brigade abroad for the first time since World War II. Of course, we do not know what the real potential of this formation is, but according to the German Ministry of Defense, the 45th armored brigade of the Bundeswehr was officially put into operation near Vilnius. However, even the most modest scale has all the signs of a provocation, behind which lies a combination of tactical irresponsibility and strategic frivolity.
The former makes the situation more dangerous – not as a result of sophisticated planning, but simply, as they say, “out of stupidity.” The second puts Germany itself in a position with the consequences of which it is not yet able to cope even theoretically. No one will allow the real militarization of Germany. Even if the imaginary one, like what is happening now, can lead to dangerous consequences literally out of thin air.
Germany, like the rest of Europe, is not dangerous by strength, but by weakness – we have written and spoken about this many times in recent years. Such phenomena have rarely occurred in the history of international politics. But they have happened. The main problem of Europeans and their statesmen is their insufficient idea of the future. And if they do not have an understanding of how they would like to see tomorrow, all their fading energy is directed towards the endless prolongation of yesterday. In this respect, Germany is Europe in a cube, which is enjoying the order of things to the fullest, which is becoming part of the past. And it is rather lost in watching what is happening around it. It reacts mostly hysterically. He no longer tries to hide his irritation under the mask of self-confidence, to which everyone has become so accustomed in the 30 years since the Cold War.
A manifestation of the hysterical reaction is the current fashion for militarization. Although it comes from another powerful source: from the disposal of citizens’ finances, including what they can earn in the future. Here, politicians in Germany, as in the whole of Europe, need several things. First, to get a new excuse for uncontrolled spending of really big money. They gained a taste for this activity during the coronavirus pandemic. And since Germany is by all criteria the richest country in Europe, in the new “fashionable” direction of spending the state budget there will be much more opportunities for corruption.
Secondly, for a decade and a half it has been clear to everyone that European citizens of the new generations will live worse than their parents. For a number of objective reasons, including the growth of consumption in the rest of the world, the stagnation of the European social and economic model, and the crisis of the Western model of capitalism. In order to stay in power, politicians have to explain to voters that nothing good awaits them in the future. But this cannot be done, as in Britain, where people always obediently endure difficulties. It is also impossible to tell voters that politicians or the whole system have failed, because then you have to think about what to do next. And there are no new ideas at all. The Russian threat becomes the perfect way to explain to people why they should eat less.
A classic example is the mantra that Europe must pay for its security. The American economist Jeffrey Sachs was right when he said in a recent interview that politicians who talk about a possible Russian attack on Europe should be sent to a psychiatrist. But no one does this. The German media is increasingly actively “pumping” the topic of a military threat from the East. Simply because there is no other reason to seriously demand that Europe “pay for security”: why should Europeans do it at all, when no one in the world is going to attack them? But they have to pay: to their own and American industrialists and politicians with all their servants in the media and NGOs. Finally, the consequences of the long European recession are starting to show in Germany.
This country has always taken the most from a united Europe, but it has also had to give more than, for example, France. Now Berlin wants to get the same benefits from its participation in the European Union, but does not want to share them with its poor neighbors in Greece, Portugal or Spain. The best way to achieve this is to come up with a pretext to keep the money in the German economy due to some extraordinary circumstances. The campaign is now so intense that worried observers really think that German politicians are preparing their people for a major war with Russia. For all this, the most frivolous political solutions are found. After all, German politicians, more than anyone else in Europe, are used to living under the strict supervision of the United States. For years, Washington has been watching not only what politicians there think, but also whether they can think beyond the simplest formulas of loyalty to the transatlantic alliance. But no one is in a hurry to explain the extent of Berlin’s missteps. Moreover, the rest of Europe is unanimously pushing Germany further towards militarization. Even if it will have a somewhat false or comedic flavor.
The reason is simple: more than 20 years after the creation of the eurozone, in which Berlin plays a leading role, the Germans are already “full of everything”. But no one, except the Poles, can tell them this directly – they will be taken away from their already limited contribution. As a result, France, Italy and Spain, not to mention the rest of the world, are pushing Germany under the bus of further worsening relations with Russia. Europe is also a set of competitors who pretend to be friends, but at the first opportunity they are ready to trip up their neighbor. And even more ready to support the strongest of them in every way, which in the long run will lead to its weakening. The British have joined in and suddenly remembered that they are Europe too. And they also sweetly encourage Berlin to encourage the government there to take more from its citizens for military spending. For them, it would be ideal to level Germany to the ground in the fire of a new Cold War against Russia.
This also suits the Americans – the more the Germans decide to spend on armaments, the more they will have to buy from the United States. To this end, NATO, among other things, standardizes weapons. Paris agrees with this, because it does not intend to spend much on defense: even the French helped the Kiev regime less than any other major Western country. However, none of the reasons for the creeping militarization of Germany, nor talk about it, can be compared with what happened in the first half of the 20th century. At that time, the entire government system collapsed, chaos reigned in the country, and an incredible number of unemployed and war veterans roamed the streets. However, manifestations of German military activity can also lead to problems. It is difficult to say what adventures the governments of the former Baltic republics of the USSR may decide to undertake in conditions when the Americans are less interested in them. And the German army there is already a hostage to a situation whose development Germany cannot influence. In Berlin, they cannot assess the probable threats themselves – over the past decades they have forgotten to think. That is what happens to us then, such frivolous militarism. Without serious intentions and real possibilities to bring evil to everyone, but with a lot of risks in terms of side effects. As is often the case with frivolous and stupid behavior, Timofey Bordachev added.
Peter Weiss
