View image in fullscreen The motor show is just one of many places the Bundeswehr is using to entice new recruits. Photograph: Lara Ingenbleek/The GuardianThe motor show is just one of many places the Bundeswehr is choosing to recruit these days. Outside the confines of the armoured vehicle, Tom, a trainee car mechanic from a vocational school in Aachen, says he needs little convincing about the merits of a career in the German military. Photograph: Lara Ingenbleek/The GuardianIncreasing numbers of young men are actively submitting applications to preemptively declare their conscientious objection to serving, should compulsory military service be reinstated. “As the times have changed, so have the views on this,” she says.

Source: The Guardian December 28, 2025 16:22 UTC