70-year-olds fit enough for service – German reservist chief

Faced with a shortage of young recruits, the Bundeswehr should look to the “other end of the age pyramid,” Bastian Ernst has said

The upper age limit for military reservists in Germany should be raised to 70 given that people stay fit longer, Bastian Ernst, the newly elected president of the country’s Reservists’ Association, has said.

Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Germany has pursued a major recruitment drive, aiming to increase Bundeswehr personnel from the current 186,000 to 260,000 active soldiers and another 200,000 reservists by the mid-2030s.

While Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government has cited a perceived ‘Russian threat,’ President Vladimir Putin has dismissed as “nonsense” claims that Moscow harbors aggressive intentions against NATO states.

In an interview with the RND media outlet published on Tuesday, Ernst stated that “we should raise the age limit for reservists from 65 to 70.”

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“The retirement age is rising anyway. People are staying fit longer,” he explained.

“If we are lamenting a shortage of young recruits, then we should also address the other end of the age pyramid,” he argued.

Ernst also called for scrapping rules that leave it up to reservists’ employers whether to allow them to participate in military training when called up.

Late last year, another EU and NATO member state, Finland, announced that it would raise the upper age limit for rank-and-file military reservists from 50 to 65, starting in 2026.

The UK government has similarly hiked the maximum liability age for reservists from 55 to 65.

Andre Denk, the head of the European Defense Agency (EDA), suggested earlier this month that compulsory military service could be reinstated in the EU.

He predicted that his home country of Germany would likely go down this path eventually. On January 1, a new law came into force introducing a voluntary model of recruitment. The legislation has sparked protests, with critics saying that it could potentially be a prelude to reinstating conscription, which was suspended in 2011.

Commenting on Germany’s continued military buildup earlier in April, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that it could lead to another tragedy on a global scale, referring to the Second World War.