FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann has shown herself open to accepting soldiers without a German passport into the force. “Basically, we have to think in a much more European way when looking for suitable young people who are willing to serve in the Bundeswehr,” she said Rhenish Post. This also includes the consideration “that soldiers without a German passport can get one more quickly through successful service in the Bundeswehr,” said the chairwoman of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag.
The CDU defense politician Johann Wadephul also told the newspaper that the idea was fundamentally correct – but the design was crucial. “Does this option only apply to citizens of EU or NATO states or even beyond? Is complete knowledge of the German language necessary?” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius recently brought up a modified conscription and also opening up the force to soldiers without a German passport. “We would not be the first armed forces in Europe to do this,” Pistorius told the Daily Mirror. There are people in the country who live in Germany in the second or third generation but do not yet have German citizenship.