Germans must report to the army. The Bundeswehr wants to know who is leaving the country

Men aged 17 to 45 must obtain consent from the Bundeswehr for trips abroad longer than three months. On Saturday, the Ministry of Defense confirmed the information previously reported by the “Frankfurter Rundschau” daily.

A spokesman for the ministry explained that “as long as service in the Bundeswehr remains voluntary, permission is considered (automatically) to have been granted“The new obligation results from the Military Service Act, but – as German media write – most of those interested were not aware of it.

The Act on the Modernization of the German Military Service entered into force on January 1. The new law provides for mandatory appearance before a military commission young men, starting from 2008. In this way, the Bundeswehr plans to recruit volunteers to increase by 80,000. size of the armed forces from 180 thousand men and women up to 260 thousand active soldiers.

Pursuant to the act, men who are over 17 years of age are obliged to obtain prior consent from the relevant Bundeswehr career planning center for a stay abroad lasting longer than three months, the ministry spokesman said.

This obligation expires at the age of 45.

The spokesman did not disclose how many times applications for travel permits have been submitted since the beginning of the year. Answering a question from the dpa agency about how violations of this requirement are detected and how they are punished, he explained: “This provision was already in force during the Cold War and had no practical significance, and its violation is not punishable.” (PAP)

lep/ sp/