Stern Magazine is calling for mass conscription of German youths to join the army, including to ensure the defense of “freedom and diversity.” The reaction to the article has been harsh to say the least, with hundreds of negative comments directed at Stern.
The article, entitled “Others no longer defend us? Then we must do it ourselves!” claims that “the USA no longer wants to protect Germany. This brings a bitter realization: Our unbearable complacency must end.”
The solution? Start drafting German youth to fight the future wars. The author, Tilman Gerwien, a German male noticeable well past the age of someone who might typically be drafted, says that the days of a “dollhouse-like Bullerbü” are over and “we have to grow up.” He details the left’s traditional stance against conscription, which saw German youths demanding American troops leave Germany, was “not only a matter of conscience, but also a lifestyle.” He noted that at demonstrations against NATO, “people hopped around in peace-loving spirits, chanting ‘Out of NATO, into fun!’” All of this has to end, according to Gerwien, who looks like he would show up to battle armed with a MacBook Air and a latte.
There is no way to know if Gerwien was ever a part of these previous protests or ever shared those sentiments at one time, but it is notable that he is now old enough to not have to face the draft himself. Lucky him.
He is a part of the trend of the German establishment left suddenly becoming gung-ho in recent years, especially since Putin invaded Ukraine. The old Green Party ideals of removing NATO from Europe and pursuing an anti-war agenda have been jettisoned. In this sense, much of the establishment left has become outright hawkish. With Trump now in office, the hawkishness from this German establishment has now gone into overdrive, with the Greens joining forces with the CDU to promote a defense-oriented Germany.
Will Germans fight for the “New Germany?”
Of course, the “New Germany” does not exactly have people lining up to fight for it, and that is a real problem for the establishment. Much of the conservative youth no longer see a Germany they would lay down their lives for, and in fact, the “New Germany” openly despises these AfD-voting youths, and maybe even sending them to the front would solve this “problem.”
Meanwhile, the left-wing youth is coddled and mostly pacifist. This “Spiegel/Stern left” may like the idea of soldiers going off to fight on their behalf, but they don’t actually want to do the fighting themselves. The old notions of “honor” and “heroes” have been widely mocked and denigrated by the German elite, which Stern acknowledges,
So, who will fight?
Well, in the end, there doesn’t have to be a “reason” for conscription. Youths in Germany, just as in Ukraine, will be forced to the front for the likes of Stern’s editorial staff when push comes to shove, but it’s a nice thought for these journalists that these youths will at least think they have something worth dying for.
So, what should they die for? Stern addresses this problem, as the very atomized and multicultural society it promotes reduces the will for Germans to die face down in some trench at the frontline.
The magazine writes, “Taking all of this into account, Germany faces a tremendous challenge. We must dare to embrace more ‘heroism’ – and less hedonism. More communal commitment and less responsibility-avoiding individualism. And be careful not to lose sight of what we want to defend: freedom and diversity. If the pendulum swings too far toward individualization, we become defenseless. If the focus is too strongly on defense, the ghosts of the past are awakened, keyword ‘national community.’ It’s important to find the balance.”
See, Stern doesn’t want right-wing people who love their country fighting a patriotic war at the front. This could lead to people voting for the AfD, and then… Hitler will come back. This is the logic of Der Spiegel, Stern, and many others.
They instead want iPhone-wielding hipsters who love diversity dying in the trenches. These iPhone-wielding youths should be at the front to defend guys like Gerwien so they can go to Vietnamese restaurants, attend book readings from African authors, and enjoy art installations from Brazilian LGBT activists.
erman youth should die for all the above, not for the “German people,” or the “German flag,” or “hearth and home” or any of that other fascist nonsense that typically united nations and led men to lay down their lives for each other and their families.
Stern also appears relatively sure this youth will indeed be dying as well, saying they “will have to take up arms at some point.”
“At the very latest, when conscription comes into effect, ‘they’ (the Bundeswehr) will be all of us – even if only because our children and grandchildren will have to take up arms at some point,” writes Stern. “This raises the question: What are we prepared to fight for and, when push comes to shove, to die for? The fact that we are being asked to answer for the first time in decades is the true ‘turning point.’”
However, as Stern writes, German youths are not just fighting for diversity, but also for “freedom.” Notably, if you have any problem with “German freedom,” such as Germany’s harsh free speech laws, then your freedom should be curtailed with a visit from the police, as is increasingly the case in Germany.
Of course, freedom and democracy are tied together, and German youths should be fighting at the front to defend a government increasingly intent on banning the second most popular party in the country, the AfD, which just hit a new polling high this week at 23.5 percent. But freedom also means banning political parties, and we must all fight for the right to ban political parties whose opinions we do not agree with, especially if that party is opposed to the war in Ukraine, which all German youth (future soldiers fighting for diversity) should support..
It all sounds very confusing, but “freedom and diversity” certainly sound good as long as we don’t look at the details.
It is also worth noting that despite Germans being called to “defend diversity,” the cover of Stern is remarkably lacking in diversity. It’s two White people, a boy and girl.
Considering Germany’s youth are becoming more and more diverse, one would think that it would have been the perfect opportunity to feature a Black or Arab person. Go to any clothing store in Germany or any other Western country, and the classic motif of the Black male paired with the White female is ubiquitous. However, as those on the right often point out, when the threat of real wars start, the White males suddenly start appearing more and more frequently in the recruiting ads of the armed forces.
Laughably, the Stern call to action quotes military historian Sönke Neitzel, who told the magazine in support of conscription: “What are we waiting for?” “That 100 percent of the population is in favor of it?” He claims people won’t like it, but it simply has to happen.
Well, maybe they could at least wait until there is 20 percent of the population supporting such measures? A new Forsa poll shows that only 17 percent of Germans are willing to take up arms and die for their country. In short, Stern’s vision of an army of conscripts ready to die for Germany sounds a bit like Hitler at the end of the war, who was completely separated from reality and moving armies around on the map that did not exist.
Of those 17 percent, how many of them are older people or women who actually would not take up arms or even be forced to take up arms should the call to war come?
As Remix News reported in the past, the Ukrainian army has had something the German army did not, which was a patriotic, hardcore, right-wing element that was willing to “die for Ukraine.” Not all of these soldiers were neo-Nazis, but many certainly were. A huge number of these soldiers are already dead, and the war may be coming to an end. Ironically, Ukraine may end up more like Germany in the end with the death of these soldiers, as calls by Ukrainian business leaders to accept the mass importation of migrants to replace the soldiers lost are becoming more of a mainstream idea.
Germany’s push for conscription will continue, with hundreds of billions being directed into weapons purchases. The only problem is that Germans are not going to want to fly these fighter jets or drive these tanks.
As the X comments note, Germans do not seem especially enthusiastic. One user writes: “Why should you fight for a country that you can’t even be proud of?”
Another responds: “You’ve failed with your miserable war training and war mentality. Only 17% of Germans want to defend Germany with weapons in hand, according to the latest Forsa survey. You won’t have my children, you miserable indoctrinators and arms industry lobbyists!”
Another asks how old the boy on the cover of the magazine is: “Shouldn’t the question be: Would you give your child? How old is the boy on the cover? 17? Man, man, man… This is on the level of ‘Jesus would have been vaccinated.’”
Some do not even want people to buy Stern, period.
“No—don’t fight! And don’t buy that stupid state propaganda magazine either,” wrote another.