Julia weeps when ordered to remove her piercings, Jerome struggles with his early wake-up call, and Marvin shivers when handed an assault rifle for the first time. “I hope I never have to use it,” he says. The scenes are from Die Rekruten (The Recruits), a hit YouTube documentary following the lives of 12 new marines, who have become something like minor celebrities, during their first three months of training.

“Perhaps these will be the hardest three months of their lives,” says a deep-voiced commentator during the opening credits of the show, against a dramatic backdrop of silhouettes of the recruits, who have attracted a strong following on social media.

Financed by the German army at a cost of €7.9m (£7m), the show, consisting of daily episodes of four to seven minutes, is an attempt by the German military, the Bundeswehr, to attract new soldiers at a time when their numbers, following the abolition of conscription six years ago, are at a historic low.

An episode of Die Rekruten.

It also coincides with international calls for Germany to take a leading military role, amid threats from Russia and signals from Donald Trump that Europe is too dependent on the US.

Attracting 44m views, Die Rekruten is one of Germany’s most successful social media projects ever. So popular has the show become that it was rolled out on the public TV channel RTL II and spawned a spin-off series following the German military in Mali.

The Bundeswehr’s communication team says Die Rekruten aims to present an authentic picture of the military that includes camaraderie, pushing personal boundaries and, it is keen to stress, “winning as well as losing”. Dirk Feldhaus, a spokesman, says the surprise success of the series has led to a 20% rise in applications for the military, at a time when it has pledged to increase troop numbers from 166,500 to nearly 200,000 by 2024.

But the Greens and the leftwing Linke party have accused the armed forces of producing propaganda, and of painting far too rosy a picture of a job that requires young people to be prepared to die and to kill. “Those who choose to advertise the job of a soldier should do so responsibly, by showing everything the job entails, not just making a few nice videos about how to fold your washing,” says Tobias Lindner, defence expert for the Greens.

Seven decades after the end of the second world war, the military remains a very sensitive topic in Germany. As much as finding new recruits, the series aims to win Germans round to the institution that should be seen as their protector, but is more often viewed as a threat to the postwar pacifism of which many are fiercely protective.



“I cannot think of another country which is so sceptical about its own armed forces as Germany,” says Sophia Besch, a European defence expert at the Centre for European Reform in London. “As an institution,” she adds, “the Bundeswehr is incredibly insecure.”

Forthright attempts after the war to ensure Germany’s newly formed armed forces did not forget the Nazi era are embodied in the concept of a soldier as a “citizen in uniform”. Besch says German soldiers are not allowed to dress up like their British and American counterparts. “It is no accident that they resemble bus drivers,” she adds.

But times are changing. With the growing fear of Russian might looming over the continent, Nato allies such as Lithuania, Poland, Latvia and Estonia have been positively crying out for Germany – a nation that not so long ago brutally overran them – to do more with its military. As a former Polish foreign minister said a few years ago, nowadays German power is feared far less than “German inactivity”.

In May, Angela Merkel delivered what has come to be known as her “beer tent” speech, in which she said it was time her country stood on its own two feet. “The times when we could totally rely on others are more or less over. And that’s why I can only say we Europeans have to now take our fate into our own hands.”



The German chancellor’s words were widely interpreted as a pop at Trump, suggesting the US was no longer a reliable partner, as well as sending a subtle message to the German public that the country had no choice other than to increase its military power, but in the more acceptable guise of keeper of regional stability.

“Germany will have little choice other than to give up its basic goal to be a ‘Friedensmacht’ or ‘peace power’,” says Björn Müller, a journalist specialising in security policy and the broadcaster of a fortnightly defence analysis programme on German radio. “It just won’t work any more. But it’s very problematic because the German public doesn’t want what Germany’s allies want, which is for their army to be used in an offensive way.”

The only way forward for the German army, Müller says, is for it to “stick to its postwar motto – to never fight alone, only in a coalition, to not let go of its holistic strategy of being the reluctant hegemony that brings its partners in on every defence decision”.

For years, the Bundeswehr has slowly but steadily been taking on increasingly dangerous missions with its allies – for example, in Kosovo, Afghanistan and last year in Mali. It also has a significant air surveillance role in the fight against Islamic State. Despite continued misgivings at home, each intervention seems to lessen domestic disapproval, according to Müller. “Gone are the days when people went on to the streets to protest against German military involvement in missions abroad,” he says.

As Besch puts it: “The more multilateral German military involvement is, the less the public is likely to be against it. Put the adjective ‘European’ in front of defence and it will be far more accepted.”



Germany is also spending more and has agreed with other Nato members to increase its military spending from 1.2% of GDP (around €37bn) to at least 2% by 2024. Inevitably the decision is unpopular with the public, but defence experts have called the goal realistic and necessary if the military is to remain fit for purpose and keep up with technological advances.

“The 2% debate is a bogus debate in Germany,” insists Müller. “It simply means we will have something akin to a properly equipped army at last.” Embarrassing headlines in recent years have highlighted how poorly equipped the Bundeswehr is. In one Nato exercise, black-painted broomsticks were used in the absence of tank-mounted machine guns.

Despite the success of Die Rekruten, support for the military is fragile. A scandal early this year revealed the strength of far-right tendencies among a small group of soldiers, serving as a reminder to many Germans of why their scepticism towards the military is justified. The group was found to have plotted terrorist attacks on asylum seekers and to have harboured nostalgia for the Nazi-era army.

“It did nothing to warm the public towards them,” says Besch, “and it was indicative of the fact that the military’s leadership had been so focused on making the institution attractive to outsiders as an employer – including introducing kindergartens and nine-to-five working hours – that it neglected the problems it has within.”

What she calls “the tortured relationship” that still exists between the Bundeswehr and broader society “will keep coming back to haunt them if they don’t address it”.