Of the 930,000 individuals classed as reservists, just 34,000 have received recent military training and are deemed active.
The reserve wing of the German Army only truly exists on paper, as its troops are not properly equipped and have not received adequate training, the head of the German Reserve Soldiers’ Association has claimed.
In an interview with the German newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung, retired Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Sensburg, a former CDU member of parliament, said he believes the reserves are badly managed and significantly underfunded.
“It’s really a force that exists largely on paper,” said the retired lieutenant colonel.
The German government is paying more attention to improving its army after the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine, but with the Bundeswehr underfunded for years, this is no easy task. The reserve forces are seen as an important part of the modernization plan, but the head of the Reserve Forces Association says they are far from their targets and appear more like a phantom army than a valuable component of the country’s defense.