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Never again meets a new war

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has forced Germany into a reckoning that would have seemed implausible just a few years ago. Warnings that Moscow could attack another European country before the end of the decade have pushed Berlin into its most ambitious rearmament effort since the Cold War. However, this shift has not come without resistance.

February 23, 2026 - Isabelle de Pommereau - Hot TopicsIssue 1-2 2026Magazine

On December 5th 2025, the morning the German parliament voted to reinstate military service, protests spilled into the streets outside the Bundestag and across the country. In Berlin alone, more than 3,000 young people took part in a “school strike against conscription”. Photo by German Peace Society–United War Resisters, or DFG-VK

On the morning in which the German parliament voted in late 2025 to reinstate military service, protests spilled into the streets outside the Bundestag and across the country. The decision, unthinkable just a few years earlier, marked a sharp break with a political culture long defined by military restraint and the post-war mantra of “never again”. As lawmakers debated inside, chants and placards echoed for hours outside, underscoring how, more than 80 years after the fall of the Nazi regime, Germany remains deeply, and uniquely, unsettled about the use of force.

In Berlin, more than 3,000 young people joined what organizers called a “school strike against conscription”, marching behind handmade signs and chanting, “We don’t want to spend half a year of our lives in barracks, be trained in drill and obedience, and learn how to kill.” The mood was disciplined and earnest – closer to a climate rally than a Cold War-era anti-war march. For many participants, the choreography of protest felt familiar, repurposed for a new political moment.

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