Dr Martin Schäfer, Defence Policy Director at Germany’s defence ministry, has said Germany must be able to move 800,000 allied soldiers from its western to its eastern borders within thirty days, according to remarks made at the Atlantic Future Forum in Oslo.
Speaking on a panel on total defence on board HMS Prince of Wales, Schäfer said that during the Cold War Germany was a front-line state and knew a Red Army advance would destroy large parts of the country.
He said: “Now Germany is not a front state anymore. There are other countries who have to carry that burden, and Germany’s role within NATO entails some profound changes on our role and the role of government, of civil government, in in helping the effort to contain the Russians.”
He said the task is moving 800,000 allied soldiers across Germany in thirty days, “and that is exactly what entails a lot of work of civil departments, who have, to be honest with you, different levels of threat perception”.
Schäfer said he assumed other governments face the same issue, adding: “So we at defense we know what this is all about, and we try to make an effort to work together with our civilian counterparts in government and in civil society to make it happen.” On the Nordic total defence model, he said Germany will need to catch up but is on the way, and that dozens of German government delegations have travelled through Scandinavia to learn from it.
He said: “But this is not about being a copycat. This is about taking inspiration from what other countries do, because I think each of our public opinions, each of our societies, are somewhat different.”
NATO forces have staged major build-ups in Germany ahead of drills, and Britain has landed almost a thousand vehicles in Europe to deter Russia. General Eirik Kristoffersen, Norway’s Chief of Defence, told the same panel that receiving allied reinforcements depends on society knowing what the military needs from it.
Loving the diplomatic phrasing: ‘different levels of threat perception’