Some Empirical Results on Retention in the German Armed Forces

The Bundeswehr as the national German armed forces was founded in 1955, initially with volunteers. From 1957 to 2011, conscripts were drafted, creating a broad recruiting base for the armed forces. In 2011 conscription was suspended but now there is an intense discussion whether to reintroduce general conscription. A first step was taken in 2024 when the MoD decided to contact all young men and women at the age of 18 and inform them about the Bundeswehr. The young men have to answer a recruitment questionnaire, for the young women this is voluntary. It is expected that in many cases, conscripted soldiers enlisted as temporary soldiers after the end of the conscription period.

In the history of the Bundeswehr, there have always been problems in recruitment and retention of personnel for temporary and professional soldiers. In the last 10 years there was a decline of the numbers of soldiers serving in the Bundeswehr and as an ongoing decreasing personnel coverage rate is to be expected in the area of personnel recruitment due to demographic developments and the changing demands of the applicant potential, personnel retention is becoming increasingly important.

As the problems in the area of retention within the Bundeswehr had been recognized, the ZMSBw has been involved in recent years with studies on external recruitment, the personnel base in society (youth study) and external employer attractiveness as well as internal employer attractiveness. Specifically, in the area of employee retention, there are findings (with regard to the development over several years) that deal with the internal attractiveness of the Bundeswehr as an employer, the effect of the attractiveness agenda on this, and alternative career options for soldiers, when they leave the military. The paper will deal in particular with the empirical results on successful or unsuccessful staff retention in Germany.