How Democratic Are the Militants? Right Wing Extremist Political Attitudes in the Bundeswehr

The Bundeswehr’s task is to defend the security, the democratic and liberal values, and the freedom of Germany and its partners. Political extremism is incompatible with these tasks, the legal requirements and normative standards of the German Armed Forces. Nevertheless, over the last years, several cases of right-wing extremism among German soldiers gained public attention.

We will present results from the first comprehensive study among Bundeswehr soldiers on their political attitudes and will focus on two core questions: 1) To what extent do soldiers hold extremist political attitudes? 2) What are the correlates and causes of extremist political attitudes? For the second question, we will test the empirical relevance of four hypotheses (1: trust in political institutions and dissatisfaction with democracy, 2: perceived societal support, 3: service-related perceptions and evaluations, 4: soldier images, normative evaluations, and historical perceptions).

The analyses are based on survey data of the research project “Armed Forces in a Democracy” from 2022. We use two datasets, 1) a hybrid (paper-and-pencil and online) survey among Bundeswehr personnel which covers 4,313 soldiers and civilian employees/civil servants, and 2) a public opinion survey, covering 4,632 representative computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI).

Our main findings show the structure and dynamics of soldiers’ political beliefs. The results also deliver a multitude of evidence on the similarities and discrepancies of political attitudes in the military and the German society. In sum, our study provides comprehensive empirical insights into the democratic reliability of the German Armed Forces, which is a necessary condition for the effectiveness of the concept of “militant democracy”.