After Paris Attacks, a New Germany Emerges

Even before the Paris attacks, big changes were afoot in Germany. Germans felt more unsafe than they had in a decade. They were demanding military spending and a greater role in solving the world’s crises. After the Paris attacks, those attitudes have only intensified. With their newspapers warning of a new “world war,” Germans are more ready for military action than at any point since the end of the Second World War.

Statistics, published by the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr on November 26, show a dramatic change in Germany.

The center surveyed over 2,500 Germans two months prior to the Paris attacks. The results revealed that 51 percent of Germans now want Germany to spend more on its military. Only 13 percent wanted a cut. Two years ago, only 19 percent said they wanted to increase military spending.

This is the first time since the survey began in the mid-1990s that a majority of Germans have wanted to increase military spending. In 1997, 40 percent wanted to cut spending, while only 12 percent wanted it increased. Even in 2001, after the September 11 terrorist attacks, only 44 percent wanted to increase spending.

The survey asked Germans if their nation needed to be more involved in solving crises around the world or should instead focus on problems at home. Two thirds said that Germany must do more to help in the world’s crises and conflicts—only 27 percent wanted Germany to focus at home. Once again, this was the highest-ever support for international involvement and the lowest-ever support for focusing at home since the survey began.

Unsurprisingly, the most popular way of solving these problems was diplomatic negotiations. However, 57 percent were in favor of sending the German Army on military missions to fix these problems. Only 21 percent were against it.

All this points to a historic shift in Germany’s attitude toward its military. For decades, the German public has been very reluctant to send its soldiers abroad. Over the past few years, top German leaders have spoken in favor of a more muscular German foreign policy and have taken some important steps in that direction. But public opinion has not backed them. Until now.

The survey also points to an overall rise in fear and uncertainty. Twenty-three percent of those who responded said they felt the security situation in Germany was “very unsafe,” “unsafe” or “rather uncertain.” At first glance, that doesn’t sound very high—most see Germany as safe. But in 2014, that figure was 6 percent. In just one year, that number has increased fourfold. It’s now at its highest level since 2006.

What has caused this increase in insecurity? The most obvious answer is the migrant crisis—a crisis that is not going away any time soon. Again, all this was before the Paris attacks. Every indication is that these figures will have now changed dramatically.

We can already get a sense for how much Germany will be changed by looking at what the press is now saying.

In an article titled “In World War,” the editor in chief of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Berthold Kohler, describes the war against the Islamic State as “a world war.” The message of the Paris attacks, he notes, is that “your efforts and sacrifices in the ‘war on terror,’ whether on foreign soil or on your own, have been in vain” (translation ours throughout). The way the West is fighting radical Islam simply isn’t working.

He concludes: “Germans are not opposed to a friendly face in their government. But at times like this, they want and need to see a different one: a tough one.”

“This is war,” Frank Jansen wrote in Der Tagesspiegel. “The images of last night are so horrible, so unfathomable, so archaically bloody that it seems impossible not to recognize what we, the West, and indeed the whole planet have been forced into: a third world war.”

“The fight against the Islamic State, against the Taliban and Boko Haram is not being performed with the intensity that would be needed in a world war. … France, Germany and Europe are no longer what they were before yesterday night,” he wrote.

French journalist Anna Erelle told weekly German newsmagazine Stern in an interview that “we are in the middle of World War iii.” Erelle is a pseudonym. After writing about the Islamic State’s recruitment practices, she was subject to a fatwa—a religious death sentence—and now has to live in hiding.

Of course the journalists calling this World War iii are in the minority. But even German President Joachim Gauck, who hails from the center left, has called the attacks a “new type of war.”

This week, the German government is forming its immediate plans to support France’s war effort in Syria. They are significant, and will be the subject of their own article. But this fundamental change in attitude within the German public will probably bring more important changes in the long run.

At the start of 2014, President Gauck, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier all lined up and proclaimed Germany’s new attitude toward its military and role in the world. “In my opinion, Germany should make a more substantial contribution, and it should make it earlier and more decisively if it is to be good partner,” said Gauck. Now, public opinion is catching up to the beliefs of its leaders.

“Germany’s foreign policy has just been dramatically and historically transformed,” wrote Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry on the 2014 pivot.

“Since then, the message coming from Germany—from Steinmeier and von der Leyen, from lower level government officials, from Germany’s media, and from numerous German analysts and think tanks—has been loud and consistent: The time has come to pursue a much stronger foreign policy, both militarily and politically,” he continued.

Since then, there has been a marked shift in Germany’s foreign policy, with the nation sending small numbers of troops to the world’s hotspots.

But in 2014, the public wasn’t completely on board with this shift—it was imposed from the top. Now public opinion has swung behind these leaders. Germany’s shift to a global military power is only going to intensify.

To understand what this shift will mean for the world, read Gerald Flurry’s article “Germany’s Urgent and Dangerous Military Decision.”