Overview
- Men are required to complete the QR-linked online form within a month while women may respond voluntarily, with questions on health, fitness, education and licenses that take about 15 minutes.
- Nonresponse triggers an automatic reminder and a two-week grace period, and repeated delays or false information can bring fines that officials have indicated can reach up to €1,000.
- About 700,000 people born in 2008 are due to be contacted in the coming days, with weekly mailings ramping to roughly 12,500 letters.
- Service remains voluntary, but lawmakers have left open a contingency to introduce a targeted draft if recruitment goals are not met.
- The reform aims to grow active personnel to around 260,000 and the reserve to 200,000 by 2035 under NATO guidance that Germany be able to field roughly 460,000 in a crisis, even as conscientious-objection filings rose 72% in 2025 to 3,867.