the army organizes educational role-playing games in schools, an approach which is causing debate

With the war in Ukraine, the question of the numbers of the Bundeswehr, the German army, returns to the table. The Minister of Defense is considering a return to conscription, abolished in 2011, to swell his ranks.

In Germany, the invasion of Ukraine led to a painful questioning of the entire structure of national defense. Increased spending and overhaul of the Bundeswehr, the German army. A colossal project.

The question of staffing is particularly thorny for the government. The Bundeswehr today numbers 180 000 soldiers. By 2031, we should increase to 205 000 men and 60 000 reservists to cover Defense needs. Faced with the lack of vocations, the Minister of Defense is considering a return to conscription, abolished in 2011. For decades, the German army has visited schools for educational purposes. But these interventions with students are debated in the country.

Around forty high school students from Berlin have just attended a speech at the UN General Assembly. We are not in New York, but in a leisure center near the capital. And the speaker is not a representative of the United States, but one of our high school students’ teachers. As part of their civics class, students participate in a role-playing game on world politics organized by the German army. The session lasts a week and covers geopolitical issues, from terrorism to global conflicts, including drug trafficking and migration. So like at the UN. But here, it is the students who propose the solutions.

The army suspected of coming to recruit

The Bundeswehr in schools? In Germany, officers are specially trained to explain to young people the role of a parliamentary army in a democratic country. Captain Jan Czarnitzki, an air traffic controller in the Air Force, is one of the facilitators of the role-playing game. “We are often suspected of coming to schools to recruit, he observes. But that’s not at all what we do. We inform about the security policy. This is the central point of our action. Of course, there are always students who are interested in the Bundeswehr as an employer. The only thing we can do in these cases is refer them to the Army referral service.”

The Bundeswehr’s interventions in schools are debated in Germany. “We view these interventions very critically, because officers go into classrooms during lessons, take time from teachers, deplores Martina Schmerr, from the GEW teachers’ union. However, we are of the opinion that political education must be the responsibility of teachers, who are trained for that.”

“The political game itself is certainly very good educationally, but it is not balanced in the sense that it follows a war logic. Quite often this game ends with a nuclear war scenario.”

Martina Schmerr, from the GEW teaching union

at franceinfo

With the invasion of Ukraine, demand increased for educational establishments. So does the army’s need for new recruits. Enough to relaunch the debate around army interventions in schools.