Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad

dw.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 799 posts

Re: German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad

#91

Post by einpoklum »

I remember people in Germany who had to go underground to evade the draft, even as recently as the early 2000s.

Here's a story from 2002 about how the supreme court there upheld the legality of a military draft:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-11-mn-37321...

anyway, if you refused to be drafted and did not want to go to jail, you had to more-or-less stop using any government services, rent with roommates, avoid using a credit card etc. until you've reached some age, and then you could emerge again because the duty to serve expires at that certain (not very high) age. It was cuh-razy.

Re: German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad

#93

Post by petcat »

eigenspace wrote: post #89
jasonvorhe wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The new military service law requires all men under 45 to seek approval from the Bundeswehr to leave the country for longer than three months. It also obliges the military career center to issue it. New. Not cold war. This didn't exist before.

It's a re-instatement of a cold war era law that was suspended in 2011.

Seems like a distinction without a difference to me.

Re: German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad

#94

Post by bigfudge »

rvz wrote: post #83

[flagged]

This comment doesn't make much sense. Are you implying German taxes are buying Russian oil and so funding the war in Ukraine? If so, that's a very partial reading of what's happened in recent years. Europe went through a huge and very painful transition away from Russian oil and gas. Germany in particular found this very difficult, but AFAICT it's mostly complete and Germany has prioritised renewables.

Energy is currently expensive because an orange maniac has started a war that only seems to benefit Russia.

Re: German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad

#95

Post by cookiengineer »

Note that this law still exists because it requires a constitutional change to include women (well, or to be abandoned). A constitutional change of the Grundgesetzbuch requires a 2/3rd majority in the parliament. That almost never happens these days, especially with green/left/social party being not really united anymore in their votes and the conservatives allying themselves with the far right.

The last time Germany had that much of a majority, it was under Bundeskanzler Kohl and Schroeder if I remember correctly. So like ~25 years ago.

Bundestag seats (from 2002 onwards):

2002 (15): https://www.nls.niedersachsen.de/html/pressemitteilungen1.ht...

2005 (16): https://www.nls.niedersachsen.de/html/presse_lwl_bw2005.html

2008 (17): https://www.bundestag.de/parlament/plenum/sitzverteilung17-2...

2013 (18): https://www.bundestag.de/webarchiv/textarchiv/2013/sitzvert_...

2017 (19): https://www.bundestag.de/278118-278118

2020 (20): https://web.archive.org/web/20211102103524/https://www.bunde... (couldn't find an article on the Bundestag website, got deleted. Web archive version is a little broken)

2025 (21): https://www.bundestag.de/parlament/plenum/sitzverteilung

Re: German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad

#96

Post by sunshine-o »

Those governments are totally inept.

For decades they have alienated their own native population, especially men. And now they want to conscript them as their approval ratings are around 15℅.

Think about it, Trump approval rating fell sharply but is still at about 40%. Merz is at 15% and most of those 15% are probably boomers in a nursing home. He is probably closer to 0% within the demographic he is trying to conscript.

The only war you're gonna get in Europe is a civil war.

Re: German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad

#98

Post by Betelbuddy »

trvz wrote: post #73
sergiotapia wrote: post #70

[flagged]

As a German citizen, this’ll certainly make me thoroughly uninterested in the gender pay gap for the rest of my life.

The gender pay gap only comes up for women in the boardroom and the tennis competition circuit...not in the job queue for bricklayers, roofers and garbage removers...

Re: German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad

#99

Post by lazide »

legitster wrote: post #77

> While the law requires men to request the permit, the spokesperson clarified, it also obliges the military career center to issue it, if "no specific military service is expected during the period in question.” > "Since military service under current law is based exclusively on voluntary participation, such permissions must generally be granted,” the official added. > When asked, the ministry spokesperson pointed o…

Ah, invasive extra paperwork (enforced by criminal penalties, at least in theory) for something they say on the surface they won’t actually need. So very german (hah)
Post reply on HN