Why do they have to fill it in and return it just to say no? Could this be used against them at some time in the future? And why women instead can just ignore it?

Usually HN is very wary of the consequences of the state collecting data about its citizens and restricting freedoms in small steps. Is it not the case now?

They only recently (2011?) ended mandatory conscription so this is a pretty big about-face.

This may be too far of an obscure historical reference, but is there really nothing specific to German history and nothing within german civic education and contemporary national identity formation that might make this potentially more controversial?

Hint:some of these events involved spheres of influence and control over resources in eastern europe!

Eighteen year olds in the US have to fill out a “selective services” form. This was for the draft, and continues in case the draft is ever reinstated. So in peace time not problem, in wartime? Different story.

The problem here that this probably is only part of a larger society militarization plan.

The guaranteed next step is to offer the volunteers a long term paid contract at the end of their term. This would probably be well above what they would be paid elsewhere (young men with no university degree, desperate enough to volunteer in the first place).

Run the scheme for a few years, and you will have a large number of, young, high-school-level educated people that are financially dependent on the army. Thus, a militarized society.

What could possibly go wrong?

Has a standing army of angry young men, resentful at their economic circumstances in Germany ever historically caused any problems?

> Just build nukes

I'm broadly sympathetic to the argument that the multipolar world we're in now makes a good case for nuclear weapons adoption. But Germany probably isn't the one Europe wants to arm itself. And even if it did, their Greens wouldn't allow it.

> The form will be mandatory for men and voluntary for women.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_men_are_created_equal

Military service was only recently abolished in Germany. And compared to the old system, this one would qualify as voluntary for now. This might not remain that way, but that's probably an issue to discuss if and when that happens. There's all kinds of other challenges at that point, and I think at that point challenges based on fairness could be valid (as only some people are drafted, not everyone).

Can Germans elaborate on this? I have heard some stories but I don’t know the truth of them.

> What I didn't see were any young Germans

Seems ~20% of the population are immigrants (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg#Demographics), some of the people you saw are Germans and some of them are not, but I think the main confusing part is how you mix up how someone looks and what nationality they have. I think maybe you're trying to say "white" instead, but for some reason avoided using that word?

For anyone wondering just over

84% of the German population is ethnically German, so the commenter above was probably spectacularly unlucky. They are right though in that it is an aging population with only around 13% under 16.

> Looking at it now, German TFR has been well below replacement for nearly 60 years, so I suppose it makes sense.

That's really dumb. It's not that hard to look up population statistics [1]. Without having to say anything on the validity of your last paragraph (I'd have to apply Hanlon's razor before I would be able to argue in good faith), it really has nothing to do with your random tourist observation. There are very much 'white' children (which you probably meant to say, but didn't for some reason) running around in Nuremberg (not "Nuremburg").

[1] https://www.nuernberg.de/imperia/md/statistik/dokumente/vero...

Yes, many parts of German cities have a majority of non-germans. This is not uncommon, it doesn't help that the minority of the German youth in those areas is integrating themselves into the immigrant culture.

>The German government is one of the few on Earth that seems to actually hate its native populace.

They certainly don't hate the pensioners or the people on welfare. Just the native youth, which will have to bear the burden for all of this, but does not get to decide.

Something tells me that the only people wandering the streets at 2:00 PM on a weekday are vacationing from other countries. Next you'll tell me that whi- I mean, "good, old-fashioned Americans" are disappearing because you went to Times Square and couldn't hear any English. Please don't do this here.

Between learning to speak russian and bleeding out in 10° weather in a ditch on the front lines of a foreign country fighting some rich politician's proxy war while the politician's family is out partying, drinking champagne, eating steak, and living comfortably, I'd choose speaking russian. Not sorry for valuing my own life more than the leaders of my nation-state do.

I think a lot of young people look at all of the wars waged post-WWII and are rightfully opposed to fighting for their governments. Would you want to die for nothing in Vietnam? Probably not, and a lot of other people didn't want to as well. Some of them did anyway, and it was all for nothing.

So please have some grace if today's kids have looked back at our miserable history and have decided that they'd rather not die for a country that doesn't seem to give a shit about them.

> Is the idea that it’s better for your livelihood to just start learning how [to] speak Russian now?

Да, конечно.

Who's to say the organizers and influencers behind these protests don't already speak Russian..

The German government will be the first ones to tell you that the German language and ancestry is totally unrelated to the idea of who gets to be German.

I know this may not seem palatable to people, but on a rational, practical level; the fact that all of Europe doesn’t just draft all the foreigners that have streamed into Europe over the last ten years and are living off public funds and the resources of the indigenous Europeans, train them and then send them to the Ukraine into service under Ukrainian forces to fight the Russians at the frontline, makes no rational sense.

There are an estimated 63 million foreign born people in Europe right now with alone about 30 million having entered in the last ten years. They could just muster everyone that is not filling a critical role, at whatever rate you can equip them; probably about 5 million per year at minimum, and then ship them off to the Ukraine. On a tactical, strategic, and practical level it makes no sense not to do it.

If the threat is so great and the consequences and risks of the Ukrainian loss so immense, what is the argument to NOT send all the foreigners into the battle since they’re already an immense expense on public expenditures? You’re already housing them. Already feeding them. Already medically taking care of them. It makes no logical sense not to train them and send them to the Ukraine, especially not in comparison to pressuring your indigenous people into the military to waste their immensely and far more productive potential that you absolutely need to maintain your economy and societies.

Don’t shoot the messenger even if you don’t like the message. If things are as the governments claim, it makes perfect tactical, strategic, and practical sense for fighting the Russians. It’s literally no additional expense from the already high cost of caring for these foreign people.

There's a thing called a plane ticket. My life would need to have absolutely zero value to me, for it to make any sense sacrificing it to keep my country's borders in a certain location. Maybe that makes me gutless, I don't care.

Countries that fight wars of aggression are monstrous but why volunteer to be the poor SOB dying in the mud?

Classic move: make the kids struggle, then offer them a lifeline if they just put on a uniform. The GI bill is great, but you shouldn't have to step on an IED to go to college.