German students plan nationwide school strike against compulsory military service

Students across Germany are once again planning to take to the streets to protest against military service.

In a video posted on Instagram as part of the latest “anti-conscription school strike” campaign, several young people are seen holding banners reading: “Merz, you should die on the Eastern Front too.”

Students are preparing to walk out of school for a third time on Friday instead of attending classes.

Demonstrations are planned in Bavaria in Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ingolstadt, Würzburg and Bayreuth.

According to the German Press Agency (dpa), more than 1,000 students in the state responded to a similar call in early March. Organizers said more than 50,000 people demonstrated nationwide.

Although participation levels remain far below those seen during the Fridays for Future climate protests, the strike calls form part of a coordinated nationwide campaign that has been running since last year.

Among the organizers of the demonstrations is the Socialist German Workers Youth (SDAJ), the youth wing of the German Communist Party (DKP). Another socialist organization, the Free German Youth (FDJ), is also urging young people to join the protests.

Some sections of the German media have sought to cast a shadow over the demonstrations by highlighting that the DKP, FDJ and SDAJ are monitored by Germany’s domestic intelligence service.

For example, broadcaster BR noted that the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution regards some groups on the “far-left” spectrum as the regional “driving forces” behind the current strike calls.

According to information obtained internally by BR, the Munich branch of the SDAJ is among those groups.

Alongside Nuremberg, Munich is regarded as one of the SDAJ’s main centers in Bavaria.

Hannes Kramer, an SDAJ member involved in organizing the demonstrations, told German Foreign Policy in an interview that students were demanding not only the abolition of compulsory military service and military medical examinations, but also that the vast sums currently allocated to the armed forces be redirected toward education and social services.

“The reintroduction of compulsory military service is part of a whole series of other measures, including attacks on the welfare state and social safety nets, increasing ideological militarization and, above all, the most extensive military buildup since the Second World War,” Kramer said.

Kramer also noted that members of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, had entered schools. “At our strike conference, we decided to fight for schools free of the Bundeswehr and thus even to prohibit soldiers in camouflage uniforms from setting foot in our schoolyards,” he said.

According to Kramer, the school strikes are facing growing pressure from state institutions: the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has contacted students participating in the strikes, including those under the age of 18.

Responding to various inquiries since early March, the nationwide school strike initiative’s press team said the campaign’s core work was being carried out by “students active in cities and schools,” who were “building dialogue there, forming strike committees, networking and planning the school strike.”

According to sources within the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, organizations such as the SDAJ and DKP are “bringing their experience in organizing protests.” For example, they know how to register demonstrations and move quickly to capitalize on current issues.

According to a spokesperson for the Bavarian Interior Ministry, resistance to renewed military service can also be explained by the political left’s traditional antimilitarist stance. The term “antimilitarism” has gained considerably greater prominence since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

BR reported that the debate over compulsory military service was also being used by “left-wing extremists” to “gain new followers from the bourgeois-democratic camp and increase acceptance of their own anti-democratic positions.”

Posts and publications related to the school strike repeatedly feature narratives claiming that the federal government wants to involve young people in a war against Russia. Boris Pistorius of the SPD is described as a “Minister of War.”