Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Bundeswehr was officially established on the 12th of November 1955, a date chosen to mark the 200th birthday of Prussian military reformer Gerhard von Scharnhorst. Germany had been entirely without armed forces since the dissolution of the Wehrmacht after World War II.
The name Bundeswehr was proposed by Hasso von Manteuffel, a former Wehrmacht general who became a politician in the Free Democratic Party. The name was later confirmed by the West German Bundestag.
The Bundeswehr has 186,221 active-duty military personnel and 81,205 civilians, making it the second largest military force in the European Union behind France. Germany is aiming to expand to around 203,000 soldiers by 2031 and ultimately to 260,000 active personnel.
Germany's military budget for 2026 is $127 billion, equivalent to €108.2 billion, making the Bundeswehr the fourth-highest-funded military in the world. This represents a major shift from a decade of spending averaging approximately 1.2% of GDP.
Years of defence spending cuts and underfunding left the Bundeswehr with dysfunctional weapons systems, armoured vehicles and aircraft unfit for service, and severe spare parts shortages. By October 2014, the military acknowledged it was "unable to deliver its defensive NATO promises," and by 2016 most fighter aircraft and combat helicopters were not in deployable condition.
Women have served in the Bundeswehr's medical service since 1975 and have been able to serve in all functions without restriction since 2001, following a 2000 European Court of Justice ruling in the case brought by Tanja Kreil. There are currently around 25,417 women on active duty. In 1994, Verena von Weymarn became the first woman to reach the rank of general in the German armed forces.