Short answers, pulled from the story.
Germany put conscription into abeyance on the 1st of July 2011, following a proposal by Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg on the 22nd of November 2010. The suspension followed years of debate driven by post-Cold War troop reductions, declining demand for conscripts, and concerns about the unequal application of the draft.
Conscripts could perform civilian alternative service, called Zivildienst, in hospitals, kindergartens, rehabilitation centers, care homes, and similar public institutions. Conscientious objectors were required to serve one month longer than the military service period, though this gap was equalised in 2003.
Medical exemption was the most common reason for exclusion, accounting for over 36% of eligible men by 2005. Other exemptions covered priests, men with two siblings who had already served, fathers and married men, men convicted of felonies against the state, and certain public-sector specialists. Descendants of Holocaust victims up to the third generation were exempt under a formal agreement between the German Defense Ministry and the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
Men who refused all forms of service, a status called Totalverweigerung, faced criminal prosecution. Military refusal was treated as desertion and insubordination under military law. In practice the most common sentence was three months of imprisonment, though up to five years was theoretically possible under juvenile law.
East Germany did not offer a civilian care-work alternative. Conscripts who refused to bear arms were drafted into the National People's Army as construction soldiers, called Bausoldaten, and assigned to public construction projects or labor shortages in sectors such as mining. Former Bausoldaten were frequently barred from enrolling at university after completing their service.
A law approved by the Merz cabinet entered into force on the 1st of January 2026, reintroducing mandatory registration and health examination for all male candidates in Germany. Mandatory Musterung for men born in 2008 begins on the 1st of January 2027. The law does not yet require actual military service, but it sets a troop growth target by 2035 and leaves open a lottery-based selection mechanism, called Bedarfswehrpflicht, if voluntary recruitment falls short.