Wir sind kein Kanonenfutter! - Interview mit Harald Will von der DFG-VK

·21 min·1 clip

Since January 2026, Germany sends mandatory questionnaires to 18-year-old men to assess their suitability for killing or being cannon fodder.

1. Radio München presents an interview by author Johnny Rieder with Harald Will, a volunteer advisor at the Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft-Vereinigte Kriegsdienstgegner (DFG-VK), about conscientious objection to German military service. 2. Will objected to military service in 1972 and later worked as a radio journalist at Bayerischer Rundfunk before retirement; he now advises people seeking to register as conscientious objectors. 3. The episode's core subject is the German government's Wehrdienstmodernisierungsgesetz (military service modernisation law), which since January 2026 requires all 18-year-old male citizens to complete a military fitness questionnaire, with completion mandatory for men and voluntary for women. 4. Will notes that the gendered obligation is a sign that feminist equality rhetoric ends when the question is combat and death — a point he says cannot officially be acknowledged because it touches on who bears the next generation. 5. Enquiries to DFG-VK surged from 2–4 per month to approximately 200 in Bavaria alone in October 2024, driven by the public debate over potential conscription reinstatement rather than the questionnaire itself. 6. The surge spans age groups: very young people facing initial registration, and reservists in their 30s and 40s who now have families and are questioning whether they could shoot at enemy soldiers who also have families. 7. Will compares objection statements from 1972 to those today and finds the core arguments largely unchanged: both cite the organised violation of the commandment 'thou shalt not kill' inherent in military training. 8. Modern objectors additionally cite current wars — Ukraine and Gaza — as concrete contexts that trigger fear and confirm they could not serve as soldiers. 9. Political arguments (wars are started by the powerful; soldiers bear the consequences) are harder to get approved under current rules because the law requires personal conscience statements, not political analysis. 10. Will describes the 1970s Prüfungsausschüsse (review committees) — three-person panels chaired by a Bundeswehr administrator — which asked objectors impossible dilemma questions such as whether to shoot down a bomber that will otherwise kill thousands of civilians. 11. He says those committees were abolished following protests and replaced with a written procedure, but adds he cannot fully assess how current reviewers make decisions because DFG-VK rarely sees rejection decisions. 12. Will is highly critical of the 'Kriegsdienstblocker' website, which generates AI-written objection statements: his organisation identifies these by their formulaic, repetitive phrasing, and reports they fail approval. 13. He flags a specific factual error on the site: it states objectors need not undergo military fitness testing, but in fact the law requires all potential objectors to be assessed for fitness first, with a narrow exception for those born before 2010. 14. Several applicants who relied on this incorrect information have had their applications rejected, according to Will. 15. Will argues that it is not necessary to immediately emigrate to avoid military service; Article 4, Section 3 of the Grundgesetz ('no one may be compelled against their conscience to carry out armed military service') provides a legal path, and most applications are approved. 16. He acknowledges uncertainty about whether approved objector status would be honoured in an actual war, but says pursuing the legal option is the appropriate first step. 17. Will says that if he were still working at Bayerischer Rundfunk — which he describes as now 'at the forefront of war rhetoric' — he would refuse to write pro-rearmament commentary and would instead analyse the catastrophic consequences of actual war: millions of deaths, destruction of water and food supply chains. 18. He identifies school strikes against conscription and new anti-conscription committees as potential crystallisation points for a renewed mass peace movement, noting that the traditional peace movement has been weakened by the departure of younger generations. 19. Eva Schmidt closes the episode with a personal statement: 'whoever desires peace must make clear to the state early on that they are not available for war, its planning, or its preparation.' 20. This episode is best suited for young German men facing military registration, conscientious objectors seeking practical legal advice, or listeners interested in the current German rearmament debate from a peace-movement perspective.

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