Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces Henning Otte has criticized shortcomings in the Bundeswehr's personnel structure in his first annual report and warned of overstretching the troops. He points to a disproportionate number of officers relative to enlisted soldiers and a low proportion of women. Otte calls for growth in the forces and advises reassessing deployments in the Middle East.
Berlin. CDU politician Henning Otte, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces since June 2025, sharply criticized the Bundeswehr's personnel structure during the presentation of his first annual report on Tuesday at the Federal Press Conference. The report states that the proportion of enlisted soldiers is 29.3 percent. 'Within the current personnel structure of the Bundeswehr, there is thus almost one officer per enlisted soldier in proportion. Whether such top-heaviness really allows the troops to sustainably fulfill the tasks of national and alliance defense is questionable,' it says.
Otte also criticized the proportion of women at just 13.7 percent as 'still far too low.' He referred to the scandal at the Zweibrücken barracks, where investigations are underway against 55 members of the 26th Paratrooper Regiment for right-wing extremism, sexualized assaults, and drug abuse. 'There is no place in the troops for sexism or extremism,' he emphasized.
The goal must be for the force to grow overall, Otte said. Currently, the Bundeswehr consists of 184,194 service members. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) aims to increase the number to 260,000 active soldiers by mid-next decade, plus 200,000 reservists. However, Otte expressed skepticism about achieving this through the new voluntary military service introduced at the beginning of the year, which is to be converted to compulsory service only if necessary. 'We must not fail there,' he stressed.
In addition, Otte warned of an 'overstretching' of the troops and advised taking on only truly necessary tasks. In the context of the Iran war, during which Bundeswehr soldiers in Iraq and Jordan came under indirect fire over the weekend, he suggested considering a withdrawal. More than 500 soldiers are stationed in the region; the presence in Erbil (Iraq) has already been reduced, and this is being examined in Al-Azraq (Jordan). 'This must be evaluated daily,' Otte said. Pistorius had contacted the commanders on site on Monday.
