Germany - military spending 2006-2022

Military spending in Germany has increased in recent years. In 2022, it amounted to almost 56 billion U.S. dollars. Military spending is regulated by a military budget, otherwise referred to as a defense budget. 

German army

Germany is known for having had comparatively low military expenditure lately. Based on definitions provided by NATO, military or defense spending is supported not only by the military budget, but also by the Foreign Office for peacemaking and peacekeeping measures. Germany has a Ministry of Defence (Bundesministerium der Verteidigung). The current Minister of Defence is Boris Pistorius. His duties include not only being the commander in chief of the German armed forces (Bundeswehr) in times of peace, but also heading the German army administration and overseeing civilian staff in the military. 

International operations

The largest number of German soldiers participating in international operations were stationed in Mali, Lithuania, and Slovakia. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Germany provided a lot of military support for soldiers. Recently, there has been a lot of debate about whether Germany needs to increase the amount of funding they put into the military. However, there is no simple answer and there are many different opinions in the government about what should be done.