Being 46 (and quite an active 46 year old, just finished a Skitour), am curious why the cutoff for these things tends to be 45?

▲

Yizahi 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'm pretty sure it's politics. The reason is a potential draft, but it is also very potential for now and may never happen. So this message signalizes to the older and/or richer population two messages - "you will be protected by the mobilized army in the worst case" and "you personally will be exempt from the need to sit in a freezing trench for multiple years" (which is not true in reality, if the draft will be needed, higher age will be increased to 60 most likely). So the older and conservative population is appeased this way.

CDU are losing popularity if we are to believe press, so that is one of the populist ways to boost some numbers for elections.

▲

raffael_de 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There has to be some cutoff and I assume it's for law historic reasons, maybe other related laws reference that age.

Cynically speaking: the people making those laws probably don't want to be impacted by it. And Germany is effectively a gerontocracy.

▲

inhumantsar 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

diminishing returns. people over 40 heal less quickly, start to run into chronic health issues, and are more likely to have suffered permanent injuries. it's easier to set a global cutoff at an age where the probability that any given person will be unable to do the job safely than it is to assess each person individually.

	▲	raffael_de 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I wouldn't survive a week at the front just because of my back. But I'll happily catch a couple of bullets.

▲

spwa4 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Let's see ... On December 5, 2025 the German parliament passed a law requiring all men between 18 and 45 years to register "for military service", which everyone should fully understand to mean to register for conscription.

Oh and they've added a very political clause: the government can activate conscription WITHOUT a parliament vote. So most political parties who have voted in favor of conscription want to be able to claim "it wasn't us, it was Merz" (ie. CDU). In reality CSU and SPD have voted to effectively conscript German men between 18 and 45.

In other words, Germany expects to be in open war in a matter of months to years. Like every country before them they've decided young men are cheaper than actually investing in military equipment (they're investing in military equipment, but they just won't have it in that time period)

This probably means that if you can get out, get out, because it's not like being 46 years old will protect you from the impact of that, and yes it's not clear what the timing is going to be, and they're not being very forward about what the reason is for conscription.

So that's why 45. Because the existing conscription law (1954 + 2025) allows for conscripting every German male between 18 and 45.

▲

AnimalMuppet 5 hours ago | parent [-]

The US has this too. All males register at 18.

But the US, for all its militarism, and all its military adventures, has not used the draft since Vietnam.

So I would say that Germany sees the need to be in a position where it can respond quickly if they need it. Well, given current events in their neighborhood, I can see their point. In fact, I would say that they are probably at least three years late in doing this.

▲

spwa4 5 hours ago | parent [-]

I mean, short term it's obvious what will happen. Europe's peace at all costs (or should I say: at NO cost) will fail and Russia will attack in a matter of years. Some states will be forced to defend and a number of European countries will respond as a coalition. Many other European states will refuse to help, a few very publicly. And obviously this coalition will either beat Russia back or at the very least stop Russia advancing much at all. So far the obvious part of the next few years.

Let's start with an easy one: Will Germany be ready (war is more than cheap bodies, after all, equipment, plans, ...)? No, they won't. They've never been ready before.

Will the US help? That was a given even just 1 year ago, but now is strongly in doubt.

What will Germany's reaction be to the European states that just don't help?

What will happen to world trade? The question is who will save it, because the historical answer was of course US.

	▲	rawgabbit 18 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I am a US citizen and I try to see the world as it is. >Will the US help? That was a given even just 1 year ago, but now is strongly in doubt. With the current commander in chief, the US will do nothing except talk a lot of nonsense contradicting itself daily. >What will happen to world trade?. World trade as we know it is done. National security interests will force strategic industries to be on-shored. New trade deals will only be made with a short list of trustworthy allies. If Russia does attack, the US will take 1+ years to ramp up and we will take a long time before we reach Europe in large numbers. The rapid reaction forces we have are not prepared for the new way of fighting we see in Ukraine.