Bundeswehr: From Zeitenwende (historic turning point) to Epochenbruch (epochal shift)
The Zeitenwende (historic turning point) announced by Olaf Scholz on February 27, 2022, is shifting into high gear. Financially supported by the March 2025 reform of Germany’s “debt break” and backed by a broad political and societal consensus to strengthen and modernize the Bundeswehr, Germany's military capabilities are set to rapidly increase over the coming years. Expected to assume a central role in the defense of the European continent in the context of changing transatlantic relations, Berlin’s military-political position on the continent is being radically transformed.
Implementing Germany’s long-term strategic preference of organizing its defense efforts through NATO in conjunction with defense industrial projects in which German industry takes center-stage, will change long-established equilibria, with important consequences not only for Franco-German relations.
Ifri’s 2023 Study “Zeitenwende: The Bundeswehr’s Paradigm Shift” by Léo Péria-Peigné and Élie Tenenbaum identified three challenges for the German armed forces: poor system availability due to accumulated maintenance debt and inadequate implementation processes, human resources lagging behind recruitment goals, and a strategic culture struggling with the Bundeswehr’s mission as a credible deterrent force. On all three fronts, there have been substantial changes.
Johanna Möhring specializes in European security and defense. She holds a PhD in political science and is Chercheuse associée at the Centre interdisciplinaire sur les enjeux stratégiques (CIENS), École Normale Supérieure, and Associate Fellow at the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.
This publication is also available in French (PDF): "La Bundeswehr : de la Zeitenwende à l'Epochenbruch".
- Joint publication by The Study Committee on Franco-German Relations (Cerfa) of the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri) and the Ifri Security Studies Center.
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Notes du Cerfa, No. 189, Ifri, February 2026
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Bundeswehr: From Zeitenwende (historic turning point) to Epochenbruch (epochal shift)
The Study Committee on Franco-German Relations (Cerfa)
The Study Committee on Franco-German Relations (Cerfa) was created in 1954 by an inter-governmental agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and France, in order to raise awareness of Germany in France and analyze Franco-German relations, including in their European and international dimensions. In its conferences and seminars, which bring together experts, political leaders, senior decision-makers and representatives of civil society from both countries, Cerfa develops the Franco-German debate and stimulates political proposals. It regularly publishes studies through two collections: Cerfa notes and studies as well as Franco-German visions.
Cerfa maintains close relations with the network of German foundations and think tanks. In addition to its research and debate activities, Cerfa promotes the emergence of a new Franco-German generation through original cooperation programs. This is how in 2021-2022, Cerfa led a program on multilateralism with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Paris. This program is aimed at young professionals from both countries interested in the issues of multilateralism in the context of their activities. It covered a wide range of themes relating to multilateralism, such as international trade, health, human rights and migration, non-proliferation and disarmament. Previously, Cerfa had participated in the Franco-German future dialogue, co-led with the DGAP from 2007 to 2020, and supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Daniel Vernet group (formerly the Franco-German Reflection Group) which was founded in 2014 upon the initiative of the Genshagen Foundation.
Security Studies Center
Heir to a tradition dating back to the founding of Ifri, the Security Studies Center provides public and private decision-makers as well as the general public with the keys to understanding power relations and contemporary modes of conflict as well as those to come. Through its positioning at the juncture of politics and operations, the credibility of its civil-military team and the wide distribution of its publications in French and English, the Center for Security Studies constitutes in the French landscape of think tanks a unique center of research and influence on the national and international defense debate.
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