Ministers from German junior coalition partner the Free Democrats (FDP) have criticized a new conscription model, including requiring young men to register for potential military service, put forward by German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.
In a letter to Pistorius on Tuesday, Finance Minister Christian Lindner and Justice Minister Marco Buschmann, both of the FDP, welcome the debate he has initiated on increasing military service.
However, they do not consider general conscription or compulsory service to be realistic for financial, economic and legal reasons.
Instead, the two politicians are in favour of increasing the attractiveness of the military profession and a stronger role for the reserves, they write in the letter made available to dpa.
"We are united by the goal of making the Bundeswehr one of the most modern and effective armies," the letter states. "We can and will only achieve this goal with the corresponding social acceptance. In our opinion, this excludes the reintroduction of general conscription or compulsory service."
Germany effectively abolished military conscription in 2011, although the country's law continues to allow for mandatory service in the event of war or other tensions.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has brought the German military's shortfalls into renewed focus and ignited a debate over reintroducing compulsory military service.
Pistorius presented plans for a new military service model in June designed to help fill the army's depleted ranks.
According to the plans, an initial 5,000 additional conscripts are intended to be recruited each year from 2025 onwards from the pool of 400,000 candidates in a given year, with more to follow.
The new model consists of basic military service of six months with an option for additional voluntary military service of up to an additional 17 months.
The two FDP ministers point out that structures would have to be established for a new general conscription or compulsory service, which would be a "lengthy and extremely cost-intensive process."
A new compulsory military service could also lead to considerable economic losses, as the ifo Institute for Economic Research determined in a brief expert report for the Finance Ministry.
"According to the ifo Institute's calculations, the annual obligation of a quarter of an age cohort as part of compulsory military service, that is around 195,000 people, would lead to a reduction in gross national income of €17.1 billion [$18.5 billion]."
Lindner and Buschmann also foresee legal challenges.
"Obliging small parts of a cohort to be conscripted or even to perform military service would inevitably raise questions about the fairness of military service," they wrote. In addition, this would represent a deep cut in the freedom and personal life planning of those affected, they said.
In order to solve the Bundeswehr's personnel problems, the two FDP politicians are instead focusing on making the armed forces an "even more attractive employer." The role of reservists should also be strengthened, they said.
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