Militarization of the state education sector in Bavaria

A role model for other federal states?

Bavaria passes Germany’s first law to promote the Bundeswehr
and obliges schools and universities to cooperate more closely with the Bundeswehr

A guest article by Rolf Gössner

I. The new “Act on the Promotion of the Bundeswehr in Bavaria”, which was passed by the Bavarian state parliament in mid-July 2024, requires Bavarian universities and schools to cooperate more closely with the Bundeswehr.

Public opposition in the run-up: The German Peace Society DFG-VK, trade unions, school and university members and numerous public figures warned against the adoption of the law in advance and announced a constitutional review. (Critics of Bavaria’s Bundeswehr Act threaten legal action, Süddeutsche Zeitung/Zeit-online, dpa July 10, 2024). More than 1,500 people – including singer-songwriter Konstantin Wecker, theologian Dr. Margot Käßmann, labour law expert Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Däubler, former IG Metall boss Jürgen Peters and civil rights activist, lawyer and publicist Dr. Rolf Gössner – signed a petition against the law. Among other things, they fear that its implementation will lead to a “militarization of the education and research sector”. According to the Bavarian Education and Science Union (GEW), the new Federal Armed Forces Promotion Act “disproportionately interferes with the autonomy of universities and thus with the freedom of research and science” and “violates the freedom of conscience at schools”.

II. The law passed by the Bavarian state parliament on July 17, 2024 actually regulates serious encroachments on constitutional and fundamental rights:

1. of colleges, universities and research institutions: The Bundeswehr Support Act is intended to ensure “smooth cooperation” and “unhindered access for the Bundeswehr to research and development at universities”. The wording of the law is as follows: “Research results may also be used for military purposes of the Federal Republic of Germany or NATO allies” and: “A restriction of research to civilian uses (civil clause) is not permissible”. This is because, as the explanatory memorandum states, civil clauses are “not acceptable in view of the existing security challenges”; after all, the aim is to “secure the research and scientific potential of Bavarian universities for the benefit of military research and development” as well.

2. State schools: All state schools are to work more closely with “youth officers” and “career advisors from the Bundeswehr” “as part of political education” and on “issues of security and defense policy”, including “professional orientation on career and deployment opportunities” in the Bundeswehr. Previously, schools and teachers were able to decide for themselves whether to include the Bundeswehr in social studies lessons; now it is practically compulsory. This impairs the freedom of conscience of the students, who are thus influenced in a one-sided way. And it promotes a worrying trend: in the last five years, the Bundeswehr has recruited almost 8,000 minors nationwide and trained them in weapons (with the consent of the legal guardians) – with a recent upward trend. And this despite the fact that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child calls for a recruitment age of over 18 years, i.e. the age of majority, (FR 26.07.2024) in order to exclude the recruitment of child soldiers.

3. Obligation to cooperate in the national security interest: In addition to a general requirement to cooperate, the law explicitly stipulates that schools, colleges and universities are obliged to cooperate in the “interest of national security”.

III. The explanatory memorandum states that it is the “task of the state” to “prepare our society for the fundamentally changed security situation”, which has an impact on almost all areas of life. The state must also “contribute within the framework of its (regulatory) powers to strengthening the Bundeswehr, to shaping the framework conditions for the fulfillment of the tasks of the Bundeswehr and the stationed armed forces in the best possible way, and to strengthening the support of the population for our soldiers”. This is obviously in line with the military “turning point” proclaimed by the federal government and the state’s efforts to make the Bundeswehr fully “socially acceptable” and “fit for war”. And in fact, the Federal Ministry of Education is already planning to have the military advertise even more intensively in schools and to open up universities to military and arms research to a greater extent.

IV. It is highly likely that the Bavarian “Law on the Promotion of the Bundeswehr” will disproportionately and unconstitutionally interfere with academic and research freedom and the autonomy of Bavarian universities, as well as promote the militarization of schools and science, of teaching and research. Therefore, the Bavarian Constitutional Court must be involved in the constitutional review of this military promotion law as soon as possible.

Author: Dr. Rolf Gössner
Photo in header and in post image: Fritz Bauer Forum | BUXUS STIFTUNG, photographer: Richard Lensit; photo of “The Visitor” by the artist Angela Schilling in the exhibition to mark the opening of the Fritz Bauer Library, August 2023.
Contact: info@ifbb.fritz-bauer-forum.de