Nazi legacy complicates Germany’s efforts to fight Russian drones
Postwar constitutional provisions meant to keep the German military out of domestic affairs leave the country more vulnerable to the Kremlin’s incursions.
The German constitution, adopted in the shadow of World War II, explicitly prevents the military
from taking a key role in the country’s internal security. | Sean Gallup/Getty Images
BERLIN — Germany’s military can’t simply shoot drones in the country’s domestic airspace out of the sky — and much of the reason has to do with protections put in place to avoid a repeat of the country’s Nazi past.
The German constitution, adopted in the shadow of World War II, explicitly prevents the military, or Bundeswehr, from taking a key role in the country’s internal security.
That’s because those who drafted it were mindful of how German military power had been historically abused by the Nazis and their enablers in domestic politics to target left-wing political forces.
But today, amid what appears to be an escalating campaign by the Kremlin to test Europe with a flurry of drone incursions, those constitutional protections are having an unintended side effect: They limit Germany’s ability to defend itself from Moscow’s provocations.
“We need to amend the laws so that the only ones able to take care of this — namely the Bundeswehr — are also given the authority to do so,” Thomas Röwekamp, the chair of the defense committee in the German Bundestag and a member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative bloc, told POLITICO.
While the Bundeswehr is theoretically able to pick up arms domestically in the event of a major invasion, the drone incursions thus far don’t qualify as sufficiently grave attacks, according to legal experts. The Bundeswehr, based on current law, is only able to shoot down drones over military bases.
There’s no evidence that any of the drones that have recently entered German airspace carried weapons. Yet the Kremlin does appear to be using the drones for espionage, according to German authorities. Last year there were reports of unexplained drone sightings over facilities belonging to arms manufacturer Rheinmetall and chemicals group BASF.
Germany’s police have the legal right to shoot down such drones if deemed necessary, but they don’t have the technical capability. “The federal police, and also almost all state police forces, currently have no capabilities whatsoever for drone defense,” said defense committee chair Röwekamp. 
Its forces can, for example, help identify drones or pass on information if requested — as happened recently when drones were spotted over Munich Airport. | Armin Weigel/Picture Alliance via Getty Images
The military has more of those capabilities, but is largely unable to act due in large part to the country’s history.
In Imperial Germany and in the pre-World War II Weimar Republic, the German army “was deployed frequently and ruthlessly, usually to strike Social Democrats and left-wing governments,” said public law professor Kathrin Groh of the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. “A repeat of such measures had to be avoided in the 1949 constitution, which is why we have these strict rules for the Bundeswehr today.”
Adapting to a ‘new reality’
That puts German leaders in a bind as they struggle to respond to the Kremlin’s provocations.Currently, the Bundeswehr can only provide what the constitution calls “administrative assistance” in defending against drones. Its forces can, for example, help identify drones or pass on information if requested — as happened recently when drones were spotted over Munich Airport.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt plans to set up a drone defense unit within the federal police and establish a national drone defense center that allows police, intelligence authorities and the military to pool resources. The minister also intends to push through a law that would allow the military to shoot down drones in German airspace in the event lives are deemed at risk.
The constitutionality of such a law, however, remains uncertain.
If Dobrindt expects more than the military’s “administrative assistance,” the matter “will end up before the constitutional court,” said Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, a German politician who chairs the Security and Defense Committee in the European Parliament.
This is where things get particularly thorny for Merz’s relatively weak coalition of center-right conservatives and center-left Social Democrats. Due to the rise of the political fringes, including the far-right Alternative for Germany party, Merz has one of the weakest majorities in Germany’s postwar history — and is far from possessing the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution.
This risks leaving Germany relatively defenseless against the Kremlin’s drone incursions for the foreseeable future — or at least until its police develop the capacity to strike them.
Things get particularly thorny for Friedrich Merz’s relatively weak coalition of center-right conservatives and center-left Social Democrats. | Michael Kappeler/Getty Images
But the only durable solution, say some, is to change Germany’s constitution to allow the military to take a more active role domestically.
“The world has changed and there is no longer any distinction between internal and external security anywhere,” said Röwekamp. “Looking ahead, we must adapt our constitutional provisions to reality.”
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