GoKawiilThe new military service law requires all men under 45 to seek approval from the Bundeswehr to leave the country for longer than three months. It also obliges the military career center to issue it.
A new military service law took effect in Germany at the start of 2026 aimed at boosting the strength of the armed forces amid threats to European security in the wake of Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine.
The legislation was contentious and many people even took to the streets to protest the potential reintroduction of mandatory military service — after conscription was suspended in 2011 — for men.
But another provision in the law has so far gone largely unnoticed.
It relates to a requirement for men between the ages of 18 and 46 to "obtain an approval from the relevant Bundeswehr Career Center if they wish to leave the Federal Republic of Germany for more than three months."
The Frankfurter Rundschau, which reported on the provision on Friday, said the rule would apply regardless of whether a German man "planned a semester of studying abroad, working in a foreign country or going on a backpacking trip around the world."
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What's the German military's take on it?
A Bundeswehr spokesperson confirmed the report, telling the DPA news agency that in the event of a war breaking out, the military needed to know how many men were living long-term outside the country.
While the law requires men to request the permit, the spokesperson clarified, it also obliges the military career center to issue it, if "no specific military service is expected during the period in question.”
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