In the wake of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, the geopolitical landscape of Europe has been turbulent, prompting countries to bolster their military capabilities and exposing fatal vulnerabilities in civil defense. On May 20th, the German Federal Cabinet officially approved a new civil defense plan called the “Population Protection Convention,” allocating 10 billion euros to comprehensively upgrade the civil defense system by 2029.
The German Federal Minister of the Interior, Alexander Dobrindt (Christian Social Union CSU), and the Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorius (Social Democratic Party SPD), jointly held a press conference on the afternoon of May 20th, announcing the 10 billion euro investment to upgrade the civil defense system by 2029.
This significant policy shift marks Germany’s largest defense strategy pivot since the end of the Cold War. Germany is bidding farewell to outdated Cold War-era shelters and is transforming modern spaces like subway stations, underground parking lots, and tunnels into rapid response shelters for wartime scenarios. However, despite this ambitious plan, there are criticisms within the German political sphere and among the public questioning the timing and the lack of an overarching strategy.
Compared to its Nordic neighbors, Germany’s civil defense status can be described as “riddled with holes.” For instance, Sweden established a dedicated “Minister of Civil Defense” starting in 2022, placing equal emphasis on rear crisis prevention alongside front-line military defense. Currently, Sweden has approximately 65,000 air-raid shelters nationwide, capable of accommodating 7 million people (with a total population of around 10.6 million). Finland is even more prepared, with nearly every private garden along its 1,340-kilometer border with Russia equipped with shelters. The country has 48,000 shelters able to accommodate 4.8 million out of its total population of 5.6 million.
In contrast, with a population of 83 million, Germany has only 579 public shelters that can accommodate around 478,000 people according to data from the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK). Many of these facilities are reported to be non-functional and unfit for use.
The root cause of this dire situation lies in the fact that both the Federal government and state governments largely abandoned the concept of air-raid shelters in 2007. Following the end of the Cold War, Germany believed that large-scale military conflicts were no longer possible. However, the sound of Russian artillery in Ukraine jolted Germany’s political landscape and citizens awake.
Benefiting from the recent relaxation of the “debt brake” restrictions, the German government has been able to exempt defense, civil defense, intelligence units, and cybersecurity from budget constraints. According to German media reports, this special 10 billion euro budget will be allocated to the following key areas:
1. Establishment of a “Civil Defense Headquarters”: The Ministry of the Interior will create a central command unit called the “Federal Civil Defense Command” (Kommando zivile Verteidigung), responsible for unifying and coordinating military and civil defense resources in times of “tension and defense readiness” against foreign military threats.
2. Upgrade of the “NINA” Emergency Alert App: This existing disaster notification software will undergo a major upgrade. In the future, it will not only issue alerts for air raids and disasters but also provide real-time guidance to the nearest shelters through geolocation.
3. Procurement of essential supplies: The plan includes purchasing at least 1,000 specialized civil defense vehicles, protective clothing, and up to 110,000 stackable flood and contingency beds by 2029.
The Minister of Defense, Pistorius, pointed out that it is unrealistic to build traditional air-raid shelters for the entire German population of over 80 million. The modern security environment requires a departure from 1980s thinking. Taking cues from the Ukrainian experience, utilizing digital guidance through apps and rapidly transforming public spaces like underground parking lots and tunnels into shelters is the most practical and efficient way to enhance home protection.
Despite the Interior Ministry’s vow to take civil defense seriously, the plan has immediately sparked numerous criticisms. The Ministry candidly admitted in its documents that the official tally of usable underground shelters and public refuge spaces nationwide is currently unknown, and the related “unified coordination concept” is still in the planning stage. This drew strong condemnation from Leon Eckert, a budget expert from the Green Party, who accused Interior Minister Dobrindt of blindly pouring large sums of money into an inefficient system without an overarching strategy.
Local governments responsible for frontline extreme disaster response are also highly discontented. Daniela Behrens, the Minister of the Interior for Lower Saxony, stated that local governments were not informed in advance, calling the initiative a communication failure. André Berghegger, the General Secretary of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, urged that if the central government expects localities to assume more civil defense responsibilities, it must provide long-term and sustainable funding instead of one-time budgets.
Christian Reuter, the Secretary-General of the German Red Cross (DRK), was even more outspoken, acknowledging the government’s willingness to address the issues but sharply criticizing the current efforts as “far from sufficient.” He stated that there is an actual lack of everything, from basic rescue equipment and essential medications to emergency shelters for displaced people.
While the government’s bureaucratic machinery is still being fine-tuned, civil society organizations are already taking action. The well-known Berlin organization “Berliner Unterwelten,” dedicated to preserving historical sites, announced plans to revamp two Cold War and World War II historical sites under its management into modern crisis shelters capable of accommodating approximately 2,000 citizens.
In comparison to Sweden, which distributed civil defense handbooks to 5 million households last year, conducted regular drills nationwide, and is set to implement a new Civil Defense Law on June 1st, Germany’s modernization of civil defense is just gaining momentum. The success of the 10 billion euro “Population Protection Convention” and its ability to plug the significant civil defense gaps in time for 2029 will test the determination and execution capabilities of the German authorities.