The German military has a reality show and it’s actually awesome

Eric Milzarski
Feb 4, 2020 5:24 PM PST
1 minute read
The German military has a reality show and it’s actually awesome

SUMMARY

The modern German Armed Forces, the Bundeswher, are more or less the pioneers of good ideas within NATO. The H&K G36 is a beautiful rifle, beards are encouraged in the service, they promote drinking beer during ruck marches, and, more r…

The modern German Armed Forces, the Bundeswher, are more or less the pioneers of good ideas within NATO. The HK G36 is a beautiful rifle, beards are encouraged in the service, they promote drinking beer during ruck marches, and, more recently, they started an official YouTube series that showcases the lives of their troops.


Writer's Note: Bear in mind, the episodes are in German, so you'll need to turn the subtitles/CC on and, in settings, turn the text to "Auto-translate: English" to understand what's going on.

Starting last year with the show Die Rekruten, or The Recruits, the show follows the lives of twelve recruits as they enter training and, eventually, as they move on with their career. The recruits are from each branch of the Bundeswher and the series gives viewers a taste of what's to be expected from a life in the service. Die Rekruten ran almost daily for over three months. After the recruits graduated and moved on to their unit, they were each given what's essentially a where-are-they-now special.

 

(YouTube | Bundeswehr Exclusive)

 

After Die Rekruten was over, the official Bundeswher YouTube channel transitioned into a spotlight for deployed German troops. Along with troops in Afghanistan, Germany also has a large contingent of deployed troops in Mali in support of the Global War on Terror.

The Mali series began by following soldiers as they were deployed and finished last month with the troops returning back to Germany in time for the holidays.

 

(YouTube | Bundeswher Exclusive)

 

Germany has always held up its end of the NATO bargain, falling shy of only the United Kingdom in NATO military spending, troops, equipment, and vehicles. However, with each year, their number of active duty troops shrinks. The reality shows are an attempt to recuperate those losses.

The idea behind the YouTube channel was to raise recruitment in the post-conscription era by showing troops as ordinary people doing extraordinary things. When mandatory conscription was abolished six years ago, recruitment numbers plummeted. The channel is relatively cheap to maintain and has since become Germany's most successful social media project to date.

 

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