Germany wants to make the military cool, with the help of a techno tank commander
T o the sound of a throbbing techno beat, Joshua Krebs, wearing full army fatigues, shades and ear defenders, cavorts on top of a tank. He gives the thumbs up as shots flash from the barrel in time to the music.
Krebs is a tank commander in the Bundeswehr. But he is also an important weapon in the German army's latest battle: to encourage men — and, increasingly, women — to sign up to combat the growing threat from the east. He is effectively a state-sponsored influencer, who pumps out videos under the moniker 'the cinematic sergeant' to convince young Germans that being in the army is, in fact, cool.
At a summit in the Hague last week Germany, along with Britain and its Nato allies, agreed to raise defence and related expenditure to 5 per cent of their gross domestic product by 2035. For all the celebration of a commitment to defence, the hundreds of billions of pounds pledged does not account for one huge question: where will Nato countries find sufficient young recruits to fire all the guns, drive the tanks and fly the drones the new money will buy?
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