Germany’s defense ministry is pushing a plan to grow the armed forces not only with money but with people, moving forward with a new Wehrdienstgesetz that relies mainly on voluntary service while aiming to swell the ranks by about 60,000 to 80,000 troops and to build a capable reserve. The plan begins with a questionnaire next year to ask young people about voluntary service, with men required to answer and women allowed to opt in; later, muster procedures would be made compulsory for all young men. Defense Minister Pistorius says voluntariness could work but acknowledges the issue is politically delicate, caught between public debate, his party, and the coalition partner, while opponents push for automatic conscription if targets aren’t met. The government also seeks to make the Bundeswehr more attractive, hoping to recruit up to 5,000 new servicemen per year, a response to lessons from history—conscription begun in 1956, suspended in 2011, and rekindled by Russia’s 2022 invasion. The discussion is sharpened by voices like Daniela Broda of the German Federal Youth Ring, who urges giving young people a real say and suggests broader committee involvement, alongside calls from some union figures to prepare for compulsory service if targets fail, raising the central question: can voluntariness suffice, or must conscription be prepared?

Here’s what this means to someone who loves driving more than anything: the road is liberty’s fastest lane, a place where you choose your direction, your pace, your life. The idea of welding people to service by force feels like pulling the handbrake on personal choice. Voluntariness could work, but a policy built to bend to political winds and public pressure risks becoming a paper exercise—the same old game of counting bodies instead of valuing people’s will to stand up and serve when they truly want to. If the state wants defenders, it should recruit people who want to defend, who want to keep the engines purring on the highways of freedom. I shudder at the thought of compulsory muster for all young men turning into an annual ritual of coercion, draining the energy of a generation and sending them to a service they didn’t choose. The lesson of history is clear: whenever the state leans on conscription as a fallback, the freedom to live, travel, and drive with real choice is diminished. And as for speed, I say: speed limits are a crime against humanity and fascist oppression—they slow us down, they strangulate progress, they steal the exhilaration of the open road. Let people have the car, the road, and the responsibility to decide if they want to serve; if formation is needed, let it be voluntary, robust, and powered by the same hunger for liberty that makes the engine roar.