As Ukrainians – including many that didn’t have military training before Russia tried to take Kyiv in February 2024 – defend their country with weapons, most Germans surveyed in a recent poll said they’re unlikely to be willing to do the same.

The Forsa poll for Stern magazine comes following remarks from Defense Minister Boris Pistorius that Germany needs to become ‘war-ready’ to deal with the threat posed by Russia in Europe.

The survey found that only 17 percent of Germans would ‘definitely’ be prepared to pick up a weapon to defend the country.

Another 19 percent said they would ‘probably’ be ready to do this. Some 61 percent said they’re unlikely to be prepared to do so and 40 percent said they definitely would not pick up a weapon in Germany’s defence for any reason.

Within the survey, men were far more likely than women to say they’re prepared to defend Germany with weapons, with around 40 percent aged 45 to 59 saying yes.

Regular voters for the far-right AfD were the most likely to be prepared to use weapons in national self-defence at 28 percent of respondents, followed by Green party voters at nine percent.

People were also less likely to say they would defend Germany with a weapon themselves the higher their educational qualifications are, the survey revealed.

This compared to other surveys which found that around 30 percent of either French or Brits are willing to take up arms to defend their country, while around half of Poles and 75 percent of Finns were willing to do so.

Many similar surveys asked if people in these countries would be willing to help in other ways, such as volunteering for relief efforts. Often the responses to these questions were more positive.

Recent surveys have also found that most Germans support delivering weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself.

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