December 2025
Life in an “Armored Republic”
The following article is translated from Permanente Revolution No. 8, Winter 2025-26.
The NATO exercise “Red Storm Bravo,” conducted in Hamburg from September 25 to 29, was intended to test cooperation between the German Armed Forces and the police, fire department and disaster control forces. According to a detailed article in the Wall Street Journal (27 November 2025) on “Germany’s Secret Plan for War with Russia”, the exercise was part of a plan contained in a 1,200-page document titled “Operations Plan Germany”, or OPLAN DEU for short. The newspaper reported:
“The scenario was a miniature OPLAN in action: 500 NATO troops would land in the port to form a convoy of 65 vehicles headed eastward through the city….
“Disembarking at sunset … the camouflaged soldiers assembled silently on the dock, helicopters circling overhead. Shortly before midnight, the convoy departed for the city.
“Then things began to go off-script…. [A] black drone buzzing overhead caused a brief commotion before someone radioed in confirmation that it was the Bundeswehr’s.“Then, protesters jumped from bushes and glued themselves to the tarmac ahead of the vehicles. The incident was part of the drill and the demonstrators were reservists…. The police … turned out not to have the solvents needed to unglue the mock protesters.“It took two hours for the vehicles to restart. By then, it was early morning and the convoy had traveled all of 6 miles.”So in a plan for war with Russia, the exercise deals with demonstrators in Germany. They are practicing for war at home.
NATO maneuver Red Storm Bravo, Hamburg, September 2025. (Photo: Tobias Schwarz / AFP)It was not the only exercise. Next came “Marshal Power” in Bavaria from October 22 to 29 (2025), which deployed 500 military police who were to coordinate with 300 “civilian emergency personnel.” According to the scenario, it was a fictional NATO alliance case in which a NATO country was attacked by an “authoritarian aggressor,” and therefore Germany was to send soldiers to the east. Here we have the culmination of the demonization of opponents of war as “Russian agents.”
“According to the Bundeswehr, the task forces are to train for action against threats behind a fictitious front line, in the so-called ‘rear area’ – for example, against drones, sabotage, or so-called ‘irregular forces.’ This refers to armed fighters who are not part of a state army. The scenario assumed is one in which a NATO member state is attacked and the alliance must be defended.”–Die Welt, 23 October 2025This time, as well, the exercise went wrong when a police officer, unaware of what was happening on the ground, fired live ammunition at a soldier and injured him (BR24, 27 October), causing considerable disruption in the 3,000 square mile exercise area northeast of Munich.
NATO maneuver Marshal Power, Bavaria, October 2025. (Photo: Bundeswehr)And finally there was, “Bollwerk Bärlin III” from November 17 to 21 in Berlin. This involved the Guard Battalion, tasked with defending the federal government. Here, they entered a tunnel at the Jungfernheide subway station for an “underground firefight” and “a prolonged battle with armed irregular forces” Süddeutsche Zeitung, 20 November). They also trained at the abandoned chemical plant in Rüdersdorf, and at the “Fighting City” police training ground in Ruhleben, practicing urban and house-to-house combat and securing against ‘saboteurs.’ Turns out, the “Eastern Front” is everywhere!
The maneuvers carried out this fall to test Germany’s capabilities as a “hub” clearly reveal the intentions of the ruling class. The exact content of the Bundeswehr’s Oplan Deutschland (“Operation Plan Germany”) remains secret, but it is reflected in the “Green Paper” Civil-Military Cooperation 4.0 in Military Crises (January 2025), written by six current and former members of parliament (including André Hahn of the Left Party). The Green Paper shows no interest in the deterioration of physical infrastructure, but rather in breaking people’s resistance to militarization. Here, the famous “hybrid warfare” reappears in the demand for “modernization of laws” in order to enforce “more effective punishment.”
The media are now pushing for a debate on declaring a “state of tension,” a precursor to a “state of defense” under the emergency laws introduced in 1968 by a previous SPD-CDU “grand coalition” to allow the deployment of the Bundeswehr within Germany. This triggered huge demonstrations and resistance from workers, who were then betrayed by the SPD and trade-union bureaucrats. On 12 November 2025, foreign and military policy advisor Roderich Kiesewetter (CDU) proposed declaring a state of tension under the pretext of a threat from “Russian drones”. This alone would introduce conscription and the requisitioning of civilians, means of transport and entire companies for military purposes.
The government’s tactic of introducing conscription gradually but relentlessly (see “School Strike: No Cannon Fodder for German Imperialism” in this issue) is somewhat at odds with such a precipitous approach. But “Germany’s role as a hub could make the ASG [Employment Security Act – a supplement to the emergency laws] particularly important,” says a former officer in a commentary piece by the German Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies (GIDS), who considered the 1968 provisions for the requisitioning of civilians to be too limited. Even those who are unsuitable as soldiers are to be obliged to help the military.
The ultimate goal of the bourgeoisie, today as in 1968, is to ban strikes, increase the pool of forced laborers, and prepare the army for civil war. In this context, medical care will also be targeted in preparation for a crisis. Hospitals and clinics would be privatized or closed, and nursing staff drastically reduced. But money from the special fund is to be spent, for example, on bunkers, material storage, and the construction of bed capacity for wartime. The government is planning a “health security law.” Once again, this is emergency legislation and forced recruitment in the event of “tension.”
Nadja Rakowitz from the Association of Democratic Doctors describes the horror of these cold-blooded measures:
“We find it particularly worrying that ‘reverse triage’ is being considered: military personnel are to be given priority over civilian patients so that they can quickly return to the front line.... In this context, the Berlin Framework Plan addresses the issue of letting ‘hopeless’ patients die. The arrival of acutely ill people from nursing homes in emergency rooms is identified as a disruptive factor. Consideration is being given to discontinuing or postponing medically necessary elective procedures such as hip operations in the longer term. To obscure the issue, it is said that individualized medicine must be converted to disaster medicine. However, the goal is to subject medical care to military criteria.”–“What Does the Bundeswehr Want from Hospitals?” Junge Welt, 12 November 2025The goal of all this cruelty, which is being presented as planning for a hypothetical war, is to get people to not be “soft-hearted” and to ration dwindling healthcare resources. CDU “health policy expert” Hendrik Streeck, with his infamous statements – such as “Health is not an all-inclusive service provided by the state,” “Not everything that is medically possible is also sensible,” etc. – is just a slightly overzealous pioneer.
We are seeing provocation upon provocation: “It is too easy to get sick leave in Germany,” says Britta Seeger, head of human resources at Mercedes-Benz (Handelsblatt, 20 December 2025). The title of the interview: “Ms. Seeger, Are Employees Too Lazy?” Tesla in Brandenburg is notorious for its relentless crackdown on workers who get sick. The campaign against “slackers” has now reached companies where workers should actually be protected by unions. There were over 500 dismissals at Volkswagen for “misconduct” in the first half of 2025. But the VW works council kept silent. This deeply intrusive interference in workers’ daily lives is made possible by the complete capitulation of the union bureaucracy.
All these exercises focused on “civil-military cooperation,” in particular joint action by the Bundeswehr with fire departments, technical assistance agencies, and police, but also with authorities, including the Federal Employment Agency, port authorities, and various companies. It is precisely for this purpose that the German Institute for Defence and Strategic Studies is developing proposals to expand the pool of compulsory laborers. But mobilizing the social power of the dockworkers (which was evident in the defeat of the police during the July 2022 harbor workers strike in Hamburg) could nip this provocation in the bud. And determined resistance on the part of healthcare workers and metalworkers can nullify these anti-human, strikebreaking powers. Above all, this requires fighting for a class-struggle leadership against bureaucrats and reformists who bow to capitalist war logic. ■
