Constitutional Defence Act

© Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin Protest against the rearmament: „Women and mothers! Don't forget the horrors of the last war! Say: No to rearmament! Say: Yes to negotiation and understanding“

On 26 February 1954 the German Federal Diet passes the „Constitutional Defence Act“. Its premise is to prepare the organisation of a German army. This „rearmament“ of the Federal Republic of Germany as a contribution to the Western democracies’ defence readiness leads to controversy both at home and abroad. At the Potsdam Conference in August of 1945 – before the East-West conflict (Cold War) came about – the victors of the Second World War had decided to completely demilitarise Germany. Many German men swore of their own accord never to take up arms again („Ohne-mich movement“). Now the Federal Republic is slated to become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance founded in 1949, in which the Bundeswehr – unlike the allied armed forces – is to be subject to NATO’s supreme command even in times of peace. Two years later, in 1956, the first Bundeswehr soldiers will move into their barracks.