Current surveys show: Approval of higher defense spending in Germany is growing. However, there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of security policy communication.
Germany has earmarked over 60 billion euros for defense in 2025. The scale of this investment marks not only a political, but also a cultural turning point. What was long considered a marginal issue has now become a touchstone of social self-assurance. Current surveys show broad support for higher spending, but also growing skepticism about its concrete implementation.
According to a survey by the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr the increase in the defense budget. Even more interesting is the dynamic: a Civey survey commissioned by Fink & Fuchs shows that 40 percent of citizens have become more positive about their attitude towards defense investments in the past twelve months, while only 20 percent have become more critical. The conclusion: the willingness to accept security policy as necessary is growing.
However, approval alone is not enough to secure long-term legitimacy. Almost half of those surveyed are convinced that the German government is not taking the right steps to actually improve its defense capabilities. This discrepancy reveals a crucial point: it is not just about billions of euros, but about the question of how politics and industry explain their actions and make them transparent. Visible progress is in short supply, trust remains an advance.
77% of Germans would like more detailed information about where the money is going, be it into cyber security, infrastructure or traditional armaments. 67 percent also demand more openness from companies in the sector. Alexandra Groß, CEO of the Fink & Fuchs agency, speaks of fragile support that will only last if politics and business can clearly show how investments work. According to her diagnosis, communication is not an accessory, but the key.
This gives companies a special responsibility. Not only large corporations, but also medium-sized companies and young defense tech start-ups in particular are faced with the task of making their role in the interweaving of security, innovation and social responsibility clear. Those who remain silent leave the field to prejudice. Those who speak create trust. Even at your own location.
This makes communication itself a dimension of sovereignty. German defense policy is at a historic turning point. A political course can only become a social consensus if there is continuous, transparent and credible communication of what is happening and why. In the end, it is not just the level of expenditure that determines acceptance, but the ability to justify this expenditure in a comprehensible way to a democratic public.
This process is of direct relevance to Austria, which has traditionally invoked its neutrality. The question of how societies relate to security policy also concerns the debate on European responsibility, strategic autonomy and the role of small states in the area of tension between self-assertion and the ability to form alliances. Germany’s communication deficits are therefore more than just a national problem: they shed light on the central challenge of not only organizing security, but also explaining it.
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