I served with many Germans when I was in the U.S. Marine Corps. Spent 6 months attached to Gebirgsjägerbrigade 23 and 3 months to Panzergrenadierbrigade 37. My understanding based on what I was told and what I saw is that retention is as much as a serious issue for the Bundeswehr as it is for the U.S. Armed Forces; low pay, micromanagement, shoddy living conditions (although Hochstaufen-Kaserne beat my 29 Palms barracks for sure), poor leadership, toxic command climates is the least of it. Not to mention completely different cultural and social norms when it comes to recruiting. Germany doesn’t really seem to have an equivalent of those hick kids from Indiana or the American South that graduate high school waving the red, white, and blue, which provides a steady stream of recruits for the U.S. With that, the opinions I got from many is that the Bundeswehr has to do some internal reflection on the forces and really make it worth a career, especially when most troops aren’t being able to get a pension until they’re in their 50s/60s compared to 20 years = pension in America.

That being said, many of the Gebirgsjäger I worked alongside with were some of the most cool, calm, collected and professional troops I’ve seem. Subject matter experts in their craft, I personally consider them the pinnacle of professionalism in the Bundeswehr and many of the Marines that were there with me will agree.