There are no surprises here.

The increasing deployment of the Bundeswehr in foreign theaters of conflict was always going to inevitably lead to an expansion of Germany’s military forces. Now the German High Command is calling for just such an initiative from the government.

Germany’s return from abject defeat and complete removal of all military power following World War ii, to its current position of a world power possessing significant military clout, has been very carefully managed—managed in a manner so as not to stir memories of the nation’s traditional militancy and its past effects on the world.

The careful diplomacy that has accompanied the regeneration of German militancy has taken place over decades. This has been done with the full endorsement and encouragement of the Allied powers that defeated that nation 70 years ago and vowed that they would never let it ever pose a threat to humankind again.

The Balkan wars of the 1990s, stimulated by Germany and Rome bilaterally recognizing Croatia and Slovenia as sovereign nations separate from greater Yugoslavia, opened up Germany’s gateway to the Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa. This is the region where German troops have increasingly deployed over the past 12 years. It is so consistent with the prediction of end-time prophecy that a northern power would stretch its imperial focus and presence south and east and eventually into Jerusalem (Daniel 8:9).

The turmoil in northern Africa is spurring German elites on in their urgent efforts to expand their nation’s military power.

The latest catalyst is Mali. “After the start of the German mission in the war in Mali, prominent politicians from the government parties and opposition demand the enhancement of German military activities” (German-Foreign-Policy.com, January 21; translation ours throughout).

Norbert Lammert, president of the Bundestag, has stated that the deployment of German transport planes to aid in the French mission in Mali could be at best “a first demonstrative signal” of a stronger military presence to be yet offered by Germany. Both the opposition Social Democratic Party and the Greens have also stated that the federal government must do “significantly more.”

Noting that observers warn that France, with regard to its handling of the war, possibly got caught “in a conflict that is a size too big” for them, Germany-Foreign-Policy.com says that Berlin is trying to use the war to strengthen its own influence in the West African countries dominated by France (ibid).

The public statements by both government representatives and opposition members are entirely consistent with a recent report by German-Foreign-Policy.com indicating that “the Bundeswehr has recently focused the orientation of its history and social scientific research on the immediate needs of warfare” (January 18).

German-Foreign-Policy.com cites that “the most recent expression of this development is the fusion of the Military Historical Research Office (mgfa) with the Social Scientific Institute of German Armed Forces (SoWi) and the furnishing of the new body with a specific ‘Departmental Mission’” (ibid). The body will be called the “Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr” (ZMSBw).

Of the deepest concern is the declared mission of this body, in reality a top-brass German military intelligence unit. Its stated mission is to “occupy itself with the transformation of the German Army into a global acting intervention and occupying force and develop strategies for combat in zones where rebel action is extant. It will—as part of the espionage and propaganda apparatus of the armed forces—evaluate ‘missions and war experience’ with regard to future force operations” (ibid).

But the ZMSBw has also an additional vital propaganda role.

It is tasked with a brief to build a bridge and perform a mediating function between science, the armed forces and the public. The stated reason for this is that “the social conflict on ‘war and battle’ in Germany, after and before the National Socialist [Nazi] history stamped a ‘reflex-like fear of a militarization in German politics’” (ibid). The time has come, in the eyes of German elites, to change that public mindset.

Following decades of using the European Union as a cloak to hide their imperialist ambitions, German elites are now activating the apparatus that—using the North African conflicts as the excuse—will not only expand their military role in combat. They are ready to fine tune the public mind to the need to support Germany to once again demonstrate its military prowess.

For the third time in a century, we are observing the rise of German militarism. That the results, third time around, will be even more horrific than the previous two occasions, must be taken as a given.

That we will need an even greater vision of hope than we had amid the past two global conflicts to emerge sane and sound from its effects ought to be obvious to any student of history and especially of Bible prophecy for our times.

There is such a vision available to you which will carry you through every diversity, if only you will yield your life to your Maker, in complete submission to Him in every aspect of your life. We call it the key of David vision. It’s freely available to you in booklet form under that title. Why not accept the challenge and read it for yourself?

In a very short period of time this world will be crying out for such a vision. What is happening in Germany today is a giant harbinger of that.