“You should draw a line in the calendar for 2029!” Bundeswehr Inspector General Carsten Breuer advised young soldiers at the Command and Staff College, according to a July 12 Bild report. In just five years, the German military plans to be ready for a large-scale war. The incentive behind the rapid military build-up is fear of Russia.

Breuer estimates Russia will have around 1.5 million soldiers by 2029, twice as many as at the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine. Given Russia’s unsustainable war economy, Breuer believes 2029 will be Russia’s best chance to launch an attack. While this is seen as a “worst-case scenario,” Breuer notes, “we have to be prepared by then too!”

A ‘Secret Plan’

According to information obtained by Bild, there is already an Operation Plan Germany (officially: oplan deu), a secret document that outlines the path toward “robust, resilient and war-ready defense architecture.”

Commenting on these plans, Spiegel noted that Germany is prepared to move 800,000 troops and equipment from various allied countries within a short period of time. We don’t know all the details of the Bundeswehr’s plans and preparations, but what we do know shows preparations for a massive operation.

Spiegel’s “Secret Plan of the Bundeswehr: Going to War on the A2” states:

Within three to six months, 800,000 soldiers would have to be transported from North Sea ports in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany to the east. And with them presumably around 200,000 vehicles, heavy equipment, trucks, tanks on low-loaders, a column of around 13,000 kilometers in length. The A2 would be the first choice for this mammoth relocation. …

The federal and state governments and the Bundeswehr are working out further plans behind the scenes. It needs to be clarified “which traffic routes are to be used for transportation, which bridges are to be considered, and where rest areas are planned and how they need to be protected,” according to a Bundeswehr brochure.

The security of transport routes such as the A2 must be closely coordinated with the police and other civilian institutions. Convoys must be able to stop every 300 to 500 kilometers along the routes. Alternative routes are also needed if the main routes are no longer intact. Areas along rivers that may be needed as access routes for temporary bridges must be secured for this purpose.

Consider what the Bundeswehr envisions in five years’ time: a Russian military power and a German-European military power! The world has looked at the Ukraine conflict as Russia’s breaking point, but Germany is planning for a very different outcome.

For years, the Trumpet has warned that Germany won’t stand in the way of Russian military ambitions in Eastern Europe until Russia has already built an empire. One sign of this is that Germany’s military aid to Ukraine is set to almost halve next year, according to Germany’s 2025 budget. Interest from Russian assets are supposed to make up for these shortages.

Likewise, Russia keeps selling Germany cheap gas that allows it to build its empire. Both know that their dreams of empire cannot be achieved without the other’s support. At the same time, these two emerging empires are well aware of history and always fearful of what the other side might do. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explained in the July 2022 Trumpet:

These two nations are working to empower themselves and each other at the expense of Europe and the U.S.-led world order. Both want to tear down that order and build themselves into great empires! Those empires will inevitably clash, but for now it is in both Germany’s and Russia’s interest to weaken everyone else and strengthen themselves and each other. With this in mind, Germany’s duplicitous behavior is easy to understand.

Many are aware of Russia’s military ambitions but scoff at the forecast of a German military rise. Recently, J. D. Vance, Donald Trump’s vice president pick, wrote in the Financial Times: “Germany spends considerably more than France on defense each year, with little to show for it. The French Army includes six highly capable combined-arms brigades ready to deploy and perform combat missions, but the Bundeswehr can barely scrape together a single combat-ready brigade.”

This is true, but few are asking what Germany is doing with its military. We cannot assume that German leaders are thinking purely defensively or that they are wasting investments. Far from it. Germany’s entire industry has been designed for warfare, as World War ii showed us. Germany is preparing secretly to wage war—and not on its own. It is working toward building a European military force to unite the strengths of each country into a powerful juggernaut.

Financing a Military Empire

In February 2022, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced an additional €100 billion special fund to increase the nation’s military capabilities. These funds are almost completely contractually bound.

While official defense spending is not seeing the increase some demand, creative ways are being found to ensure German militarization. The Bundestag’s Budget Committee has approved additional projects worth €27 billion (us$29.3 billion), Handelsblatt reported on July 3: “However, funding has not yet been secured in the long term. The opposition speaks of a ‘loss of control.’” The recent purchases include 105 Leopard 2 battle tanks, 1,200 all-terrain trucks, 4 additional Patriot air defense systems, along with guided missiles and artillery shells.

Bild explained: “If it is up to the [current government] M.P.s on the defense committee, the billions for what they see as essential purchases should come not only from the current budget but also from future budgets. However, how exactly the funding will ultimately look is still completely open. This, in turn, is sharply criticized by the opposition.”

“The checks that were signed today must now be covered as a matter of urgency,” Green Party budget holder Sebastian Schäfer told Handelsblatt. This is putting pressure on Finance Minister Christian Lindner.

“[German Defense Minister Boris] Pistorius is blowing up the finance minister with bad checks for tanks and ammunition worth billions,” Florian Hahn, defense policy spokesman of the Christian Democrats, told Bild. “The Bundeswehr is happy, Lindner’s financial policy is disgraced, and the Free Democratic Party is losing its last core brand as a supposed bastion of budgetary reason.”

Germany is also making structural changes to its military and loosening restrictions on its military industry. It is not only stocking up on the familiar weaponry tested and proved in battle fields around the world, but also investing more and more into future-orientated capacities such as cyberwarfare, artificial intelligence and drones.

‘Fertile in Military Surprises’

Germany’s history isn’t marked by defensive warfare. Instead, as Winston Churchill put it, “Beware! Germany is a country fertile in military surprises.”

Its goal historically hasn’t been to build up impressive military fortifications; instead it is known for military surprises. Tens of millions died because Churchill’s warning was not heeded.

It’s worse today. There is no modern Churchill among our world leaders. Instead of being alarmed by these events, most Western leaders cheer Germany on. But the belief that the German eagle will rise to be a balance of power to the Russian bear is historically foolish. We are about to see the rise of two empires: an Asian alliance led by Russia and a European alliance led by Germany. So says Bible prophecy.

The Trumpet, like its predecessor magazine the Plain Truth under Herbert W. Armstrong, has repeatedly pointed to passages such as those in Ezekiel 38, Joel 2, Daniel 11, Revelation 9, 13 and 17 that speak of the rise of these empires. Revelation 13 specifically notes that the world will “wonder” at the military strength of this rising European empire and ask, “Who is able to make war with him?” (verse 4).

These empires will cause great havoc on Earth and will eventually clash in such a destructive way that Jesus Christ will have to return to put a stop to it (Matthew 24:21-22).

We don’t know when this clash will occur—in 2029 or maybe even earlier?—but the Bible does give the chronology of events and provides the only hope available to mankind. These prophecies are explained in our free booklet Russia and China in Prophecy.