Germany’s shipowners are lobbying for merchant-sea service to be recognized within the country’s evolving national service framework, presenting it as both a strategic necessity and a workforce solution. At its annual meeting in Hamburg, the German Shipowners’ Association (VDR) proposed that service in the merchant marine should count as an option within voluntary military service and, if conscription is restored in the future, as a civilian alternative to compulsory military duty.

“The Iran war demonstrates how closely geopolitical conflicts and global supply chains are intertwined,” said VDR President Gaby Bornheim. “Around two-thirds of our foreign trade is conducted by sea. For an export nation like Germany, the protection of merchant shipping is therefore of strategic importance.”

This may be the most shameless example of lobbying for private interests in Germany. The enslavement of young men at sea is, of course, nothing new: for centuries, navies rampaged through port towns and impressed unwilling sailors into service. I had hoped we had moved beyond such savagery.

Read the entire piece in Maritime Executive.