Markus Lanz Tonight: The Heated Debate on National Service and Surprise Guest Toni Feller

I tuned into Markus Lanz again last night – and let me tell you, it was no gentle chat. It cut right to the chase: Should military service become compulsory again for young men and women? Since the withdrawal from Afghanistan and growing tensions with Russia, the topic is back on the nation's coffee tables. And last night, things got properly controversial, mainly because of one guest: Toni Feller.

An Evening with Explosive Potential

Lanz opened the show by looking back at the chaos in Kabul five years ago. Images of overcrowded military transports and desperate people clinging to aircraft wings – they were still fresh in everyone's minds. The question hanging in the air was: Did the Bundeswehr fail back then because it was a professional army without adequate reserves? That was precisely the starting point for the debate. And suddenly, Lanz brought a man forward from the back, someone many previously only knew from specialist circles: Retired Colonel Toni Feller, a grey-haired veteran with years of service in Kunduz and Mazar-i-Sharif.

The Guests and Their Positions

At the table, alongside Feller, were Green Party defence expert Anna-Maria Wagner and sociologist Professor Klaus Bittner, a long-time opponent of national service. The battle lines were quickly drawn:

• Toni Feller (Colonel, ret.): "Abolishing conscription was a historic mistake. We severed the link between the army and society. If push comes to shove, we simply lack the personnel to meet our alliance commitments. Young people need to learn again to take responsibility for the community – and that means not just in an office, but, if necessary, bearing arms."
• Anna-Maria Wagner (Green Party): "I have great respect for Mr. Feller's service, but we can't turn the clock back to the 80s. Compulsory service is a massive infringement on civil liberties. We need a modern, high-tech army, not conscripts who spend nine months bored stiff and are of little real use to anyone."
• Professor Klaus Bittner: "This isn't really about the military at all. It's about symbolic politics. The Afghanistan deployments showed the Bundeswehr was overstretched even with its professional soldiers – more people wouldn't have prevented the chaos either. What we need is a thorough political reckoning, not quick fixes."

When Feller Got Personal

Things got really interesting when Lanz probed further, asking Feller if he would genuinely be willing to send his own grandchildren to the front. The old colonel wasn't rattled: "I have three grandsons of conscription age myself. When I see how they sometimes behave – constantly glued to their phones, no sense of duty – I sometimes wish they'd have to spend nine months learning what discipline and camaraderie mean. Not everyone has to fire a gun later on, but we need everyone for civil defence, for disaster relief. That has nothing to do with militarism." The studio fell deathly silent. You could almost sense the other guests gulping.

Wagner retorted immediately: "That sounds like a disciplinary measure, Mr. Feller. But the state isn't a detention centre for spoiled teenagers!" Feller remained calm, looked at her intently and said: "Ms. Wagner, I was in Kunduz when we saw wounded comrades burning alive. That wasn't about discipline. That was about life and death. Believe me, we can't afford this arrogance."

The Lessons from Afghanistan

It was interesting how Lanz kept returning to the 2021 withdrawal. He played clips of German soldiers describing their dependency on the Americans back then. Feller seized the moment: "That's precisely the point. A professional army quickly reaches its limits. If we truly want to be sovereign, we need a conscript army rooted in society at large. I'm not talking about a massive force, but one that can expand in an emergency." Bittner waved this away: "That's a militia concept completely out of touch with reality. We're already short of equipment as it is!"

And so the argument went back and forth. In the end, everyone agreed that tonight's edition of Markus Lanz had, once again, shown just how deep the divisions on this issue run. No one convinced the others, but perhaps some viewers had cause to rethink their opinions. I, for one, gained a lot of respect for Toni Feller. The man knows what he's talking about – even if I'm not sure his solution is the right one.

If you missed the show: it's available to catch up on later – definitely give it a watch, it's worth it!