Germany's Territorial Resilience Architecture Remains Incomplete

Abstract

Germany’s official security discourse has increasingly embraced the concept of integrated security. The 2023 National Security Strategy, the Operational Plan for Germany, the institutionalisation of Heimatschutz, the Bundeswehr reserve network, and the country’s strong voluntary civil-protection culture all point in the same direction: security is increasingly understood as a whole-of-state and whole-of-society problem. Yet Germany’s territorial resilience architecture remains incomplete. Its main pillars exist, but they still operate under different institutional logics. Heimatschutz is a state-military layer; the reserve links military and civilian structures; voluntary civil protection is a civic and technical response system; and the hunting community represents a legally regulated, territorially rooted civilian layer outside the official security architecture. Germany’s existing security pillars require clearer legal roles, operational procedures, and coordination mechanisms before a major crisis tests them.