Germany has been a vital part of the United States' defense strategy in Europe since the end of World War II, when American forces were part of a ten-year Allied occupation of the country.
Although the number of troops has since declined significantly, the US military still has a significant presence in Germany, with American military communities forming around several German cities over the past decades.
The total number of US military personnel has increased significantly in recent years – from less than 39.000 in 2019 to more than 50.000 in 2024. The only other country where the US maintains a comparable number of overseas troops is Japan.
The United States has deployed more troops to Europe since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, with some units deployed to bases further east, in Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. The US military currently has about 10.000 troops stationed at its garrison in Poland, and an additional 2.600 in the Black Sea region, at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in Romania, and the Novo Selo training center in Bulgaria. These troops are rotated regularly.
US European Command is in Germany
The strategic importance of Germany to the US is also evident in the fact that the headquarters of the US European Command (EUCOM) is in Stuttgart in the southwest of the country. It is the coordination structure for all US military forces in as many as 51 countries, mostly European.
European Command describes its mission as protecting the United States by deterring conflict, supporting partnerships such as NATO, and countering transnational threats. It commands the U.S. Army in Europe, the U.S. Air Force in Europe, and the U.S. Marine Corps in Europe and Africa, all of which are based in Germany.
Germany is home to five of the seven US Army garrisons in Europe (the other two are in Belgium and Italy), and the US Army Europe headquarters is located in the garrison in Wiesbaden, a city near Frankfurt.
Data provided to DW by the US military shows that the five garrisons, each made up of different components and in different locations, currently comprise around 29.000 military personnel. That number includes US Marine Forces Europe and Africa, which is headquartered in Böblingen, southwest Germany, and is part of the US Army Garrison in Stuttgart.
In addition, around 13.000 US Air Force personnel are deployed at various locations in Germany, primarily at two US Air Force bases – Ramstein and Spangdahlem.
The official response from the government in Berlin to a question posed in 2023 by the opposition Left party showed that the German state also contributes to the costs of maintaining US and NATO forces in the country. And the amount is growing. In 2020, the latest year for which the government provided data, Germany contributed 108 million euros to support foreign allied troops on its soil – compared to 100 million euros the year before.
US military in Germany – more than just troops
Because the U.S. military also employs American civilians to work in Germany, and soldiers can sometimes bring their families with them abroad, significant American civilian communities have formed around some bases in Germany. In fact, some American bases, such as the one near Ramstein, are virtually small towns, with their own American shopping malls, schools, postal services, and police forces. Sometimes the only legal tender there is the U.S. dollar.
The largest example of this is the US Army Garrison "Bavaria" in Grafenwörth, near the Czech border. It is the largest overseas US military base in the world, both in terms of population and area - it covers more than 97.000 hectares (390 square kilometers).
Military bases also often employ a lot of local people, and when some of the facilities were closed, such as the Bamberg garrison in 2014, it had a major impact on the local economy.
Although Germany has “explicitly renounced nuclear weapons,” as Chancellor Friedrich Merz reiterated last year, the country has had US nuclear weapons stationed in the country since the 1950s, as part of NATO operations. The exact number of US nuclear weapons is not officially known, but it is estimated that 10 to 20 B61 bombs are located at the German air base in Büchel in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. In the event of war, they would be transported by German aircraft.
Another source of controversy is the fact that Ramstein Air Base has been used as a control center for drone strikes in Yemen and elsewhere, leading critics to accuse the German government of being complicit in extrajudicial killings carried out by the US.
The Allied post-war occupation and its legacy
During the Allied occupation after World War II, from 1945 to 1955, millions of American, British, French, and Soviet soldiers were stationed in Germany. The northeastern part of the country, which officially became East Germany in October 1949, fell under Soviet control.
In West Germany, the occupation was regulated by the so-called Occupation Statute, signed in April 1949, when the country was founded. The statute allowed France, Great Britain, and the United States to keep occupation forces in the country and maintain full control over the disarmament and demilitarization of West Germany.
When the military occupation of West Germany officially ended, the country regained control over its own defense policy, but the Occupation Statute was inherited by an agreement with NATO partners.
This agreement, known as the Convention on the Presence of Foreign Forces in the Federal Republic of Germany, was signed by West Germany in 1954. It allowed eight NATO members, including the United States, to have a permanent military presence in Germany. The agreement still regulates the terms of engagement of NATO units stationed in Germany today.
The number of US military personnel has been declining since the end of the Cold War in 1990, when, according to government figures in Berlin, there were as many as 400.000 foreign troops stationed on German soil. About half of them were from the US. They were gradually withdrawn as tensions with the remnants of the Soviet Union eased. At the same time, conflicts elsewhere, such as the first Gulf War in Iraq, were drawing more and more US troops.
Although their numbers have increased again in recent years, the number of American troops in Germany is still only a fraction of what it was at the height of the Cold War.
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