EU Militarization Was Ratified in 2017

We are told that the German government declared the so-called Zeitenwende (Turning Point) of 2022 in a sudden manner. Indeed, reflective of a sort of awakening of the West (or rather transatlantic ruling strata) to a new world of systemic rivalry. We are told that the militarization of German society but also of Europe is a frantic reaction to an unforeseen emergency (the loss of hegemony, as a sudden realization)…but is this true?

I recently uncovered a presentation delivered on June 8, 2017, at a "Track 1.5" defense roundtable in Ottawa. The speaker was Brigadier General Gerald Funke, then the Deputy Head of Planning I (Unterabteilungsleiter Planung I) at the German Ministry of Defence, the central brain of the Bundeswehr’s future analysis.

Reading his slides today is quite revealing in a long-held intent and Western premonition and planning. It reveals that the transformation of Germany into a logistic hub (e.g. through OPLAN DEU) for the so-called Eastern Flank was if anything and like so much of what we are seeing change today in the EU, it was a bureaucratic milestone, agreed upon and socialized five years before the first tank crossed the Ukrainian border. I want to walk you some of the points of these slides:

The "Adaptation of National Plans"

One bullet point reads:

"Allies expect adaptation of national plans to fulfil NATO targets."

This basically means on the one hand, a convergent evolution of NATO and its allies through planning and implementation, but on the other hand, of course, a loss of sovereignty:

It is a frank admission that the sovereign spatial planning of the German state (Raumordnung), the democratic process of balancing housing, industry, and nature, is now subordinate to the military logic of the Alliance.

Germany is voluntarily surrendering its planning autonomy to NATO’s anti-entropic competitive necessity. So, there are no more plans that serve the common good, and citizens. Instead NATO is basically dictaing that services and infrastructure need to be tailored to the requirements of the Alliance.

The result is what is written in another slide: "Germany as a Transit Nation." This phrase, present on the slides, is the polite euphemism for the rear area of the Eastern Flank. The country is re-conceptualized as a mere corridor of equipment and troops in 2017 no less.

"Strategic Foresight 2040"

Perhaps the most damning revelation is the slide detailing the "Strategic Foresight 2040" scenarios according to a classified Bundeswehr plan:

Long before 2022, the Bundeswehr’s internal foresight modeled a future of "Block Confrontation" and "Multipolar Competition" driven by "Resource Scarcity" and "Climate Change."

This proves that the current multipolar conflict was not an unforeseen accident but already a central planning assumption. Indeed, specifically the behaviors of Russia and China are named as destabilizing factors. (Global West is, by the way, the most positive scenario of all in this model, aka Western or US hegemony).

Thus, the functional elite looked at the future, saw the collapse of their "Garden," and accepted the creation of a "Bunker" as inevitable. They are planning to inhabit this scenario. Consequently, the Zeitenwende was merely the shift into the implementation phase of a long-charted course toward entropy, toward maintaining the Global West as is. But they actually feel themselves as Multipolar Competition.

The Venue

Another important aspect is the venue of this presentation: Why Ottawa? Why 2017?

The CDA Institute Roundtable is a closed-door, off-the-record environments where allied planners socialize concepts to align their frameworks and plans.

In essence, a concept developed in Germany’s Planungsabteilung (Planning Department) is exported, validated, and synchronized with Canadian, American, and NATO planners before it is implemented.

The "Transit Nation" concept was simply Germany presenting its assigned role within the NATO "Bunker" architecture for alliance approval. It was the moment that a German officer pledged allegiance to the transatlantic military-equity complex over the national interest. (Not to mention: Where is democracy in all of this?)

The Architect

Finally, we must look at the man, the presenter, himself.

Then (2017): Brigadier General Funke acts as the architect, drawing the blueprints for a militarized logistics corridors. Now (2025): The same man, now Generalleutnant Funke, serves as the Commander of the Support Command (Unterstützungskommando).

Which means he is now responsible for executing the very plan he sold to the allies eight years ago. The loop is closed. The planning cell has become the command center, and the scenarios is now part of our daily life.

Therefore, the creation of a bunker state, the pre-emptiveness of excluding dissent, the slowness and silence of policy implementation, all of it, is actually an implementation of a strategy and a plan. (Is it succesful for transatlantic elites? That’s another question entirely.)