Operational Plan for Germany

The Operational Plan for Germany (OPLAN DEUEuropean Union) is a core element of the military component of Germany’s overall defence. It is a viable plan that brings together the key military elements of national and collective defence in Germany with the necessary civilian support services. It provides the planning to ensure that purposeful and constitutionally sound action can be taken following a political decision in the event of a crisis or conflict. The aim of the Operational Plan for Germany is to enhance cold-start capability, warfighting capability and sustainability, and adapt them to security challenges.

Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine in violation of international law in February 2022, NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization has been strengthening its defensive measures in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. Today’s Russia is for now the most significant threat to peace and security in the Euro-Atlantic area. Even now, Germany mainly faces threats from the hybrid spectrum of hostile actors – disinformation campaigns, cyber attacks, espionage and sabotage – where the perpetrators usually cannot be clearly identified.

It has become almost impossible to separate internal security from external security as they are highly interdependent. Germany’s ability to act externally also increasingly depends on its internal robustness and resilience. These challenges cannot be met purely at the military level. They need to be dealt with as a whole-of-government and whole-of-society task. Effective deterrence requires a credible defence capability.

This includes Germany’s prominent role as a NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization member due to its geostrategic location in Europe: In the event of an Alliance contingency, up to 800,000 military personnel from NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization armed forces would be deployed to NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization’s external borders within six months using Germany as a hub. These forces’ stay, supply and transport in and through Germany is a whole-of-society task included in the Operational Plan for Germany.

The Operational Plan for Germany is approximately 1,400 pages long, and the document as a whole is classified as GEHEIM (secret). For reasons of national security, the document is not publicly available to download. The OPLAN DEU is a living document subject to continuous further development ever since the submission of the first version in spring 2024; the last update was in spring 2025.

An important area of focus in the Operational Plan for Germany is responding to the question of how Germany can ensure the planned deployment and supply of its own and allied forces in the event of an Alliance contingency. According to NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization planning, hundreds of thousands of troops in different states of readiness must be provided with consistent medical care, logistic support and protection in this context. Ensuring this is an essential part of NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization’s deterrence planning. The OPLAN DEU is therefore not intended to prepare for possible enemy aggression, but to prevent it. Accordingly, it can be said that the OPLAN DEU is not a war plan but a war prevention plan.

This is not a purely military task but a task for society as a whole. The OPLAN DEU specifies what requirements this entails for the Bundeswehr and other state and civilian entities within the framework of whole-of-society defence. Particularly under the legal conditions of peacetime – ideally, RSOIreception, staging, onward movement and integration would take place below the threshold of NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization’s mutual defence clause or a national state of tension or defence – much of the responsibility for developing these plans within Germany falls under the authority of the federal states.

With the OPLAN DEUEuropean Union, the Bundeswehr provides the military element of Germany’s overall defence and links it to civil defence planning. This requires intensive, coordinated, interministerial cooperation between authorities, as well as business and society. The Bundeswehr relies on cooperation with the federal states, especially on matters of internal security, traffic planning and transport infrastructure.

The Bundeswehr’s 16 regional territorial commands are subordinate to the newly established Bundeswehr Joint Force Command. The commanders of the 16 regional territorial commands are the Bundeswehr’s military representatives in the federal states, making them the first point of contact for the state governments, as well as associations and organisations above the municipal level, in promoting civil-military cooperation.

For some time now, numerous discussions have been held, especially with representatives of the state governments, to identify requirements arising from the OPLAN DEUEuropean Union. To simplify the framework conditions for military transportation, administrative agreements have been concluded for designated roads falling within the remit of the federal states, for example in:

• Lower Saxony
• Saarland
• Bremen
• Brandenburg
• Schleswig-Holstein
• Baden-Württemberg
• Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
• Hesse
• Saxony-Anhalt

Discussions are mainly held at the federal-state level. The relevant points of contact in the federal states have the lead responsibility for communicating with the people in charge in the municipalities.

Information events about the OPLAN DEU are regularly held at companies or associations, upon request. Framework contracts cover any civilian business requirements identified in the OPLAN DEUEuropean Union. For example, agreements have been concluded between the Bundeswehr and Rheinmetall for rest areas and staging areas, and there are standing contracts with the Deutsche Bahn railway company and other logistics and transport companies. On 30 June 2025, a standardised nationwide agreement was concluded with Autobahn GmbHGesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung des Bundes for large-capacity and heavy transport, as well as closed formations travelling on the autobahn, in order to ensure standardised framework conditions for military transport operations in Germany’s autobahn network.

No, the OPLAN DEU only covers the military element of whole-of-government defence planning in Germany. Civil defence is a separate matter. Civil defence involves nonmilitary measures to protect the population and vital civilian structures from the potential effects of war. Civil defence is an aspect of civilian preparedness for war that comes under the lead responsibility of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and its Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance. The task of civilian preparedness for war is to plan, prepare and implement all civil measures. The civil measures serve to establish and maintain defence capability, including protecting and providing basic services for the population.

No, the OPLAN DEU only governs the protection of defence-critical infrastructure. Defence-critical infrastructure includes all structures that the armed forces need for military mission accomplishment and national defence. Critical infrastructure is a broader concept. Protecting it is a joint task for the federal government, federal states, municipalities and relevant companies. The latter have the primary responsibility, but work closely together with government agencies. Nevertheless, effective establishment of critical infrastructure – especially in times of worsening security situations – is closely linked to the functioning of military defence and is the basis of our country’s security, which is why it is the subject of ongoing interministerial discussions.