Why does America have so many troops stationed in Germany in 2025?

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forwardobserver90@reddit

Forward deployed to deal with threats from places like Russia, China, and adversaries in the Middle East.

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JaQ-o-Lantern@reddit (OP)

But why are they all centered in one country? Not to mention that Germany isn't even the capital of NATO or the EU.

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As mentioned by others, the bases were there. And since they’re there, they are the headquarters for 2 of the US’s 7 geographical commands: European Command and African Command. Headquarters = lots of staff and troops stationed there.

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concrete_isnt_cement@reddit

Because we won 'em fair and square

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forwardobserver90@reddit

Because we have bases already built there from the end of ww2 and the Cold War.

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SWMovr60Repub@reddit

This is the correct answer so far. They’ve been there since the 50’s.

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MyUsername2459@reddit

We've had troops in Germany since 1945.

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bearsnchairs@reddit

1944 technically.

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SWMovr60Repub@reddit

Don't forget that airline pilot after the war when he was asked if he'd ever been to Frankfort. He said he didn't land; he was just dropping something off.

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DBDude@reddit

Since the 40s. We took over many posts immediately upon occupation and kept them.

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DBDude@reddit

Campbell Barracks, the former USAREUR headquarters location, had German eagle reliefs at the entrance. They had swastikas on them, but they were removed and replaced with the USAREUR crest. That’s because it was formerly the Grossdeutschland Kaserne, built by the Nazis.

Down the street was the Heidelberg Army hospital (where Patton died) and 7th Medical command. They didn’t even change the original Nazi name of the post, Nachrichten Kaserne (it was built for communications units).

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TillPsychological351@reddit

Yeah, driving by Campbell Barracks, it was pretty obvious which government regime constructed the main building, even with the most overt symbols removed.

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machagogo@reddit

Here's some reading that might help.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Germany

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

Germany isn't even the capital of NATO or the EU.

Why would the EU matter here? It's not a defense/military organization.

By "capital," I assume you mean "headquarters." Basing isn't done because of the headquarters location. To the contrary, you don't want your forces and the bulk of your top leadership co-located.

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MyUsername2459@reddit

We heavily built bases there during the Cold War, to defend against a possible Soviet Bloc invasion of Western Europe.

After the Cold War ended, we already had bases there, so it makes more sense to keep troops there instead of building new bases just to move troops around Europe.

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OhThrowed@reddit

So, can you think back to a time in German history when they may have been concerned about aggression from an Eastern neighbor? One that hosted a bunch of bases from an aggressor nation? You only need to go back to the late '80's.

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bremergorst@reddit

So, can you think? ~~back to a time in German history when they may have been concerned about aggression from an Eastern neighbor? One that hosted a bunch of bases from an aggressor nation? You only need to go back to the late ‘80’s.~~

Answer: No

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NomadLexicon@reddit

You don’t need to put military bases near a capital, you put them in whatever location makes strategic and logistical sense. For the Cold War, the most likely scenario for a major war was a Soviet/Warsaw Pact invasion of West Germany from East Germany and Czechoslovakia. US bases were put near strategic locations where they would be able to respond to an invasion (most famously near the Fulda Gap) without being too close to the border and susceptible to a surprise attack.

The bases remain there because the US had built up the infrastructure, Germany and the US remain close NATO allies, and it’s a good central location for units based in Europe. Despite the border between Russia-dominated territory and NATO moving, we avoided moving bases east for a long time to avoid provoking Russia, but that’s become a moot point so we are actually in the midst of moving to Eastern European bases and reducing our presence in Germany.

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coldlightofday@reddit

WWII is your answer.

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newvpnwhodis@reddit

To expound on this, after WW2 Germany was divided into multiple zones amongst the Allies. The Soviet zone became East Germany, and the US, UK, and French zones eventually became West Germany. In 1949, NATO was formed to provide collective defense among Western European countries and U.S. against the USSR, who could have easily overrun the defenses of any of these countries individually. The U.S. is and always has been the leading partner in NATO, which effectively put Western Europe under an American security umbrella.

Because West Germany directly bordered East Germany (a member of the Warsaw Pact, the USSR's counterpart to NATO), they were the first line of defense, and a logical base for the bulk of the US military presence in Europe. The Germans were willing to go along with this, as they recognized the need to protect themselves against the Soviets, the need for help to achieve that goal, and they were a little wary of fully embracing militarism themselves again given the depths they had fallen to under the Nazis.

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nopointers@reddit

More specifically, the Fulda Gap is in Germany, and that’s where NATO and the USSR had a staring contest for the entire Cold War following WWII.

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Finger_Trapz@reddit

There's a handful of reasons:

Post-WW2 occupation. Its understandable that the Allies & Soviets wanted to keep a close eye on Germany given all that happened in the first half of the 20th century, and there needed to be a large number of troops to police, to keep POWs, and to handle a transition to a non-nazi civilian government. And as occupation faded away into returning to a civilian government, both the Soviets & Americans found that East & West Germany would be the clear flashpoint of any conflict in Europe and invested a huge amount of military power & projection into Germany. After the Cold War when West Germany absorbed East Germany, a lot of that military infrastructure and bases remained, and it didn't make a ton of sense to spend billions setting up other bases in other countries.
Germany is the powerhouse of Europe currently, and the EU at large. They're the biggest player outside of Russia, so its important to keep close military ties with them. Large economy, large population, big diplomatic weight, and a notoriously dysfunctional military but they're working on it.
During the Cold War, France was notoriously uncooperative. They pulled out of numerous military agreements such as them effectively but not officially leaving NATO in the 1960s, as well as many disagreements about the handling of French colonies, the independence of French foreign/military policy, and nuclear weapons integration. France wasn't the only one obviously, but there were many members of NATO which weren't very cooperative; the only reason Greece & Turkey haven't started killing each other is because NATO put them in the get-along-shirt against the Soviets instead. Germany was very cooperative, in no small part because they just got beat in the largest war in human history.
A lot of countries don't make sense to have massive military bases. Spain? Portugal? I mean, they're in NATO, but not much is gained by keeping troops in those countries. Russia & the Soviets are on the other side of Europe.

Its the same reason why America has so many troops in Japan & South Korea. Its a combination of historical legacy and geopolitical interests.

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BuryatMadman@reddit

Well all the other countries weren’t really apt to take us in after WW2, France has got a big nationalist boner, Italys too far away from the Soviets for a big push, Norway and Sweden are too cold, and the UK is too far away. Plus it’s a lot easier to dictate terms to a population who’ve been devastated

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amcjkelly@reddit

Because a deluded lunatic runs Russia and thinks it would be a good idea to restore the Soviet Union.

So, the German's want them there and we should have them there.

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ayebrade69@reddit

Because Germany has historically had a hard time behaving itself

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Kevincelt@reddit

The infrastructure for large bases was built up along with British, French, and Soviet bases following the end of the WW2 and were subsequently built up over decades. After the cold war things were scaled back but bases like Ramstein Air Force base offered great strategic value as a logistics and communications hub in Europe for American and NATO forces, especially when they operate in the Middle East. With the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, there is even more use in having a big base of American operations and coordination in Europe to respond to any threats, support allies, and work with other forces. The forces staying there are also at the allowance of the German government and seen as a beneficial aside by them.

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TillPsychological351@reddit

Fun fact: the infamous Nazi party rally grounds in Nürnberg were used as a football field for the local US garrison's high school, before they returned the property to the German government.

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The_Awful-Truth@reddit

Russia made it clear that they would consider USA moving its bases into former Soviet satellites a really really big deal, a major provocation. Since the path of least resistance was to leave them where we were, that's mostly what we did. Places like Estonia and Romania would probably love to have American bases there, and Germany would love to get rid of most of them, but we haven't been in a hurry to mess with the status quo.

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TillPsychological351@reddit

That isn't true at all about Germany wanting to get rid of the bases. When German garrisons come up for closure under BRAC, the local governments have lobbied very hard to keep their US kaserne open. There's always the mixture of the hard right and hard left who want them closed, but that doesn't seem to be the majority opiniom.

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The_Awful-Truth@reddit

Interesting. I would have thought that Germany would have wanted to put this behind them, and use the land for something else, I guess I was wrong.

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TillPsychological351@reddit

The US presence is pretty inobtrusive to most Germans' everyday lives, especially since the large-scale open-country training operations we conducted during the Cold War are a thing of the past now. Unless they live near a base, the only time a German might see evidence of the US presence is when military vehicles drive on public roads.

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jrhawk42@reddit

It started because Germany used to be center stage of the cold war.

We continue it today for three main reasons:

It's a fairly central location for Europe, Africa, and Asia.
It's one of the few countries that won't complain about us having a ton of troops there.
It's culturally similar enough to the US where those stationed there will be more comfortable.

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TillPsychological351@reddit

On #3... Germany was BY FAR the nicest duty assignment I had in the army. Coming from that shit hole Hinesville, GA, Mannhein/Heidelberg felt like paradise.

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Vachic09@reddit

Strategic location

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OhThrowed@reddit

Because Germany has the agreements to host them and hasn't asked to re-negotiate to move the bases elsewhere.

A lot of them got put in when there were two Germanies.

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TillPsychological351@reddit

It goes even further than that... local German governments lobbied HARD to keep the bases in their municipalities open during the BRAC process. Just like in the US, those bases contribute a huge amount to the local economies.

The US finally decided to close the Heidelberg garrison, when the mayor wouldn't allow the connected airfield to expand... that posture changed very quickly once the closure was announced, but unfortunately for Heidelberg (and any soldier who had the pleasure of being stationed in what was one of the most desirable assignments), the decision was final.

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notthegoatseguy@reddit

Germany is an ally and they have agreed to have US military there.

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0le_Hickory@reddit

Agreed may be a bit strong

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2Beer_Sillies@reddit

So they don’t start a world war for the 3rd time lmao

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thestereo300@reddit

World War....so bad for business.

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UnfairHoneydew6690@reddit

Idk our economy had a massive boom after the second one.

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0le_Hickory@reddit

It did help that every factory outside the US had somehow exploded.

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0le_Hickory@reddit

Fool me one shame on you. Fool me twice I’ll station 35,000 troops in your backyard just in case.

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Ancient0wl@reddit

Because Germany was a naughty boy in the first half of the 20th century.

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QuesoDelDiablos@reddit

Because our government still believes in an interventionist military policy. AKA, playing world police. I wish they would stop.

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cdb03b@reddit

They started by our occupying forces in Germany after WWII. They then shifted to function as forward deployments to allow us to respond to conflicts in Europe (such as from Russia). Germany also pays us to be there so that is cool.

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RunFromTheIlluminati@reddit

Good question. While I don't suggest a complete pull out, a draw down would certainly be a good move IF Germany also agrees. If for some reason Germany wants us there in full force (I doubt this severely), then the question would be towards them.

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Recent-Irish@reddit

Germany lost its shit when Trump wanted to pull out so I assume they do want us there

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RunFromTheIlluminati@reddit

Ok, there ya go. The question then should be posed to Germany.

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OhThrowed@reddit

Germany makes a shit-ton of money off those bases.

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Akovsky87@reddit

Fool me once shame on you

Fool me twice shame on me

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lannistersstark@reddit

Fool me twice shame on me

Germany helped start both WW1 and 2. What do you mean twice? They're going on thrice now.

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alex20towed@reddit

WW1 was more just 3 grandsons having a dick measuring contest with some angry Serbs kicking it all off

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lannistersstark@reddit

with some angry Serbs kicking it all off

And yet, without Germany's blank check, the Habsburgs would have never attacked Serbia.

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alex20towed@reddit

You could draw the same parallel with russia. I don't agree with simplifying WW1 to "Germanys fault"

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lannistersstark@reddit

I don't agree with simplifying WW1 to "Germanys fault"

I didn't say "Germany's fault." I said, very specifically, "Germany helped start"

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alex20towed@reddit

Ah yes. Editing your responses when called out about them. Good job

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lannistersstark@reddit

Editing your responses when called out about them

lmao. I didn't edit anything. When you edit things you have "Edited: xyz" next to them.

Proof. You want to be right so bad but sadly reddit itself doesn't agree with you.

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alex20towed@reddit

Lol you're such a troll

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lannistersstark@reddit

"oh no you edited your response, I am right."

well here, look I didn't

"sucha troll omegalul."

yeah ok buddy.

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alex20towed@reddit

All I said was I disagree with your over simplification. And your response was all of this. Be more aware of yourself. Maybe talk to a therapist about your anger issue

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lannistersstark@reddit

man no one is angry.

All I said was I disagree with your over simplification.

and I said that I didn't oversimplify it. I just pointed out Germany's hand in starting the war. That was it. You were the one who accused me of "editing comments when called out."

Be more aware of yourself.

Pot. kettle.

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Akovsky87@reddit

World wars Germany has started since getting a permanent US presence: 0

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Konigwork@reddit

Started off as more….occupying west Germany since back in the 1940s the German government got very naughty and did bad things.

Very quickly though it became a way to counter the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact in Europe, maintaining a stalemate. In the 2000s and 2010s? More keeping in line with NATO spending, maintaining a European presence. Today? Back to countering Russian influence and preparing against a required Article 5 incursion. If I remember correctly, our military desires a 48 hour maximum timeframe between orders and full deployment. It’s easier to get to Moscow from Frankfurt than it is from Washington

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MyUsername2459@reddit

Up until the German reunification, the US military still gave the Army of Occupation Medal to all troops stationed in Germany, because technically, until the reunification (and the treaty that allowed it), Germany was still considered under post-war occupation with West Germany (and West Berlin) being legally occupied by the US, France, and UK and East Germany (and East Berlin) being legally occupied by the USSR.

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NormanQuacks345@reddit

They are our NATO allies.

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Coro-NO-Ra@reddit

In case they get any funny ideas a third time

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whatchagonadot@reddit

if you study the history of this, you will find out why, Germany has also British military deployed, as well as French, it all goes back to losing WW2

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ExtinctFauna@reddit

Nice middle for places further east like The Middle East, although some of the bases are being returned to Germany. I lived in Patrick Henry, which was in Heidelberg, and that base was dissolved.

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Matty_D47@reddit

We have over 800 bases around the world. I'm convinced it's because they don't want to give us Healthcare

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Leucippus1@reddit

We won the wars.

Remember how there were two of them spaced closely together? To bring this into relief, if WWII started right now, then WWI would have ended in 2003. In other words, we learned that an American military presence in Europe helps keep them from trying to take over the known world.

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kummer5peck@reddit

Immediately after WW2 the US started preparing for WW3. Germany became the logistical center of Europe’s defense against the Soviet Union.

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SquidProJoe@reddit

Gotta keep an eye on the Ruskies

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cheap_dates@reddit

There are over 700 US military bases in over 80 countries and a few bigs ones in Germany. We have been there since WWII and we never left. The US plays mall cop to many NATO countires for "protection money" but that is another lecture. Quick access to trouble spots is why we are there.

- a Vietnam Vet

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DrGerbal@reddit

Track record of starting 2 world wars. Need to be ready if they start feeling froggy again

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beardedscot@reddit

Because since 9/11 and the beginning of the "war on terror," European nations began to outsource defense to the United States military to avoid a larger military budget is my understanding.

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newvpnwhodis@reddit

More like since 1945.

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sgeeum@reddit

Germany fucked around, and they’re continuing to find out. US is like herpes, it may disappear for a little while, but it never goes away. don’t commit genocide and you won’t have to worry about it.

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SonofBronet@reddit

Don’t want them getting any funny ideas, you know.

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SanDiegoKid69@reddit

The US is doing what Europe does seemed capable of doing. So we are there to make sure the job gets done right.

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Recent-Irish@reddit

Europeans are too useless to secure themselves.

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JaQ-o-Lantern@reddit (OP)

The New York Jete?

At least Europe is successful economically.

Ohhh nvm you're talking about the Winnipeg Jets.

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lannistersstark@reddit

successful economically

Mississippi, the poorest US state, has higher GDP Per Capita and GDP PPP Per Capita both than most of Europe.

I guess we have different definitions of "economically successful."

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Servile-PastaLover@reddit

Germany was a vital transit point supporting the Iraq and Afghanistan wars going back to 2001.

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (Germany) is our largest military hospital outside the united states.

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ericbythebay@reddit

Because Germany fucked around and found out. The the Soviets were problematic, so the U.S. stayed.

Then it because a convenient location for babysitting the Middle East.

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