Scholz announces Germany's defence-policy Zeitenwende

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a far-reaching change in defence and security policy during a special Bundestag session on 27 February 2022. Describing Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a turning point, or Zeitenwende, he proposed a 100-billion-euro special fund for the armed forces and committed Germany to spend more than two percent of gross domestic product on defence.

The speech also confirmed weapons deliveries to Ukraine and plans to reduce dependence on Russian energy. These choices departed from important elements of recent German policy, including caution over sending arms into active conflict zones. The term Zeitenwende became shorthand for the broader shift but did not itself enact a budget.

Creating the special fund required parliamentary approval and a constitutional amendment. Procurement, annual appropriations and military readiness remained implementation questions. A pledge measured against GDP can vary with the economy and accounting, so later performance should be checked against actual NATO reporting rather than inferred from the announcement.

The Bundestag transcript establishes Scholz's commitments and their context. Political parties differed over how quickly and in what form the shift should occur, even where they supported the initial response. Energy and foreign-policy measures also followed distinct legal processes.

This record captures the chancellor's formal policy declaration three days after the invasion. It neither treats the speech as completed rearmament nor reduces all German security policy to one slogan. The event matters because the head of government publicly set a new strategic and fiscal direction that parliament and agencies then had to implement.