How Boris Pistorius is transforming the German armed forces

Boris Pistorius might seem an unlikely candidate for Germany’s most popular politician. A ruddy-faced veteran of local politics in the flat north-western state of Lower Saxony, he can sound gruff and dismissive. His party, the Social Democrats, has suffered a steep drop in support since taking power at the head of a three-way coalition in 2021. And for a country that has enjoyed eight decades of peace, that shuns nuclear weapons and still shudders with shame for instigating two world wars, Mr Pistorius’s message to bite the bullet and get kriegstüchtig, “war-capable”—and to get there fast—might seem jarring.