While 43 percent of Germans, according to a September 2018 poll, are in favor of increasing defense spending, 55 percent are against Germany playing a more active diplomatic and military role in international crises. 

Germans simply don't care about military power. Just visit any Gasthaus in the German countryside and talk to the people. War is equated with the history of war--primarily the history of the Second World War--and not any future wars that Germany might have to fight. 

Today, the current military mission of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan also barely makes the news. Wars are fought elsewhere and not related to Germany's domestic security.

Like Kramp-Karrenbauer, other German politicians are quick to join their French counterparts in rhetorically advocating for a militarily stronger Europe, lest the continent become a "plaything" of states "pursuing an aggressive foreign policy direction," but they have repeatedly failed to put their money where their mouth is.

A case in point is Germany's Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who has repeatedly rejected substantial increases in German defense spending. His reluctance even casts into doubt whether Germany will meet its NATO pledge to spend 1.5 percent of economic output on defense by 2024.