Its military spending has for decades been notoriously cautious – until Berlin's approach abruptly changed in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February. Days after the start of the full-scale war, Mr Scholz announced a €100 billion ($105 billion) fund to beef up Germany's military defences and offset decades of chronic underfunding – none of which is directly linked to the delivery of weapons to Ukraine. He also promised to meet NATO's target of spending two percent of GDP on defence as well as boosting its high-readiness forces from the current 40,000 to more than 300,000 troops.

This followed years of criticism from close allies that the Bundeswehr was falling short of contributing enough to the Alliance. In an interview on public television ARD after the G7 group of the world's richest nations met in Bavaria, the Chancellor said Germany, alongside the United States, made "certainly the largest contribution" to the North Atlantic Alliance.