Comment by dr_faustus

Another problem is the reputation of veterans. While many countries with a closer relationship between military and population (e.g. USA and UK) have managed to make a military career a great feature on your resume, in Germany it‘s almost assumed that you weren’t able to get a proper job and therefore ended up in the Bundeswehr. Enlisting for a couple of years is more or less career suicide so almost noone with a sought after degree would consider it.