Video doesn't show armed military conscripting men in Germany

A video shared on X claims to show heavily armed police officers going from door to door registering young men for the German army in Berlin's Charlottenburg district.

"Military police are currently going from house to house and registering all young men between 18 and 35. I am not at war with Russia. You won't get my grandson," the caption reads under the video, which has been shared more than 281,000 times.

But the claims in the video are false. While the footage is real, it can be geolocated to the Dutch city of Leeuwarden, not Berlin.

Multiple local media reports confirm that armed personnel did conduct a patrol in the city centre on 12 December, but it was not linked to conscription.

Regional outlet RB Nieuws reported that the soldiers were taking part in a so-called "social patrol", during which they deliberately sought out contact with the public to demonstrate their approachability.

The Cube, Euronews' fact-checking team, confirmed this with the Dutch Ministry of Defence, who told us the soldiers from the 44 Armoured Infantry Battalion, Prince Johan Willem Friso, were present in Leeuwarden's city centre in early December.

The deployment, it said, was an informal, non-operational round in a public space, during which the soldiers were tasked with answering questions and engaging in conversation about their work. According to the ministry, such activities are used to "strengthen the connection between the Ministry of Defence and society".

There was no threat, enforcement or deployment involved.

The Netherlands does not currently have active conscription. According to the Dutch government, the Ministry of Defence does not call up conscripts for the army and has no plans to do so.

Police in neither Germany nor the Netherlands go door to door looking for army conscripts. In the Netherlands, people receive a letter from the government when they turn 17, registering them for potential military service.

Conscription in the country has not been abolished, but compulsory service has been suspended since 1997. The Dutch government says that reintroducing mandatory conscription would “require years of preparation.”

In Germany, 18-year-old males will be asked to complete a mandatory questionnaire following a law change in August. This process is conducted online rather than in person, and participation in the armed forces remains voluntary.

It's not the first time false online narratives have circulated around military service in Germany, amid the country's efforts to bolster its armed forces in the face of ongoing geopolitical tensions with Russia.

Misleading claims over conscription previously followed the German government's decision to modernise military service. At the time, the change prompted a wave of disinformation on social media, particularly over whether women would be forced to serve, despite Germany's constitution limiting conscription to men only.

Currently, only nine EU countries have mandatory military service, while member states such as Germany and France are exploring reforms to attract more volunteers.

Where conscription is active in Europe, it is enforced through administrative and legal procedures, typically via official letters and summons, not through armed soldiers knocking on people's doors.