Armed only with a tin of cookies, a thermos of coffee, and a carton of oat milk, a handful of campaigners spent a sunny afternoon outside a factory in central Berlin last week trying to distribute flyers to the workers entering and leaving the grounds.

The factory, in the capital's old working-class district of Wedding, is in the middle of a controversial transition. From this summer on, most of its 350 workers will be put to work making shells for large-caliber munitions — though there will be no actual explosives on site, the owner Pierburg, a subsidiary of manufacturing giant Rheinmetall, has been careful to underline.

"Our aim is to get into conversations with the workers here," said Andreas (who did not want to give his last name) of the "Berlin Alliance Against Weapons Production" (BBgW), a group of around 30 organizations opposing what they see as the creeping militarization of German industry.

"We stand on your side," the flyers he was distributing read. "We are all affected by the crisis, the cuts, and the threat of unemployment. But we think that war industry and defense production are not the solution." The flyer then invited the workers to come to local meetings to discuss ways to persuade the company to switch back to civilian production.

Workers fear for their jobs

But the demonstrators weren't having much luck. The few workers who did pass through the gates hurried by, usually refused to take the flyers, or kept the windows of their cars closed as they were waved through by the porter.

"Wow, you can really see how nervous they are," one protester remarked. Andreas said he suspected that the workers had been told not to speak to the campaigners, though that couldn't be confirmed.

Locals were also less than impressed that Wedding was going to be home to a weapons factory for the first time since World War II. The district, traditionally a left-wing workers' district, was once referred to as "Red Wedding," and saw clashes between workers groups and police in the so-called Bloody May of 1929.

"I'm a child of the war — me and my brother were evacuated, we're all against war," one 87-year-old woman told DW as she walked by the gates. "As far as I'm concerned, they shouldn't have to [manufacture weapons] here, I don't want it," she said. "But on the other hand we have to protect ourselves," she added.

Andreas was sympathetic to the workers' predicament. "The workers need work. It's a dilemma that in a capitalist system, the workers don't get to have a say in what actually gets produced in a plant," he told DW. "Still, you can make plans and suggestions and approach the management with criticisms, and of course, a plant like this could manufacture things other than munitions shells."

There were signs that some of the employees weren't entirely happy with the transition either. "I think it's shit," one employee called to DW from her car as she was leaving, "but I don't care because I won't be working here for very long. I'm retiring." She didn't want to say any more.

Making ammunition is big business

The technology giant Rheinmetall is one of Germany's biggest industrial manufacturers, specializing in machine engineering, automobile parts, and — increasingly in the last few years — weapons. 

The company is involved in building various vehicles used by the German military and some of its NATO partners, including the Panther tank currently in development. Its "Weapons and Munitions" division, into which the Pierburg factory is being folded, specializes in medium to large-caliber ammunition for those vehicles. Rheinmetall's share price has increased 16-fold since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In a statement to DW, Rheinmetall said that the conversion of the factory to weapons production was a response to "economic developments characterized by declining sales in the automotive sector and a simultaneous enormous increase in demand in the military sector."

"We are pleased that this change will enable us to continue to offer secure jobs to the workforce at the Berlin plant in the future," the statement added.

Tricky issue for the trade union

Many believe the workers simply have no choice. "Of course, they're not enthusiastic about what they're producing. I think no one likes to manufacture for the defense industry," said Klaus Murawski, a member of the Berlin branch of the IG Metall trade union who knows the works council members at the Pierburg site.

Though he is sympathetic to the protests, Murawski has not taken part because he felt that the protesters were making the workforce feel "guilty by association." "What alternatives are they offering the workforce?" he said. "It's not a matter of conscience; it's an existential question for those workers."

The trade union IG Metall, which represents many of the workers in the Pierburg factory, is similarly divided. "For us at IG Metall, it's not an easy subject," said Constantin Borchelt, head of IG Metall Berlin. "Our charter says that we're for peace, for demilitarization, but at the same time, it also says we want to defend the free democratic social order. And first and foremost, we represent the employees."

Borchelt is not convinced by the economic argument for militarization. "We need investment in future products — and we don't mean weapons," said Borchelt. "We know from history that defense production is not infinite."

Germany's creeping militarization

The German government, like many European governments, is actively investing more in defense in response to a changing geopolitical situation, with what many see as an increased threat from Russia under President Vladimir Putin, and uncertainty over US protection under President Donald Trump. 

Last March, the German parliament agreed a debt package worth several hundred billion euros to invest in defense and infrastructure. Since then, hundreds of German factories have been quietly switching to military production.

Andreas and his handful of protesters from the BBgW intend to return to the gates of the factory next week, to try their luck again with the workers. He thinks the militarization of Germany's industry is a dangerous mistake.

"Those who are armed are more prepared to follow a riskier foreign policy," said Andreas. "And we have to look at why Germany is doing that. Why is [Chancellor Friedrich] Merz saying that Germany needs to become a world power? Of course, this could come back to bite Germany. That would be war."

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg

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