The Federal Republic of Germany has been a vital part of the United States' defense strategy in Europe ever since the end of World War II when US forces were part of a 10-year Allied occupation of the country. Though troop numbers have, of course, fallen significantly since those days, the US military still maintains a major presence in Germany, and over the intervening decades, US military communities have formed around a handful of German towns.

The total number of US military personnel has also risen significantly in the past few years, from under 39,000 in 2019 to over 50,000 in 2024.

The only other country where the US keeps a comparable number of overseas troops is Japan. That development also reflects a reversal of a long-term trend: German government figures show that between 2006 and 2018, the number of US troops stationed in Germany more than halved, from 72,400 to 33,250, as the US military responded to an increasingly complex global security situation.

The US has also deployed more troops to Europe since the start of Russia's full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with some soldiers deployed to bases further east to Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. The US Army currently has around 10,000 troops stationed at its garrison in Poland, and a further 2,600 in its Army Support Activity (ASA) Black Sea, which includes the Mihail Kogalniceau Air Base, Romania, and the Novo Selo Training Area, Bulgaria. Those troops are rotated regularly.

The role of EUCOM

Germany's strategic importance for the US is reflected by the presence of US European Command (EUCOM) headquarters in the southwestern city of Stuttgart, from where it serves as the coordinating structure for all American military forces across 51 primarily European countries.

EUCOM describes its mission as protecting the US by deterring conflict, supporting partnerships such as NATO and countering transnational threats. It is commanded by the US Army in Europe, the US Air Forces in Europe, and the US Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa, all of which have installations in Germany.

Germany is home to five of the seven US Army garrisons in Europe (the other two are in Belgium and Italy), and the US Army Europe is headquartered at the garrison in Wiesbaden, a city close to Frankfurt in central western Germany.

Figures provided to DW by the US military show that these five garrisons, each consisting of various installations at different locations, currently comprise around 29,000 military personnel. This number includes the US Marine Corps Forces of

Europe and Africa, which are headquartered in Böblingen, southwestern Germany, as part of the US Army Garrison Stuttgart.

In addition, roughly 13,000 US Air Force personnel are spread across various locations in Germany, primarily the two US Air Force bases of Ramstein and Spangdahlem.

An official government response to a question submitted by the socialist Left Party in 2023 showed that the German state also contributes to the costs of maintaining US and NATO forces in the country. That number is also rising. In 2020, the last year the government provided figures for, Germany contributed €108 million ($116 million) to support foreign allied troops on its soil, up from €100 million the year before.

US military in Germany: More than troops

Because US military installations also employ American civilians, and servicemen and women can sometimes bring their families with them overseas, sizable civilian American communities have formed around some German bases. In fact, some US bases in Germany, such as the one near Ramstein, are small towns in themselves, with their own American shopping malls, schools, postal services, and police forces. Sometimes the only legal tender is the US dollar.

The biggest example of this is the US Army Bavaria Garrison at Grafenwöhr, near the border with the Czech Republic. It is the largest overseas US Army base in the world, both in population and acreage, covering over 97,000 acres (390 square kilometers).

Military bases also often employ many local nationals, and past installation closures, such as the army garrison at Bamberg in 2014, took a toll on the local economy.

Nor is the US military presence in Germany limited to personnel: The US military also keeps planes at German air force bases. Additionally, thanks to NATO's nuclear sharing arrangement, an estimated 20 nuclear weapons are believed to be kept at Germany's Büchel Air Base in western Germany — something which has attracted criticism from Germans.

Another source of contention is the fact that the Ramstein Air Base is used as a control center for drone strikes in Yemen and elsewhere. This has led critics to accuse the German government of making itself complicit in extra-judicial killings carried out by the US.

Allied postwar occupation and its legacy

During the post-WWII Allied occupation from 1945 to 1955, millions of US, British, French, and Soviet troops were stationed in Germany.

The northeastern part of the country, which officially became East Germany in October 1949, fell under Soviet control.

In West Germany, the occupation was regulated by the Occupation Statute, signed in April 1949, when the country was founded. The statute allowed France, the UK, and

the US to keep occupational forces in the country and maintain complete control over West Germany's disarmament and demilitarization.

When the military occupation of West Germany officially ended, the country regained control of its own defense policy, though the Occupation Statute was succeeded by another agreement with its NATO partners.

This deal, known as the Convention on the Presence of Foreign Forces in the Federal Republic of Germany, was signed in 1954 by West Germany. It allowed eight NATO members, including the US, to have a permanent military presence in Germany. The treaty still regulates the terms and conditions of the NATO troops stationed in Germany today.

The number of US military personnel has been declining ever since the end of the Cold War in 1990, when, according to the German government, there were an estimated 400,000 foreign troops stationed on German soil. Roughly half of these were US military personnel, but they were gradually withdrawn as tensions with what was left of the Soviet Union eased, and conflicts elsewhere, such as the first Gulf War in Iraq, drew more US military away.

Though their numbers have grown again in the past few years, the number of US troops in Germany is still only a fraction of what it was at the height of the Cold War.

Edited by Rina Goldenberg

An earlier version of this article was published in 2019 when then-US President Donald Trump announced he'd pull US troops out of Germany.

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