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After Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany told Parliament that the attack was a Zeitenwende \u2014 a historic \u201cturning point\u201d for Europe and Germany. The risk of a large land war in Europe had previously been considered far-fetched, but recent years of Russian aggression have inspired fear in Germany and a 100-billion-euro fund to bolster its military.\n\nIn Germany, skepticism of the merits of military strength has enabled a long post-Cold War process of disarmament. As a result, it is a historic anomaly in the heart of Europe \u2014 an economic leviathan but a military minnow. Now German leaders are vowing to transform the country into a military power capable of taking responsibility for Europe\u2019s security.\n\nIn Nienburg, a medieval town in Lower Saxony, civilians come to train for \u201chomeland protection\u201d units in the country\u2019s reserves. The question is whether a hesitant German society can follow through on this paradigm shift.\n\n\u201cI would say, many of them lean in the direction of being pacifists,\u201d said Anne Katrin Meister, who is training at the base in Nienburg. \u201cBut you can only be a pacifist if you have this safe, ideal world. And we don\u2019t have such a world.\u201d