Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger has publicly criticised former chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), claiming she was highly dismissive of the defence company and that Germany would rely on the United States in times of crisis.
Speaking at the Welt Security Summit on July 2, Papperger recounted that Merkel had told the arms sector: “We don’t really need you, if there is a problem we call the Americans.” The dependence on Washington, he suggested, had been a deliberate choice.
He added that prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, there was “no great need for weapons systems in Germany itself” and that companies like Rheinmetall had been pushed into a “dirty corner” because they exported arms.
“They actually didn’t want us here in Germany,” he remarked.
Papperger’s comments highlight the sharp shift in German defence policy since the 2022 Zeitenwende (“turning point”) announced by then-chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
The policy led to a €100 billion special fund for the armed forces, followed by further spending packages, boosting Rheinmetall’s order book and share price, which has risen over 1,000 per cent since 2022.
At the same summit, Papperger called for faster procurement and greater planning security for industry, complaining that many contracts remained framework agreements rather than firm commitments. He also criticised the pace of consolidation across the European defence industry, telling the audience: “Consolidation in Europe is not working. Everyone wants their own factory.”
He also praised recent improvements in ammunition output, claiming Germany had overtaken the United States in conventional munitions production. Rheinmetall had lifted its artillery output from 70,000 to one million rounds a year, he said.
Merkel’s chancellorship (2005-2021) was marked by a strong emphasis on disarmament, export controls and reliance on NATO allies, particularly the US, for collective defence.
Critics have long argued this left the Bundeswehr, Germany’s armed forces, under-equipped and the domestic defence industry undervalued. German defence spending averaged about 1.2 per cent of gross domestic product over the past decade and reached NATO’s 2 per cent target only in 2024, the first time since 1991, according to the alliance’s figures.
Today Rheinmetall, Germany’s largest arms manufacturer, has become a key beneficiary of the post-2022 rearmament push, supplying artillery systems, ammunition and other equipment to Ukraine and the German military.
