Bundeswehr base in Bernsdorf visited by Federal Minister of Defense

Federal Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius (SPD) plans to visit the planned Bundeswehr base in Bernsdorf (Bautzen district) next week. As the Saxon State Chancellery announced on Wednesday, Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) will accompany Pistorius on March 27. In December 2023, the Ministry of Defense decided to station the newly established Logistics Battalion 471 in Bernsdorf. This will involve around 8,000 posts.

"The fact that the Bundeswehr is now expanding its presence here in the Free State and a new base is being created in Bernsdorf is good for the region, the whole of Saxony and for the security of the Federal Republic of Germany," Kretschmer said at the time when the decision was announced. He assumes that this will directly and indirectly create and secure jobs.

The stationing of a Bundeswehr unit was the subject of the federal-state agreement on the coal phase-out in January 2020. Saxony had proposed various locations in the districts of Bautzen and Görlitz for the stationing of Logistics Battalion 471, including a site in Bernsdorf-Straßgräbchen. The selection decision was ultimately made by the Federal Ministry of Defense.