Germany's military is struggling amid rising tensions with Trump and Russia

"What we've seen in the last few years — really the sort of tragic and kind of embarrassing stories about the state of the Bundeswehr — that is certainly sinking in, and Germans are now supporting more defense spending than they have in the past," Sophia Besch, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said on a recent edition of the Center for a New American Security's Brussels Sprouts podcast. 

"There is just this huge debate ... around the 2% [of GDP defense-spending level] being the right way of going about it," Besch added.

Some Germans also remain chastened by World War II and the Cold War, which devastated and then divided the country. The Bundeswehr still struggles with its Nazi history.

"There's a definitely a generational aspect to this," Besch said. "The sort of traditional pacifist approach ... I think is mostly permanent in the older generations."

Others just aren't that worried.

"I think the issue today is that Germany just doesn't feel threatened. Germans just don't see a threat to themselves," Besch added. "They see perhaps a threat in the East, but their relationship with Russia is complex. They just don't see the need to invest that much in defense spending."