Maybe some guys here still remember. Way back in January, I ran a Pit rant (now lost in the tombs of the Board transitions) about how German authorities wanted to draft me, an innocent, benign 19 year old boy without any evil thoughts, to the army although that’s the last thing I’d voluntarily do in my life.
Now, just to round that story up, I went for the conscientous objector thing. Means not being a soldier but doing service for a charity, usually nursing homes, hospitals and the like. In my case, I’m using something that’s pretty new, service for a cultural institution (here: the culture department in the local town administration, a town of a population of about 19,000). Service lasts 12 months instead of 9 in the army or 10 for “normal” conscientous objectors (in hospitals), and the pay is darn poor, but forget about it. It’s over next September, and afterwards I’ll go to the university.