Germany and weapons of mass destruction
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| Non-state |
| Biological weapons by country |
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| Nuclear weapons by country |
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The United States has stationed nuclear weapons in Germany since 1955. Germany is not believed to currently possess or host chemical or biological weapons. Germany is party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Biological Weapons Convention, and Chemical Weapons Convention. Under the Two Plus Four Treaty, nuclear weapons may not be stored in the former territory of East Germany or West Berlin.
As of 2025, the United States Air Force has custody of 10 to 15 B61 nuclear bombs, stored at Büchel Air Base, intended for delivery by German Air Force Panavia Tornado IDS fighter-bombers. The weapons are under NATO's nuclear sharing operations. The aircraft will be replaced by German F-35A Lightning II aircraft and the bombs are being upgraded to the B61 Mod 12.
During the Cold War, West Germany hosted a wider range of US nuclear weapons, including the Pershing ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, nuclear artillery, and the Nike Hercules surface-to-air missile. It also hosted US chemical weapons in the form of approximately 100,000 sarin and VX nerve agent munitions, until their 1990 removal. East Germany hosted Soviet nuclear weapons from 1969 to 1991, including the RSD-10 Pioneer for a period.
During World War II, Nazi Germany used toxic gases to kill millions of Jewish people and other victims, as part of the Holocaust. Germany stockpiled battlefield chemical weapons and investigated nuclear and biological weapons. In violation of the Treaty of Versailles and as part of its rearmament, Germany discovered the first nerve agents, stockpiling tabun, sarin, and soman, but did not use them for fear of Allied retaliation. Kurt Blome was a leader of biological agent experiments on prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. German nuclear research was limited to laboratories and industrial production of heavy water; physicists carried out 19 major nuclear materials experiments but did not achieve a critical nuclear reactor.
During World War I, the German Empire was the first country to use lethal chemical weapons, with chlorine at the 1915 Second Battle of Ypres. Germany also made first use of mustard gas in 1917 and used phosgene.
Germany is considered a nuclear latent state. Under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and Two Plus Four Treaty, Germany is forbidden from developing nuclear weapons. US nuclear weapons in Germany were a contentious political issue prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Social Democratic Party and Greens had called for their removal and accession to the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, but the 2021 Scholz cabinet including both parties rejected this.
Alongside other countries, German companies sold chemical precursors to Ba'athist Iraq utilized by the Iraqi chemical weapons program, including chemical attacks against Iran during the Iran–Iraq War. German companies were also accused of assisting Iraqi ballistic missile development. Due to 1991 Iraqi missile attacks against Israel, Germany agreed to construct for Israel and partly subsidize its six Dolphin-class submarines, widely believed to carry Israeli nuclear cruise missiles.