I suspected some, but culture and distance to the subject at hand makes it hard to gauge the extent. I have little doubt that in the case of an actual, clear attack directed against Germany a response would be fast. In an obviously unprovoked attack by Russia against Poland or the Baltic states, the response would be probably a bit more muted. The main mindset of the Germans after World War 2 was basically “Shit, we don’t need this again.”, with lots of suspicious neighbors, some of them wanting to dismantle Germany and annex part of the territory. I mean, we literally invaded all of them except Switzerland. Though Austria was a bit special.
It’s not about deterrence, it’s about actually fighting against a full fledged Russian attack against Central Europe. It will take at least another generation before our neighbors would not be alarmed by further German militarization, which would also need social engineering to make Germans feel more favorable towards increased military spending and making soldiering a normal, if not honored, profession.
The only thing that could probably speed this up (IMHO, of course, and apart from an actual attack close at home) would be a clear integration of European forces, to a far bigger extent than the modest Franco-German Brigade we have now. But that’s precisely the thing NATO is more or less opposed to, with both the US and the UK running interference when this thing comes up.
