Originally Posted by aka123

About 15 % of the males did conscription (military option). So, if there are about 40 million men in Germany, there are millions of men in reserve fit for service.

Term reserve is used to describe different things. There is battle reserve and there is reserve that can be armed and there is reserve of soldiers to be used for duty and then there are men who can be drafted for service.

If there is told "reserve" besides active personnel, it is usually reserve that has established structure and weapons to provide. So basically it's gun into hand and into action.