Motivations and expectations of German volunteer firefighters

ABSTRACT In many countries of the world, fire brigades are led by volunteers. Using Germany as an example, the article examines what motivates volunteer firefighters in rural areas to engage in this specific voluntary activity and what they expect from political decision-makers and officials in turn. To answer these questions, the article presents the results of a survey of 429 volunteer firefighters from the 16 fire brigades of a rural district in western Germany and a focus group discussion with their chiefs. The case study confirms the findings of previous international studies that egoistic and altruistic motives guide volunteer firefighters. At the same time, the data shows that the volunteers strive for a certain professionalism in the exercise of their work, which also drives them. These motives generate specific expectations on the part of volunteers, especially in terms of recognition and appreciation from political and administrative officials. The volunteer firefighters expect that their work will be recognized by citizens, politicians and public administrators and will be valued accordingly both on a personal level (in the form of material and immaterial recognition) as well as in providing appropriate framework conditions for the adequate performance of their work (equipment, acceptance by employers).


Introduction
Volunteer fire brigades are a central component of public fire protection in many countries around the world.This also applies to Germany, where volunteer fire departments have a long tradition (Schmidthuber & Hilgers, 2019, p. 180).While big cities maintain professional fire brigades that are supplemented by volunteers, the situation is reversed in rural regions where more than 90% of the emergency forces work on a voluntary basis, and only a few positions are filled by full-time, paid personnel (Deutscher Feuerwehr Verband, 2021).The rule of thumb is: the smaller and more rural the municipality, the more it depends on the voluntary commitment of its citizens for emergency services.For municipalities, volunteers are invaluable, as fire protection is the only mandatory task required by law that the municipalities undertake without paid staff (Freise & Walter, 2021, p. 14).
However, this civil society tradition is increasingly crumbling.In northern Germany, volunteer fire brigades had to be disbanded for the first time in 60 years and replaced by compulsory service because there were no longer enough volunteers.Numerous fire brigades in peripheral regions complain about an increasing lack of personnel that threatens their very existence (Piron, 2019).Although this trend does not affect the whole of Germany and is often regionally specific, it is a growing concern for mayors, and policymakers are looking for ways to retain volunteer firefighters and encourage new ones to serve (Wenzel et al., 2012).It is therefore important to understand the motivations of volunteer firefighters and what they expect from local political leaders and society.Using Germany as an example, our article investigates why volunteer firefighters serve, what they expect of political leaders and local public officials and thus what framework conditions are necessary in order to be able to retain existing talents and recruit new ones.In doing so, we complement studies on the motivations and values of volunteers, which have become an important part of international civil society research (e.g., Clary et al., 1998;Kehl et al., 2017;Thompson & Bono, 1993).Our analysis is based on a survey of 429 volunteers in the 16 fire brigades of the rural district of Lippe in western Germany and a focus group discussion on the survey's results with the 16 fire chiefs.
The paper is structured as follows: In a first step, we describe the status of volunteer fire brigades as part of German civil society, illustrate the concrete tasks they take on in municipalities and show how the framework conditions for volunteer fire brigades are changing.We then adapt for our study an action-theoretical framework for categorizing motives for engagement and discuss the methodology and the data set.Against this background, we analyze our results and discuss their implications for municipalities that provide fire protection primarily through the use of volunteers.
Our study examines volunteer fire brigades in Germany and the framework conditions that prevail here.However, the results can be useful to other countries that organize local fire protection in a similar way and which are also currently suffering from a decline in volunteers in fire departments (e.g., for North Dakota see Yoon et al., 2014; for Australia see Cowlishaw et al., 2014; for Finland see Malinen et al., 2020).

Volunteer Fire Brigades in Germany
The organization of fire protection through volunteers is not uncommon.A cursory, non-published survey we carried out for this article shows that voluntary fire brigades can be found in more than 40 countries around the world, including the United States (most states), Canada (most provinces), and Australia, as well as European countries such as Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Finland.
Specific to Germany, however, is how fire protection with the involvement of volunteers is legally implemented.It goes back to Prussian municipal law, which in the nineteenth century placed responsibility for fire brigades largely in the hands of the municipalities (Schmidthuber & Hilgers, 2019, p. 179).They could recruit suitable 'honourable' persons and compel them to serve in the fire brigade for several years.In return, employers had to give firefighters paid time off for the duration of their missions, for which they received compensation.Refusal to serve could be punished with heavy fines, which meant that service was often performed only grudgingly.Over the course of time, it turned out that municipal fire brigades work much more efficiently and are more motivated if the firefighters do their service voluntarily and receive recognition for it from the municipalities, e.g., through medals and other public honours.Voluntary fire brigades were eventually established throughout the country, while the legal option of compulsory service remains to this day (Wolter, 2011, p. 43).
Today, the German state has comparable regulations only for election workers and local council members.Here, too, the first step is to try to fill these positions with volunteers.However, if local authorities cannot find enough volunteers, they have to use coercion and, in the case of fire protection, can set up compulsory fire brigades, which are extremely unpopular among the citizens.Compared to that of council members and election workers, the commitment required by volunteer firefighters is much more extensive, since in addition to the fire operations, volunteer firefighters have to undergo regular training, which requires a considerable amount of time (Wenzel et al., 2012).
Since the end of the Second World War, fire protection has been a responsibility of the federal states, which further delegate this task to the municipalities, while maintaining supervisory powers (Hörstrup, 2017, p. 301).The municipalities are responsible for operating the fire stations, providing the vehicles as well as equipping the firefighters, who in turn are recruited for the most part as volunteers.Large cities (usually with more than 100,000 inhabitants) typically operate a professional fire brigade and maintain volunteer fire brigades as auxiliary units.Outside of these cities, every small municipality has at least one volunteer fire brigade, which in turn are grouped together at the district level.The districts have a coordinating function: they are responsible for a large part of the fire brigade training and often also employ a small number of paid firefighters who take on leadership tasks during operations or staff the emergency call centres.As of 2021, there were a good one million volunteers in Germany's 22,020 fire brigades, while there were only 35,000 paid firefighters (Deutscher Feuerwehr Verband, 2021).
German fire brigades -whether professional or volunteer -perform four tasks as set out in law (Hörstrup, 2017, pp. 337-416).The first, extinguishing fires, is the most established task.In addition, they rescue people and animals from predicaments, e.g., in traffic accidents, and salvage material goods, for example after natural disasters such as hurricanes or floods.Finally, preventive fire protection is also one of the fire brigades' compulsory tasks, for example checking hydrants, being available at public events or providing fire protection education in kindergartens and schools.Today, firefighting operations account for about one third of the compulsory tasks, while rescue and recovery missions dominate the work of the fire brigades (Deutscher Feuerwehr Verband, 2021).
This makes volunteer fire brigades an integral part of public services, especially in rural regions.In many places, however, they are -in addition to their statutory duties -also a central point of reference in social life: they organize village festivals, offer activities such as holiday camps for children and young people and often run brass bands or choirs and also so-called honorary departments for firefighters who have retired from active service.Alongside sports clubs, rifle clubs and church congregations, volunteer fire brigades are a fundamental component of rural civil society in Germany (Jakob, 2009;Priemer et al., 2019, p. 21), as they are elsewhere in the world (for the US see Haski-Leventhal & McLeigh, 2009).
Looking at the social composition of volunteer fire brigades, three characteristics are immediately obvious (Deutscher Feuerwehr Verband, 2021).First, volunteer fire brigades in Germany are heavily male-dominated.In 2020, only 10.5% of active volunteer firefighters were female.Although the proportion of women has risen by five percentage points since 2010, they remain an exception, particularly in the operational units.In addition, volunteer fire brigades are largely made up of people who work as tradespeople (just under half of the firefighters).Finally, the German Fire Brigades Association estimates that only one percent of volunteer firefighters have a migration background.This clearly sets volunteer fire brigades apart from the average population, 26% of which has a migration background (Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, 2019, p. 193).More generally, people with a migration background are significantly less likely to formally volunteer in Germany (27%) than people without a migration background (44.4%).However, the underrepresentation of migrants is as pronounced in no other field of civil society as it is in volunteer fire departments (Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Seniors and Youth, 2021, p. 5).

Special Features of Volunteering in Fire Brigades
Compared to other voluntary activities, volunteering in fire brigades is quite different in several respects.First of all, it is based on the principle of command and obedience.Although joining and leaving the fire brigade are voluntary and fire brigades have established participatory and deliberative decision-making procedures in recent years, a clear system of superiority and subordination comparable to that of a military unit is indispensable in actual operations, and refusal to obey orders can be severely sanctioned (Wenzel et al., 2012).
In addition, the time required to serve in the volunteer fire brigade is enormous in comparison to many other volunteer services and can hardly be planned: volunteer firefighters are on duty around the clock 365 days a year.However, the bulk of the effort is usually taken up not by operations, but by the legally required hours of training and continuing education that the firefighters have to complete.Fire service requires extensive and specialized knowledge, from operating a hydrant and handling turntable ladders to using heavy equipment to rescue accident victims.Basic training alone involves 150 hours of work and several refresher exercises per year.Those who want to move ahead in the fire brigade hierarchy must also complete advanced training in personnel management.In addition, participation in the volunteer fire brigade requires robust physical fitness.Only very fit people are allowed to offer some services, such as working with a breathing apparatus.
Finally, serving in the fire brigade involves personal risk for the volunteers.According to statistics from the statutory accident insurance, around 4,500 firefighters suffered reportable injuries in the field in 2019, and six died.In addition, missions can have a tremendous psychological impact, especially when firefighters have to recover dead persons or rescue seriously injured ones (DGUV, 2020).

Changing Framework Conditions for Volunteer Fire Brigades
Membership in German fire brigades shrank by about 6% nationwide between the years 2000 and 2020 (Deutscher Feuerwehr Verband, 2021).While numerous volunteer organizations in Germany complain of a much more significant decline in membership since 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation in volunteer fire departments has so far remained relatively stable (Schubert et al., 2023, p. 11).
Nevertheless, in recent years there has been an increasing number of reports about municipalities that, due to a lack of personnel, are barely able to maintain their fire departments or even have to convert them into compulsory fire departments (Piron, 2019).This development reflects changing framework conditions.One of the most important of these is the continuing peripheralization of rural areas.An ever-larger proportion of the German population is moving to larger cities or their surrounding areas.This is particularly true of young people (Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt -und Raumforschung, 2021).The result in many rural regions is an increasingly aging residential population, which poses a major challenge for volunteer fire departments in particular because they then have a smaller pool of prospective new members.This demographic change is also reflected in the average age of active firefighters.Numerous baby boomers are reaching the age limit for active service, which is between 63 and 67 in the German states.Particularly affected by the lack of new members are rural communities where there are few jobs and where citizens use the village just as a place to sleep and commute from (so-called bedroom communities) and not to spend their time (Jakob, 2009, pp. 7-10).
In addition, however, a structural change in volunteering is also evident in Germany.Recent studies, such as the federal government's Volunteer Survey, show that younger people in particular are now less likely to want to commit themselves to volunteer organizations over a long period of time (Hameister et al., 2017, p. 350).Fire departments are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit volunteers for long-term commitments, which is a problem because meaningful involvement is only possible through years of training.Youth departments of many fire departments are also increasingly complaining about a lack of new recruits.That the number of members in youth fire departments actually grew by 7% between 2000 and 2020 (Deutscher Feuerwehr Verband, 2021) indicates that this is likely a more location-specific problem than a nationwide one.
Finally, politicians and fire departments are concerned about the fact that firefighters in some parts of Germany are becoming the victims of criminal acts.Although fire departments still enjoy the highest respect among large parts of the population, verbal and nonverbal assaults, including physical violence, are on the rise during operations, for example by rowdy drunken youths or drivers who do not accept road closures.A study by the University of Bochum shows that almost all firefighters have experienced personal threats during operations (Feltes, 2018).
In sum, the framework conditions for maintaining volunteer fire departments have become more challenging.The question therefore arises as to the motives leading volunteer firefighters to become and stay involved and what they demand from political leaders and public officials in exchange for their commitment.

Theory: Motives and Expectations of Volunteers
Social science research has extensively studied what motivates volunteers and derived a number of deductive motive categories from empirical survey data that can be applied to volunteer firefighters (e.g., Allison et al., 2002;Carpenter & Myers, 2010;Haug & Gaskins, 2012;Hustinx & Lammertyn, 2003).In the theory of action (Haski-Leventhal & McLeigh, 2009, p. 82), there is agreement that the motivation to volunteer is fed by a complex combination of altruistic values, egoistic considerations and social motives, the importance of which can vary over time.That combination of elements represents an individual puzzle for each volunteer.Clary et al. (1998) developed a model for classifying volunteer motives that is still widely used today, the Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI), which identifies six motives.The value motive (1) is an altruistic category.Volunteers feel the desire to help people or to work for other important causes in society.Chacón Fuertes et al. (2011, p. 50) have further refined this altruistic motive category and distinguish between religious values, socially transformative values (the desire to promote social change), reciprocity values (the desire to show gratitude for a benefit experienced in the past), and community concern values (the desire to work for a specific social group or geographical region).What these values have in common is that commitment to others is the main driver of engagement.Volunteering can also be driven by ( 2) social pressures or expectations to which the volunteer subscribes, for example, by carrying on a family tradition.Finally, Clary et al. (1998) identify four egoistic motives: Volunteers can (3) overcome their own problems through their involvement, for example by finding connections, having fun and overcoming loneliness.They can also (4) seek social recognition and appreciation for their commitment, which triggers positive feelings in them.They may volunteer (5) because they expect the activity to benefit their professional career, for example by learning certain skills, or (6) because they are curious and hope to gain a better understanding of the world around them.
In particular, the egoistic motive of seeking recognition and appreciation has been widely discussed in the social sciences (e.g., Hustinx & Lammertyn, 2003;Mayr, 2017;McNamee & Peterson, 2016;Thompson & Bono, 1993).Chacón Fuertes et al. (2011, p. 50) illustrate that recognition can work in different ways.Volunteers can develop a better sense of self-worth (for example, because they are perceived as important by those around them), establish social relationships that they find enriching (for example, because they experience friendship or camaraderie), or simply have fun and enjoy volunteering.
(7) In particular for the fire service, it would certainly be worth adding that the service can be a kind of adventure that is experienced outside of the daily routine.In German fire brigades, the somewhat disparaging name of the 'blue light troop' circulates for those for whom this motive is important -they get a thrill out of driving to the scene of an emergency with the siren and lights going (see Groß, 2021, p. 49 who has identified 'adventurousness' as one of the motivations compelling firefighters in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein).
Almost all studies dealing with the motives of volunteers in fire brigades, rescue services or comparable organizations take up this set of motives and show that altruistic motives clearly dominate among volunteers in this field of activity (Francis & Jones, 2012;Malinen et al., 2020;Thompson & Bono, 1993).This is hardly surprising, however, as it is inevitable that when asked about the reasons for their commitment people will tend to mention other-serving, altruistic motives before self-serving, egoistic motives.Groß (2021) illustrates this in her qualitative interview survey of volunteer fire departments in the state of Schleswig-Holstein.
In the context of the ongoing structural change in volunteerism, our study examines the extent to which altruistic and egoistic motives can be mapped specifically for volunteer firefighters.In addition, we address the question of the extent to which knowledge about the motivation of volunteers can be helpful for local public administration and fire brigades in shaping the framework conditions for volunteers that are fit for the future.

Method
This work is based on a survey that was part of the project 'SROI -Social Return on Investment' and was funded by the programme line 'Innovative Municipalities' of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (funding code: 033L236B). 1 All 16 volunteer fire brigades of the district of Lippe in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia were surveyed in September and October 2022.According to the classification of the Thünen Institute for Rural Areas (Küpper, 2016, p. 4), which is widely used in Germany, the Lippe district can be described as a rather rural district.It is made up of three medium-sized towns (including Detmold, which is by far the largest town in the district with around 74,000 inhabitants), seven small towns and six rural municipalities.The data collection was done in cooperation with the district administration, which asked the fire brigade chiefs to encourage the volunteers at their fire stations to fill in the questionnaire and also sent out a reminder.Volunteers from all 16 volunteer fire brigades participated in the survey, although not all fire departments are represented proportionate to their number of members.
After analyzing the survey, the results were presented to the chiefs of the 16 fire brigades in a two-hour focus group discussion in March 2023.The assessments of the chiefs expressed there enrich our analysis.
Of the total of 2,647 registered volunteer firefighters in the district of Lippe (Ministry of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, 2022, p. 7), 427 people took part in the online survey.The response rate is therefore 16.2%.Since we additionally asked the chiefs of the fire stations to promote participation in the survey during the usually biweekly training evenings, the survey is not representative.Instead, it can be assumed that this method primarily reached active firefighters who regularly attend training.Thus, we traded off representativity for a higher degree of validity because we were mainly interested in hearing from the firefighters who really participate in the activities.
The questionnaire consisted of closed questions with five-point Likert scaled answer options and several individual open fields for additional comments.The questionnaire collected a total of 81 items, which were divided into eight categories: (1) How the respondents found their way into the volunteer fire brigade; (2) their motives for getting involved; (3) their perception of involvement; (4) evaluation of teamwork and camaraderie; (5) challenges of involvement; (6) wishes for the future of the fire brigade; (7) information on the volunteer's function performed in the fire brigade; and (8) sociodemographic data.
In order to capture the deviation of the volunteer fire brigades from the regional population, we determined the diversity score according to Coffe and Geys (2007, p. 126) by comparing the major socioeconomic categories of the surveyed firefighters with the data of the municipal profile of the district of Lippe (IT NRW, 2022).The diversity score is the average of the absolute values of the differences between the population distribution and an association's membership distribution on a given socioeconomic trait.The score is calculated from the average deviations within the category itself and the total score as the average of all categories.The higher the diversity score, the more strongly individual population groups are overrepresented in the organization studied (here: the volunteer fire departments).
As seen in Table 1, the structure within the group deviates on average by 21% from the underlying population, which is a relatively high value.The strong overrepresentation of male volunteers of around 35% is particularly striking.In a national comparison of German volunteer fire brigades, this figure is five percentage points lower, but still differs greatly from the population.None of the respondents described themselves as diverse.No data on diverse persons is available for the district of Lippe.
The deviation of the age groups results from the design of the study, which only surveyed active firefighters.Germany-wide surveys on age distribution of voluntary firefighters are not available.Nevertheless, the questionnaire represents well the volunteers active in the operational departments (18-64 years).Members of the youth fire brigades were not surveyed.
In the Lippe district, the proportion of persons with a migration background (a person was either not born in Germany or has one parent who was not born in Germany) is 24.3%.This figure compares to 1.6% of members of the volunteer fire brigades who stated that they had a migration background.
In general, the volunteer fire brigades in the district of Lippe are even more homogeneous than the district's population, which is in turn more homogeneous than the typical urban district (Bundesinstitut für Bevölkerungsforschung, 2020).

Results: Motivations of the Fire Brigade Volunteers
According to the focus of our case study, we focus on the analysis of altruistic and selfish motivations of the fire brigade volunteers.

Egoistic Motives
Of great importance across all age groups and genders is the egoistic motive of being able to experience camaraderie in the fire department.According to the categorization of Clary et al. (1998), firefighters thus use their volunteer service to establish networks and, in this way, integrate themselves socially in a group where they feel closeness among like-minded people.In German fire departments, the concept of camaraderie (German: Kameradschaft) is established in this context.It has its origins in military language, where it describes a soldierly duty and virtue: members of a unit must stand by each other under all circumstances, even at the risk of their lives (Zur Wiesch, 1998, p. 127).This is not necessarily characterized by personal friendship, but by a very high degree of solidarity among the individual members.Though the term is hardly used in German civil society today, its use is widespread within the volunteer fire departments (Groß, 2021, p. 61).Furthermore, almost three-quarters of respondents fully or mostly agree that experiencing camaraderie is an important motive for their participation in the volunteer fire department.Two further motives can be assigned to the egoistic ones.First, as many as 30% of respondents state that their involvement in the fire department gives them advantages for their professional career.This is particularly true for men, just under half of whom practice a trade.
Second, a good quarter of respondents state that they are motivated by the social recognition they receive for their commitment.Here it is striking that significantly more older firefighters name this motive than their younger comrades.Even if social recognition is not seen as the most important driver, it does seem to matter.One third of the volunteer firefighters (36.5%) indicated that they did not feel appreciated by local politicians.In the focus group discussion, the fire chiefs confirm that they would like more appreciation for the work of their own fire brigade from local politicians and local public officials.The fire chiefs observed that local politicians were often present only during their election campaigns.
Furthermore, as the fire chiefs pointed out, many firefighters miss the support of their employers for fire brigade operations during working hours.Other research has found that fire brigade operations during working hours are often associated with a lot of bureaucracy and effort for employers and that this results in their lack of acceptance of their employees' volunteering (Ministry of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, 2017; Walter & Schonfeld, 2021).

Altruistic Motives
Our study confirms many of the findings from previous surveys of volunteer firefighters (e.g., Allison et al., 2002;Haski-Leventhal & McLeigh, 2009;Mayr, 2017;Thompson & Bono, 1993).Altruistic motives are indeed an important driver of the firefighters' commitment: 83% of our survey respondents fully or mostly agree with the statement that they perform their volunteer work because they consider the activities of the fire department to be important.While agreement varies somewhat between age groups, it is strong across the board.Firefighters know that their involvement provides a significant service to their communities that could not be offered at all, or only in a very limited way, without volunteers.This motivation can be assigned to the altruistic category of community concern values (Chacón Fuertes et al., 2011, p. 50).
It is worth noting that a good third of respondents (34%) are also active in other civic groups in their community in addition to their involvement in the volunteer fire department.The majority of them are involved in sports clubs, but also in cultural organizations, their children's schools or local social clubs.These are all typical examples of organizations that significantly shape public life in Germany, especially in rural areas.Here, our study confirms findings by Haski-Leventhal and McLeigh (2009, p. 82), who use the example of two U.S. fire stations to show that volunteer firefighters often take on additional tasks in their community that go beyond their service in the fire department.
What is particularly striking is that volunteer firefighters do not seem to be compelled by the desire to drive social change within the fire brigades (cf. the differentiation of altruistic motives according to Chacón Fuertes et al., 2011, p. 50).Though more than half of respondents (55%) would like to see more women join the fire brigades, a smaller minority (39%) would like to see more firefighters with a migration background join in the future (see Figure 1).By contrast, there is widespread agreement, particularly among older firefighters, that fire brigades will need more young members in the future.However, only slightly more than half of the respondents agreed with the statement that the fire brigade generally needs more members, which indicates that many firefighters are satisfied with the composition of their units and are rather skeptical about any expansion.
The survey thus indicates that strong forces of inertia seem to exist among firefighters.The fire brigade is considered by many members to be a place where they experience camaraderie in a highly homogeneous group of (mostly) men without a migration background who have lived in the district for years (or all their lives).Interestingly, the responding women also agree with these statements.Although they are somewhat more open than their male colleagues, more than half do not necessarily agree with including more firefighters with a migration background (see data on camaraderie in detail in section 5.1).
In the focus group discussion, some chiefs of the fire brigades recounted that various approaches had already been tried to attract people with a migration backgroundusually without lasting success.

Professionalism -A Specific Motive for Firefighters
From the data, we can derive another motivation -professionalism -that, in our opinion, cannot be attributed to either egoistic or altruistic motives (see sections 5.1 and 5.2).By professionalism we mean the desire of volunteer firefighters to be able to carry out their work adequately.In the focus group discussion, the fire chiefs emphasized this goal and that the proper equipment and training are essential for achieving it.Our data show that every second firefighter appreciate training in how to improve their firefighting skills.
As for equipment, the focus group discussion makes clear that the fire chiefs are aware that equipment is cost-intensive.One of them explains that he could imagine that the firefighters could be seen as problematic for local politicians and the municipal budget because firefighters are assumed to always want 'the most expensive toys' (fire engines).However, according to our survey, the vast majority of volunteer firefighters are satisfied with the equipment.Still, it is noticeable that the female firefighters rate the equipment worse than men, possibly since some of the fire stations do not have gender-equal toilets or separate changing rooms, as mentioned by several respondents in the open feedback parts of the survey.
In connection with the necessary modernization of many fire stations especially in rural districts, another aspect of professionalism becomes clear.Firefighters want to be informed when policy decisions are made that affect them.Ideally, they want to be involved in the decision-making process.For example, one chief explained in the group discussion that he was disappointed when he found out from the local newspaper that 'his' fire station was to be rebuilt.

Expectations
The analysis of the firefighters' motivations makes two points clear: Firstly, the survey results show that the satisfaction of volunteers with their voluntary activity depends essentially on the fulfillment of egoistic and altruistic motives, as well as on their desire to be professional.Secondly, especially the egoistic and professionalism motives are linked to explicit expectations with regard to necessary framework conditions that place demands on municipalities.

Appreciation by Local Politicians and Local Public Administrators
On the one hand, the firefighters expect to receive some kind of personal reward as recognition for their voluntary work, which differs from other types of volunteer activities in many respects (such as amount of time and personal risk involved).At the same time, they expect also a different sort of appreciation in the sense of good framework conditions for carrying out their activities.
In terms of appreciation in the form of personal benefits, there is a broad consensus among the respondents that they do their voluntary work for free and do not want to be compensated in line with the market.Nevertheless, half of the respondents would like to see higher reimbursement for expenses from the municipalities.In Germany, fire brigades can pay firefighters a lump-sum expense allowance to cover personal expenses (e.g., fuel or meals).The vast majority of respondents (over 90%) received a monthly allowance of well under €100, which a slight majority of respondents considered insufficient.A larger majority (around 70%) would prefer to have their contribution recognized through other forms of personal allowances.For example, many respondents call for benefits related to their volunteering activity, such as free use of gyms or public swimming pools to keep fit.The demand for free use of public transport or general discounts in the retail sector is also supported by two-thirds of respondents.
The firefighters also expect appreciation in the sense of good framework conditions for exercising their firefighting service.Such conditions include cooperation with the municipality and strengthening employers' acceptance.
In addition to providing essential public services, volunteer firefighters have to deal with bureaucratic tasks.Member recruitment (e.g., planning of open houses, flyer production) entails additional work for fire brigades.Here, survey respondents and fire chiefs participating in the focus group discussion call upon municipalities to relieve volunteer firefighters of bureaucratic tasks as much as possible and to actively support the volunteer fire brigades in recruiting members.After all, fire protection is a compulsory municipal task in Germany.
As described in section 5.1, many employers are not amenable to their employees' voluntary fire brigade work, as taking time off for assignments means time-consuming bureaucratic work for employers.Almost three quarters of firefighters who responded to our survey would like more support from public officials in communicating with their employers about time off for their work in the fire service.It is striking that this demand is most frequently raised by firefighters in the youngest age group.This seems indicative of a change in the world of work, in the course of which employers' attitudes towards voluntary commitment, especially in such a field of activity, is becoming increasingly hostile and unpredictable.

Cooperation and the Desire for Participation
First of all, professionalism requires proper equipment.Overall, the firefighters are satisfied with the current technical equipment (see section 5.3), but they never tire of pointing out to local politicians that equipment must always be kept up to date.It is striking that some older firefighters are significantly less demanding than their younger comrades.This is particularly true of demands for more financial resources for fire stations.One reason for this could be that the older firefighters have a better overview of how the municipalities have upgraded the fire stations in recent decades, while the younger age groups only know the status quo.However, there is widespread agreement between the age groups on the demand for adequate technical equipment for fire departments, for example, in the form of modern fire engines, tools and safety clothing.
But not all expectations relating to local public authorities have to add pressure to municipal budgets.For volunteer firefighters, two other aspects are important in order to be able to carry out their fire service well: cooperation with the municipality on an equal footing and the desire for participation when possible.Three of five firefighting respondents (61.1%) would like to have a specific contact person within local public administration with whom they could discuss problems or questions dealing with bureaucratic issues.The fire chiefs seek cooperation with local officials.As they explained in the focus group discussion, current problems (bureaucracy, recruiting new members) can only be effectively solved by working together with them to develop strategies.
Closely linked to cooperation is participation in decision-making, which is important to one in two (55%) of our survey respondents.As fire chiefs reported during the focus group discussion, volunteer firefighters want to be involved not only in decisions within their unit but also in political and policy debates about topics relating to fire brigades such as questions about equipment or mergers of fire stations (on the importance of involving volunteer firefighters in decisions about mergers in Germany, see Stute, 2022).

Discussion and Outlook
Our study shows that the firefighters surveyed in the Lippe district consider their commitment as mainly fulfilling altruistic motives.They know that their work is invaluable for the municipalities and of great importance for the local society: without the volunteers, the vast majority of municipalities would not be able to maintain fire protection and would have to resort to the very unpopular (re)establishment of compulsory service.Thus, altruistic motives clearly dominate over self-serving motives.In this respect, the results are consistent with those of previous research in Germany, for example by Groß (2021) in the state of Schleswig-Holstein.However, our study also shows that there are other, secondary motives why people volunteer in the fire brigades, namely in particular the camaraderie experienced in the fire department with likeminded people, the pleasure of dealing professionally with technology and, recognition by politics, administration and society.
Although the proportion of women has increased somewhat in recent years, the fire brigades are still far from being a reflection of society.Our study shows that the 16 fire brigades studied are highly socially homogeneous (see diversity scores shown in Table 1).It is mainly men without a migration background who are involved in the fire brigades.Getting together with like-minded people is an important motive for their involvement, and many respondents are reluctant to adapt to an increasingly diverse society.While a majority agrees that fire brigades should become more women-friendly, only two in five want to actively recruit people with a migration background.
From the perspective of civil society research, this finding is initially unproblematic, since civil society organizations are often characterized by social proximity and shared values (van Deth et al., 2016) and many of them are not nor intended to be a mirror of society.In municipalities where there are sufficient qualified volunteers and no shortage of new recruits is apparent, it is therefore plausible to tolerate male-dominated firefighter camaraderie with all its potential peculiarities, such as chauvinism, to a certain extent.
On the other hand, this poses a challenge to municipalities that no longer have sufficient firefighters.German society is diversifying more and more, also in rural areas, while the fire brigades remain a closed shop in terms of their social composition.If they do not open up to new population groups, they will have more and more problems recruiting new people.At the same time, a diversification of the fire brigade can hardly be imposed hierarchically from above, because otherwise there is a danger of scaring away the volunteers who are still there.This is particularly true for civil societies in rural areas, which differ significantly from urban regions in terms of organizational plurality, engagement networks and actor constellations (Paarlberg et al., 2022).Volunteer fire departments and other civic organizations such as sports clubs, church congregations, and even social welfare associations are more strongly shaped by traditions here and are more difficult to adapt to changing conditions, which is a problem because these organizations often hold a monopoly position in rural areas (Freise, 2022, p. 196).In this respect, our study can connect to research on the impact of demographic change on rural civil societies, which in many places around the world are suffering from dwindling young talent (Paarlberg et al., 2022;Swiaczny, 2010).
A second growing challenge for municipalities in Germany is likely to be the expectations of volunteer firefighters, which derive from their motivation.Most respondents to our survey agree that they do not expect to be paid (much) for their work, and they do their work for altruistic reasons.However, they do expect appreciation for and recognition of their enormous commitment, and they demand forms of personal recognition that may well involve some financial expenditure on the municipalities' part, for example, if the firefighters want personal benefits such as free or discounted use of local public transport or public swimming pools.Far more costly are the expectations regarding the framework conditions shaping their voluntary activity, e.g., the fire brigade's technical equipment.Here, the firefighters expect municipalities to provide modern vehicles and other firefighting technology.
For many German municipalities, this is a considerable problem.Over the past three decades, the federal government and the states have transferred more and more tasks to the municipalities, some of which weigh heavily on their budgets.In 2020, more than 2,500 of the 10,773 German municipalities were considered over-indebted, and numerous others have great difficulties in adequately financing their tasks (Dudek, 2021).For example, the legally required expansion of pre-schools, all-day care in schools, environmental protection requirements, and the accommodation of refugees are financial challenges for the cities and municipalities, while municipal tax revenues are often declining (Beznoska & Kauder, 2020).Therefore, they have to set financial priorities, and more and more often these priorities do not lie with the volunteer fire brigades.Consider that the average age of fire engines has continued to rise in recent years and is as of 2020 around 15 years (Hegemann, 2020).The renovation or construction of new fire stations is also being postponed more and more frequently, and municipal subsidies for fire brigade festivals are being cut.
In view of the current budget crisis of the cities and municipalities in Germany, it can be assumed that the financial rewards offered by the municipalities will be reduced even further.This makes non-material appreciation by politicians all the more important.This is a challenge for many mayors, as they have often not been socialized in the fire brigades, which makes it difficult for them to connect with the volunteers.Nevertheless, they will not be able to avoid cooperating closely with the fire brigades and expressing their appreciation on a regular basis, if fire protection in Germany is to continue to be ensured primarily by volunteer firefighters into the future.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Volunteer firefighters' wishes for the further development of fire brigades by gender (value combination 'agree completely' and 'agree to a large extent').

Table 1 .
Diversity scores of volunteer fire departments in the Lippe district.