Germany plans to hold only muted commemorations for the 100th anniversary of the first world war in which 37 million people were killed or wounded.
Some €4 million has been allocated to events, but this pales compared to the budgets being applied by other key nations involved.
The UK and France are each planning to spend about €60m. Australia has allocated €50m, and New Zealand is to devote €10m to commemorative events.
With only five months to the start of the centenary, German media recently reported disagreements in the German government as to which ministry was responsible for coordinating centenary events.
Critics in the country have said that Germany should be doing more. They pointed out that there are no plans for Angela Merkel to attend any events and only two state visits by cabinet members are scheduled, both in France with one being in the Franco-German border area.
Historians have also criticised the heavy attention Germany is placing on the western front at the expense of few events commemorating the agonies in the eastern European theatre of war.
Millions of victims suffered during the 1914-1918 conflict in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. One historian said: "We have this clear sense of what happened on the western front, aided by countless books and films. The assumption is often that the eastern theatre of war was less significant, or more traditional – but that's not true."
