"Russia and China have in recent years rapidly expanded their capabilities for conducting warfare in space," he said.

"They can disrupt, jam, manipulate or even physically destroy satellites. In space, there are no borders or continents. Russia and China are our immediate neighbours there."

Germany has strongly backed Ukraine in its war against Russia and, under Chancellor Friedrich Merz, vowed to massively step up military spending to help boost NATO's European capabilities.

Pistorius said Germany would also build military structures "to enable us to effectively defend ourselves and deter potential adversaries in space".

Germany's outer space security architecture would comprise "a resilient system of satellite constellations, ground stations, secure launch capabilities and related services" as well "cybersecurity for all space systems", he said.

Berlin was also "improving our situational awareness in orbit through the use of radar, telescopes and the future deployment of space surveillance satellites".

Pistorius, speaking at the Space Congress of the Federation of German Industries, said that "by 2030 alone, we plan to allocate 35 billion euros in budget funds to relevant projects".

- 'Cripple entire nations' -

The minister said that, broadly speaking, "outer space offers us many opportunities: from global communication to Earth observation, from weather forecasting to navigation".

But he added that increasingly, nations are using space "to expand their geopolitical influence without restraint. It is a space where conflicts and threats are very real."

Western countries and their rivals in China and Russia have accused each other of seeking to militarise space.

US President Donald Trump has announced plans to build a futuristic anti-missile system, dubbed the "Golden Dome", which Russia views as an attempt to revive the 1990s era "Star Wars" programme.

The minister said that, in the time it took him to give his speech, "a total of 39 Chinese and Russian reconnaissance satellites are overflying us", transmitting observation data in real time.

China was already "conducting highly agile and dynamic manoeuvres" and Russia is "positioning its reconnaissance satellites in close proximity" to space systems of Germany and its allies, he said.

Pistorius warned that any future use of space weapons could have a severe impact on modern life because "we all depend on data transmitted via satellites" for everything from communications to navigation and weather forecasts.

"Any attempt to disrupt this communication, any GPS jamming, any attack on satellites, affects not only the military or the space industry -- it affects millions of people.

"Satellite networks are an Achilles heel of modern society. Those who attack them can cripple entire nations."