page_title: Wolfgang Altenburg
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Wolfgang Altenburg / Biography
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. 24.10.1983 Öffentliche Informationssitzung des Verteidigungsausschusses des Deutschen Bundestages im Bundeshaus zur NATO-Strategie.
context_page_description: Wolfgang Altenburg is a retired German general. He served as Chief of Staff of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, from 1983 to 1986, and as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 1986 to 1989.
context_section_description: Altenburg was born in Schneidemühl, Posen-West Prussia (today Piła, Poland) and was conscripted as a Marinehelfer (Navy aide) in 1944 serving at Heligoland. After the end of World War II he completed a professional training in hotel business and volunteered the Bundeswehr in 1956 at the Artillerytroops.
  Altenburg passed his general staff training at the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr in 1962 - 1964 and became the Deputy Director of Nuclear Planning at SHAPE in 1971. He returned to the German Department of Defense in 1973 as an Oberst and commanded the Panzergrenadierbrigade 7 (Hamburg). In April 1978 Altenburg became the Director of the Executive Staff of the Federal Forces and in 1979 the German Representative at the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee in Brussels. In 1981 Altenburg took over the command of the III. Korps at Koblenz and became the Chief of staff of the Federal Forces (Generalinspekteur der Bundeswehr) in 1983, a position he held until 1986. On 1 October 1986 Altenburg became the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee himself.
caption: Altenburg talking to members of the Bundestag, 1983.
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