Achim Lidsba Achim Lidsba ( born 4 March 1955 in Breinum ) is a Major General of the Army and the German Armed Forces and since the 14th July 2011 Commander of the Armed Forces Staff College in Hamburg . Military career . Training . After graduating from high school in Roswitha Bad Gandersheim in 1973 he join the service of the armed forces . By 1977 , he graduated in the armored infantry squad officer training and was promoted to lieutenant . From 1977 to 1981 he was first as a platoon commander and then as an intelligence officer ( S2 ) at 341 Infantry Battalion ( later 62 ) used in Wolf Hagen . During this time he was promoted to Lieutenant . During this time he was promoted to Lieutenant . From 1981 to 1985 was in the Infantry Battalion 52 in Rotenburg an der Fulda twice as company commander and received the promotion to captain during this time . Service as a Staff Officer . From 1985 to 1987 he graduated from the National General Staff Course at the Staff College in Hamburg and thus received the promotion to major . Subsequently , he was from 1987 to 1989 Deputy Head of the Military Intelligence ( G2 ) on the staff of I Corps in Münster under the command of Lieutenant Generals Dieter Clauss and Jörn Söder . There followed a foreign assignment in Brussels , where from 1989 to 1992 acted as a consultant for military policy in the staff of the German military representative to the NATO Military Committee , under Lieutenant General Rolf Hüttel . As Hüttel was added in 1992 in the Ministry of Defence in Bonn , there to take up the post of the chief of the planning staff , he took with Achim Lidsba as a speaker . After Hüttel was replaced four months later , Lidsba served until 1994 as a speaker at Hüttels successor , Vice Admiral Ulrich Weisser . From 1994 to 1996 , Lieutenant Colonel Lidsba served in the Infantry Battalion 323 in Schwanewede . In 1994 he returned to Hamburg , to serve at the Leadership Academy until 1996 as a tutor and lecturer in troop leadership in the Army General Staff Course . In 1998 he was transferred to Koblenz and served at the local Army Forces Command to 2000 as a group leader ) under the command of Lieutenant - General Rüdiger Drews . In this role he was also in international missions in Kosovo . In 2000 he moved again into the Ministry of Defence in Berlin , where he remained until 2005 as the Head of Unit in the military staff department of the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces ( Armed Forces Staff III ) under the Chief of Staff , Major General Egon Ramm and Rear Admiral Wolfram Kühn . Here , he was also responsible for the preparation and support of military - political armed military missions , Cabinet decisions and referrals to the German Bundestag as well as coordination with NATO , the EU , United Nations and partners . Service in the rank of General . Under appointment to Brigadier General in 2005 by Wolfgang Brüschke he took over command of the Neustadt Armoured Brigade 14 , 12 which he led until July 2007 . He gave this command to Colonel Theodore Herkel , who commanded the brigade only as a brigade leader . during this time he was again deployed abroad , this time from November 2005 to April 2006 as commander of the 9th German contingent in Afghanistan as part of ISAF . From 2007 to 2010 he was deployed again in Brussels to the NATO Military Committee and served as Deputy Staff Director and Chief of Staff of the German military representative , Vice Admiral Frank Roper and Lieutenant General Jürgen Bornemann . On the 21 June 2010 in Leipzig he took over from Major General Reinhard Kammerer command of the 13th Panzer Grenadier Division . The then German Defence Minister Karl - Theodor zu Guttenberg promoted him on the 30 June 2010 in Berlin to Major General . Since 14 July 2011 he has been the commander of the Staff College in Hamburg . Private Life . Lidsba is married and has three sons . One of his sons , Christian , is the guitarist of the band Stanfour .