Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany)

The Federal Ministry of Defence (BMVg) is a Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. At present the headquarters of the ministry are still in Bonn with 3230 working in the Hardthöhe. The second office employs about 500 people in the Bendlerblock in Berlin.

Organisation
The BMVg is at the highest Federal authority and the highest command authority of the defence forces. The BMVg has civilian and military departments:
 the General staff (Führungsstab) of the defence forces, under the Inspector General of the Federal Armed Forces
 the top staffs of the 3 forces (Army, Navy and Air Force)
 the armaments department the department of defence administration, infrastructure and environmental protection
 the personel, social and central department
 the legal department
 the Budget department
 the department for modernisation.

Operatively the General Staff of the Defence Forces (or "FÜ S", which is short for ) is the most important, it has seven sections divided into 42 smaller sections

The press and information staff and the planning staff work directly under the minister

Federal Minister of Defence
In peace time the Federal Minister of Defence is commander in chief of the Armed Forces, not the Federal President.Grundgesetz, article 65.

If Germany is attacked, or about to be attacked, command passes to the Chancellor.

 History 
In 1950 Chancellor Konrad Adenauer gave Theodor Blank the job of preparing for the time when Germany could have an army. In December 20 people where working in the "Blank Office". On 7 June 1955 it had 1300 employees, and it became the Federal Ministry for  Defence.

It was renamed in Federal Ministry of defence on December 1961 and was seen as one of the "classic departments" . At German reunification the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee) of East Germany was made part of the Federal Armed Forces. Not long after this, Germany's army took part in the war in Kosovo. This was the first time that Germany's army had been sent to fight outside Germany since the end of World War II

Federal Ministers of Defence since 1955
German Ministers of DefenceNoNameLife dataTerm startTerm endParty1Theodor Blank1905-19727 June 195516 October 1956CDU2Franz-Josef Strauß1915-198816 October 195611 December 1962CSU3Kai-Uwe von Hassel1913-199711 December 19621 December 1966CDU4Gerhard Schröder1910-19891 December 196621 October 1969CDU5Helmut Schmidt1918-201521 October 196910 July 1972SPD6Georg Leber1920-201210 July 19721 February 1978SPD7Hans Apel1932-201117 February 19781 October 1982SPD8Manfred Wörner1934-19944 October 198218 May 1988CDU9Rupert Scholz1937-18 May 198821 April 1989CDU10Gerhard Stoltenberg1928-200121 April 198931 March 1992CDU11Volker Rühe1942-1 April 199226 October 1998CDU12Rudolf Scharping1947-28 October 1998 19 July 2002SPD13Peter Struck1943-201219 July 200222 November 2005SPD14Franz Josef Jung1949-22 November 200527 October 2009CDU15Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg 1971-28 October 20093 March 2011CSU16Thomas de Maizière1954-3 March 201117 December 2013CDU17Ursula von der Leyen1958-17 December 201317 July 2019CDU18Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer1962-17 July 20198 December 2021CDU19Christine Lambrecht1965-8 December 202119 January 2023SPD20Boris Pistorius1960-19 January 2023SPD

References

Germ
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