Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany)

Federal Ministry of Defence

Bundesministerium der Verteidigung
Agency overview
Formed	7 June 1955
Jurisdiction	Government of Germany
Headquarters	Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen
Employees	3730
Minister responsible	Boris Pistorius Bundesminister der Verteidigung
Website	bmvg.de

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 German: Fuhrungsstab der Streitkräfte) 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.

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 Defence
No	Name	Life data	Term start	Term end	Party
1	Theodor Blank	1905-1972	7 June 1955	16 October 1956	CDU
2	Franz-Josef Strauß	1915-1988	16 October 1956	11 December 1962	CSU
3	Kai-Uwe von Hassel	1913-1997	11 December 1962	1 December 1966	CDU
4	Gerhard Schröder	1910-1989	1 December 1966	21 October 1969	CDU
5	Helmut Schmidt	1918-2015	21 October 1969	10 July 1972	SPD
6	Georg Leber	1920-2012	10 July 1972	1 February 1978	SPD
7	Hans Apel	1932-2011	17 February 1978	1 October 1982	SPD
8	Manfred Wörner	1934-1994	4 October 1982	18 May 1988	CDU
9	Rupert Scholz	1937-	18 May 1988	21 April 1989	CDU
10	Gerhard Stoltenberg	1928-2001	21 April 1989	31 March 1992	CDU
11	Volker Rühe	1942-	1 April 1992	26 October 1998	CDU
12	Rudolf Scharping	1947-	28 October 1998	19 July 2002	SPD
13	Peter Struck	1943-2012	19 July 2002	22 November 2005	SPD
14	Franz Josef Jung	1949-	22 November 2005	27 October 2009	CDU
15	Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg	1971-	28 October 2009	3 March 2011	CSU
16	Thomas de Maizière	1954-	3 March 2011	17 December 2013	CDU
17	Ursula von der Leyen	1958-	17 December 2013	17 July 2019	CDU
18	Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer	1962-	17 July 2019	8 December 2021	CDU
19	Christine Lambrecht	1965-	8 December 2021	19 January 2023	SPD
20	Boris Pistorius	1960-	19 January 2023		SPD