20 years Bundeswehr role 1 role 2 role 3 at the beginning and end of total length
This policy: Bundeswehr 1955-75 earlier Sunday evening in front of a barracks, somewhere in the Federal Republic. Young conscripts, some of around 200,000 annually taken, report back from their weekend holiday. For most Zapfenstreich is from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening. Many are just 20 years old. Yet the employer entrusts Bundeswehr million values them.
Bundeswehr soldier: ' my name is Jakob gold sand. I am committed for four years in the Bundeswehr, first, out of conviction, secondly, because I can do an apprenticeship in the Bundeswehr. I'm just 20 years old.'
These days, the Bundeswehr will be 20 years old. For us cause for a look back at the beginnings of the Bundeswehr. When television was still in its infancy, the newsreel was already there.
The Federal Republic of 1955. The administrative boundary between the Eastern and the Western garrison zones has solidified in a decade to the iron curtain. Over the German Democratic Republic, firmly embedded in the Communist Eastern bloc. Here the growing economic miracle Republic, where is the population on the question starts to heat up, how to protect what has been achieved. The urging of Western allies on a German defence contribution compounded the public discussion: discussion Cologne Wednesday conversation: ' we feel not for five pfennigs, but if it must be, and is done under reasonable conditions, then Yes.
'So far, an upgrade has never prevented a war, and they should not make us believe it, that you could now defend something with divisions and tanks in the age of atomic bombs.'
Also in the German Bundestag, the pros and cons of a rearmament is discussed heavily. The majority decision for a German military contribution, Ollenhauer, leader of the opposition conjures up the danger of a final Division of Germany. Federal Chancellor Adenauer answers him. Erich Ollenhauer: 'the ratification of the treaties will solve any of the problems.'
Konrad Adenauer: 'my firm conviction, after the conviction of every German who impartially considered things, there's only a rescue for all of us to make that Soviet Russia detects an attack, it's a big risk for Soviet Russia itself so closely before this consistently continuing policy of the totalitarian Soviet Russia.'
Painters and carpenters are the vanguard of the new army. You renovate the former French occupation soldiers for the first volunteers in the German armed forces accommodation in Andernach: 1000 chosen old recruits, nearly 200,000 candidates who want to take the risk, to build an army in a democracy with. The Bundeswehr as a defensive instrument of peacekeeping and crisis management, so how it commands the basic law. And the armed forces as an army of conscripts, which incorporates the soldiers into political life. 'Citizen in uniform' - is the motto. Only every now and then the memory comes over the uniformed citizen on times past.
Meanwhile, the German flag is raised at NATO Headquarters shape in Paris. The Federal Republic has become an equal member of the most powerful defence alliance of the free world. As the first German army, the Bundeswehr super national authority will shelter.
In Andernach, the volunteers make first teaching battalions for the military branches of the army. Weapons and equipment supply Americans--for example the tank M 47. The planned 12 German divisions should be small, movable and equipped with high firepower.
20 years later: the eight Panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions form the backbone of the Bundeswehr. The battle tank Leopard, a purely German development, applies to many military experts as the best in the world. The main objective seems reached: the anti-tank weapon of the Bundeswehr with a total 4,600 tanks of different patterns has great mobility and firepower.
NATO is examining the operational readiness of all NATO troops once in a year. The German brigades and divisions are this performance test with good to very good marks.
Modest began the Luftwaffe of the Bundeswehr. In Nörvenich climbed the first of future Jet pilots in propeller-driven aircraft in 1955 of the type ' mark 4', to first refresh the old flight experiences.
20 years later: a new generation of pilots sitting in the cockpit of the double sound fast jets. Still, the Black Star fighter dominated the air Armada. But his presumed successor is already ready to go: the multi-role combat aircraft MRCA, a weapons system jointly developed by Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. The men's doubles event has two engines and pivoting wings. The Alpha Jet - a german French construction - is used as a lightweight fighter.
With 6 phantom squadrons, the air force will improve their contribution to the Alliance still.
With less than a thousand tactical combat aircraft already provides the strongest NATO contingent.
The start of the German Navy in Wilhelmshaven commented 20 years ago the newsreel Narrator: weekly news speaker: ' Korvettenkapitän Reschke, U-boat Commander in World War II, leads the training. He comes from the probation in the economy, such as almost all leaders of the soldiers. This is a particular advantage for the construction of the new army. All this is preliminary: four boats and two transport boats. Still grow the sailors in their tasks, whereby the requirements can be increased slowly.'
Today, the Navy has long since reached the technical standard of modern weapon systems. The U boat flotilla will be expanded next year to 24 units. The new missile speedboats make the speedboat associations complement partly replace, In an emergency, an almost impossible task would on the small maritime force of the Bundeswehr were: their U - and speedboats, their frigates and missile destroyers would have to prevent the powerful Navy of the Soviet Union to the opening to the Atlantic Ocean.
The sophisticated technology of weapons and devices requires qualified and well trained soldiers. Offers a variety of courses the vocational training of the Bundeswehr: German Army soldier: ' I was Machinist at my entry to the Bundeswehr. I was retrained by the Bundeswehr as a Jet engine mechanic and made my Jet engine mechanic at the technical school of the air force.
I was actually going to go after my stint in the civil industry.'
Study - it is possible also that for two years in the Bundeswehr. A three-year study at one of the two German armed forces University in Hamburg and Munich is one of the new officer training. Leadership in a high-tech force can be overcome only by officers who are familiar with scientific way of working and have technical knowledge. The new campus of the Munich University in Neubiberg, Germany – the latest example for the development of the Bundeswehr to the largest and most versatile training company in the Federal Republic almost unnoticed-at-heart.
20 years Bundeswehr. Observed at its inception with suspicion, she has found their place in society and in the Alliance today. The now strongest European land forces of NATO provides no political dynamite. A defense of Western Europe without the Bundeswehr is no longer conceivable. She is only 20 years old.
