| Agency Name: | Federal Ministry of Defence |
| Nativename: | Bundesministerium der Verteidigung (BMVg) |
| Seal: | DEgov-BMVg-Logo en.svg |
| Picture Width: | 200px |
| Picture Caption: | Entrance to the Hardthöhe, Bonn |
| Formed: | 19191/19552 |
| Headquarters: | Hardthöhe, Bonn, Germany |
| Coordinates: | 50.6992°N 7.0403°W |
| Jurisdiction: | Cabinet of Germany |
| Budget: | €53 billion (2021)[1] |
| Minister1 Name: | Boris Pistorius |
| Minister1 Pfo: | Federal Minister of Defence |
| Chief1 Name: | Siemtje Möller[2] |
| Chief1 Position: | Parliamentary Secretary of State |
| Chief2 Name: | Thomas Hitschler |
| Chief2 Position: | Parliamentary Secretary of State |
| Website: | http://www.bmvg.de |
| Footnotes: | 1: As the Ministry of the Reichswehr, succeeding the Ministry of War of Prussia, the Ministry of War of Saxony, the Ministry of War of Bavaria, the Ministry of War of Württemberg and the Imperial Naval Office 2: As the Ministry of Defence (Bundesministerium für Verteidigung) in West Germany[3] |
The Federal Ministry of Defence (German: Bundesministerium der Verteidigung, pronounced as /de/), abbreviated BMVg, is a top-level federal agency, headed by the Federal Minister of Defence as a member of the Cabinet of Germany. The ministry is headquartered at the Hardthöhe district in Bonn and has a second office in the Bendlerblock building in Berlin, which is occasionally used as a metonym to denote the entire Ministry.[4]
According to Article 65a of the German Constitution (Grundgesetz), the Federal Minister of Defence is Commander-in-chief of the German: [[Bundeswehr]], the German armed forces, with around 265,019 active soldiers and civilians.[5] Article 115b decrees that in the state of defence, declared by the Bundestag with consent of the Bundesrat, the command in chief passes to the Chancellor.
The ministry currently has approximately 3,730 employees. Of these, 3,230 work in Bonn while around 500 work in the Bendlerblock building in Berlin.
On April 1, 2012, the Federal Ministry of Defence (DEU MOD) changes its organization to the following general structure:
The Bundeswehr is divided into a military part (armed forces or Streitkräfte) and a civil part with the armed forces administration (Wehrverwaltung) and consists of 11 Departments/Services:
From the Unification of Germany in 1871 until the end of World War I, the German Empire did not have a national Ministry of War. Instead the larger German states (such as the kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg), insisting on their autonomy, each had an own war ministry. According to the military agreements the Prussian minister president Otto von Bismarck had forged with the South German states on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the major states were responsible also for the defence of the smaller states. However, the Imperial Navy from 1889 was overseen by a federal department, the Imperial Naval Office.
See also: Ministry of the Reichswehr. After the war and the German Revolution of 1918–19, the Weimar Constitution provided for a unified, national ministry of defence, which was created largely from the Prussian Ministry of War and the Imperial Naval Office. The Ministry of the Reichswehr was established in October 1919, and had its seat in the Bendlerblock building.
In the context of the Treaty of Versailles and the "Law for the Creation of a provisional Reichswehr" of March 1919, the Reichspräsident became the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, whilst the Reich Minister of Defence exercised military authority. Only in the Free State of Prussia did military authority remain with the State Minister of War. After the Weimar Constitution came into force, the remaining war ministries in the states of Bavaria, Saxony, Württemberg and Prussia were abolished and military authority was concentrated in the Reich Minister of Defence. Command was exercised respectively by the Chief of the Heeresleitung (Army Command) and the Chief of the Marineleitung (Navy Command, see Reichsmarine). In 1929 a third office was established: the Ministerial Office, whose Chief functioned as the political representative of the Minister. The role of the General Staff was filled by the Truppenamt.
The Social Democratic politician Gustav Noske became the first Minister of Defence of Germany. After the Nazi Machtergreifung, when the Reichswehr was recreated as the Wehrmacht in 1935, the ministry was renamed Reichskriegsministerium (Reich Ministry of War); also, the Heeresleitung became the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), the Marineleitung became the Oberkommando der Marine (OKM) and the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (OKL) was newly created. The Ministeramt (Ministerial Office) was renamed the Wehrmachtsamt.
In 1938, following the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair, Hitler himself exercised the functions of the Reich War Minister. The Wehrmachtsamt was turned into the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW; High Command of the Armed Forces), which formally existed until the end of World War II. The High Command was not a government ministry, but a military command, however.
After World War II, West Germany started with preparations for rearmament (Wiederbewaffnung) in 1950, as ordered by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. After the outbreak of the Korean War, the United States called for a West German contribution to the defence of Western Europe (against the Soviet Union). Initially Gerhard Graf von Schwerin, a former Wehrmacht General, advised the Chancellor on these issues and led the preparations, but after Count Schwerin had talked to the press about his work, he was replaced by Theodor Blank, who was appointed as "Special Representative" of the Chancellor. As the rearmament plans met with harsh opposition by a wide circle within the West German population and contradicted the occupation statute, the government office responsible for the rearmament acted secretly, unofficially known as Amt Blank. By 1955, the number of employees had surpassed 1,300. On 7 June 1955 the office became the Ministry of Defence, or Bundesministerium für Verteidigung in German. The Bundeswehr was established and Germany joined the NATO the same year. In 1956, Germany reintroduced conscription, and the German military force quickly became the largest conventional military force in Western Europe. To confirm the ministry's importance, it was renamed Bundesministerium der Verteidigung on 30 December 1961, similar to the German names of the "classic" ministries of Finance, the Interior and Justice - though the federal minister is still denoted as Bundesminister für Verteidigung in Article 65a of the German Constitution.
Until 1960, the ministry had its seat in the Ermekeil barracks in Bonn. From 1960 onwards, it was moved to a new building complex at Hardthöhe.
After German reunification, the Bendlerblock, former seat of its Weimar Republic predecessor, became the secondary seat of the ministry in 1993. The German military has become increasingly engaged in international operations since the early 1990s, and saw combat in the 1999 Kosovo War.
Until the Fall of Kabul in August 2021, Germany deployed for nearly 20 years its armed forces in Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force (2001-2015) and later the Resolute Support Mission (2015-2021). German forces withdrew on 29 June.[6]
See main article: List of German defence ministers. Political Party:
| Name (Born-Died) | Portrait | Party | Term of Office | Duration | Chancellor (Cabinet) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Minister for Defence (1955–1961) Federal Minister of Defence (1961–present) | |||||||
| 1 | Theodor Blank (1905–1972) | CDU | 7 June 1955 | 16 October 1956 | Adenauer (II) | ||
| 2 | Franz Josef Strauß (1915–1988) | CSU | 16 October 1956 | 9 January 1963 | Adenauer (II • III • IV) | ||
| 3 | Kai-Uwe von Hassel (1913–1997) | CDU | 9 January 1963 | 1 December 1966 | Erhard (I • II) | ||
| 4 | Gerhard Schröder (1910–1989) | CDU | 1 December 1966 | 21 October 1969 | Kiesinger (cabinet) | ||
| 5 | Helmut Schmidt (1918–2015) | SPD | 22 October 1969 | 7 July 1972 | Brandt (I) | ||
| 6 | Georg Leber (1920–2012) | SPD | 7 July 1972 | 16 February 1978 | Brandt (I • II) Schmidt (I • II) | ||
| 7 | Hans Apel (1932–2011) | SPD | 17 February 1978 | 1 October 1982 | Schmidt (II • III) | ||
| 8 | Manfred Wörner (1934–1994) | CDU | 4 October 1982 | 18 May 1988 | Kohl (I • II • III) | ||
| 9 | Rupert Scholz (born 1937) | CDU | 18 May 1988 | 21 April 1989 | Kohl (III) | ||
| 10 | Gerhard Stoltenberg (1928–2001) | CDU | 21 April 1989 | 31 March 1992 | Kohl (III • IV) | ||
| 11 | Volker Rühe (born 1942) | CDU | 1 April 1992 | 26 October 1998 | Kohl (IV • V) | ||
| 12 | Rudolf Scharping (born 1947) | SPD | 27 October 1998 | 19 July 2002 | Schröder (I) | ||
| 13 | Peter Struck (1943–2012) | SPD | 19 July 2002 | 22 November 2005 | Schröder (I • II) | ||
| 14 | Franz Josef Jung (born 1949) | CDU | 22 November 2005 | 28 October 2009 | Merkel (I) | ||
| 15 | Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (born 1971) | CSU | 28 October 2009 | 3 March 2011 | Merkel (II) | ||
| 16 | Thomas de Maizière (born 1954) | CDU | 3 March 2011 | 17 December 2013 | |||
| 17 | Ursula von der Leyen (born 1958) | CDU | 17 December 2013 | 17 July 2019 | Merkel (III • IV) | ||
| 18 | Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (born 1962) | CDU | 17 July 2019 | 8 December 2021 | Merkel (IV) | ||
| 19 | Christine Lambrecht (born 1965) | SPD | 8 December 2021 | 19 January 2023 | Scholz (cabinet) | ||
| 20 | Boris Pistorius (born 1960) | SPD | 19 January 2023 | Incumbent | |||