Captains of Unna
30 captains and company commanders from the 7th Panzer Grenadier Division of the German Armed Forces , who in March 1971 had made critical comments about the internal leadership , were referred to as “captains von Unna” , also known as “captains 71” . They became known throughout Germany.
In a 16-page paper they criticized the conditions in the Bundeswehr. They complained about the Bundeswehr's lack of operational orientation, the increasing politicization and the slackening of military discipline, specifically also that “under the current conditions the assignment can no longer be carried out”. In a way, this was a reaction to or a counter-statement to the nine theses written by the " Leutnanten 70 " of the Army Officer School II on March 10, 1970, in which they called for an officer type to be freed from traditionalist fetters. Including the “ Schnez study ” from 1969, the case of the Unna captains was the third case under Defense Minister Helmut Schmidt in which parts of the officer corps expressed criticism of the Bundeswehr. Among other things, the memorandum was discussed as part of the seminar “In search of the officer's image” in 1984 at the Inner Guidance Center .
The paper, also known as the “Unna Memorandum ” or the “Hauptmanns Memorandum 1971”, was an affront to the military and political leadership of the time. The group and its demands were also discussed in the specialist conferences in connection with the preparation of the Bundeswehr's white paper .
The initiator of the group was Eike Middeldorf , at that time commander of the 7th Panzer Grenadier Division in Unna, who encouraged his captains to write down notices of defects in an unvarnished working paper. He communicated with the company commanders disregarding the official channels across the battalion and brigade commanders and is said to have encouraged them to “always be ruthlessly sharp” when they met them personally. The group's spokesman was Heiko Möhring .
literature
- Hauptmanns memorandum 1971 / “Fall Middeldorf” , vol. 31, section “Bundeswehr material collection” in the Bernd C. Hesslein collection of the Institute for Contemporary History
- Captains - One-time operation. Der Spiegel 14/1971, March 29, 1971, p. 22.
- Bundeswehr - captains: Turn right and turn back. Der Spiegel 15/1971, April 5, 1971, pp. 26-29.
- Sepp Binder: Every word a blow - Koblenz ministerial whistle for low-pitched captains. The time 19/1971, May 7, 1971
- Sepp Binder: Better than your reputation. The time 13/1972, March 31, 1972.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Planned breaking of a taboo. In: Marcel Bohnert : Army on the move Army on the move. panzertruppe.com, July 13, 2016.
- ↑ a b André Uzulis : The Bundeswehr. A political story from 1955 to the present day. ES Mittler & Sohn, 2015, p. 186. ISBN 3-813-21010-3 ( limited preview in Google book search)
- ↑ Looking for the officer's picture . Seminar on the theses of "Lieutenant 70" and the record of the results of the "Captains of Unna". ' In: Texts and Studies by the Center for Inner Leadership. Series Educational Education , H. 1/1984, pp. 119–141.
- ↑ Ulf Krause: The Bundeswehr as an Instrument of German Foreign Policy, Wiesbaden 2013.
- ^ General Middeldorf: tears in the eyes. Der Spiegel 16/1971, April 12, 1971, pp. 31-34. ( pdf ).