Klaus Naumann

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Klaus Naumann (2011)

Klaus Dieter Naumann (born May 25, 1939 in Munich ) is a retired German general . D. of the Army of the Federal Armed Forces , was Inspector General of the Federal Armed Forces from 1991 to 1996 and chaired the NATO Military Committee from 1996 to his retirement in 1999 .

Military career

Naumann joined the Bundeswehr in 1958 with field artillery battalion 41 in Landshut . At the Army Officer School III in Munich and the Artillery School in Idar-Oberstein he was trained as an artillery officer.

From 1970 to 1972 he completed the 13th general staff course at the command academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg and was awarded the General Heusinger Prize as an outstanding course participant . After assignments in the 51 armored artillery battalion in Idar-Oberstein , as a battery chief in the 135 armored artillery battalion in Wetzlar , as an operations officer ( G3 ) of the 15 armored brigade in Koblenz , he was commander of the 55 armored artillery battalion in Homberg from 1977 to 1979 . In 1981 Naumann was promoted to colonel . In Brussels , he served as Head of Department for Military Policy, Nuclear Strategy and Arms Control on the staff of the German Military Representative in the NATO Military Committee . In 1983 Naumann graduated from the Royal College of Defense Studies in London . From 1984 to 1986 he was in command of the 30th Panzer Grenadier Brigade in Ellwangen .

Service in the rank of general

When he was appointed Brigadier General on April 1, 1986, he became Head of the Planning Department in the Command Staff of the Armed Forces (FüS VI) in the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn . After being appointed major general , he also served at the FüS from 1988 to 1991 as head of the department for military policy and operational management (Fü S III). In April 1991, until September 1991, Naumann took over the 1st Corps in Münster as the commanding general . The standing time of only 6 months in this application and in the rank of lieutenant general is extremely unusual in peacetime. It was generally attributed to the fact that Naumann was previously designated as General Inspector in the political arena, but did not yet have the “third general star” required for a nomination, which was made up for in the shortest possible time.

General Inspector of the Bundeswehr

Klaus Naumann in the US embassy in Mogadishu at the end of December 1992
Klaus Naumann in May 1993

On October 1, 1991, Naumann was appointed as the youngest General Inspector of the Bundeswehr and appointed General . On November 19, 1992, Naumann visited Israel and was the first foreign guest to speak at the country's National Defense Academy. In October 1993 he visited the German Support Association in Somalia as part of the UNOSOM II peace mission of the United Nations . In February and March 1994, Naumann paid tribute to the Allied troops of the United States , the United Kingdom and France who were withdrawing from Berlin with the banner of the Federal Republic of Germany for their services to the freedom of Berlin.

In July 1994, in his role as General Inspector, Naumann initiated the restructuring of the Bundeswehr and formed the components of the Main Defense Forces (HVK), Crisis Reaction Forces (KRK) and Basic Military Organization (MGO). In December 1994 he was nominated for the post of Chairman of the NATO Military Committee at the Conference of the NATO Chiefs of Staff and was appointed Chairman of the NATO Military Committee in Brussels on February 14, 1996, replacing the English Field Marshal Sir Richard Vincent . During this time he was responsible in particular for basic military policy decisions by NATO in relation to the war in Kosovo and earned great respect from Western governments for his handling of the problem. He served in this use until 1999. In the context of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia , he appeared as one of the witnesses against the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević .

retirement

After his retirement in 1999, he worked in several international commissions, most notably the commission that presented the concept of Responsibility to Protect. From 1999 to 2002 he was President of the Clausewitz Society . After 2003 he also worked on various supervisory boards.

At the end of 2005, accusations were raised in the press that General Naumann had violated his official duties by accepting various consulting contracts and supervisory board mandates after his retirement. These allegations could not be substantiated.

On October 12, 2010, he gave a lecture to 400  officers and candidate officers of the Bundeswehr, organized by the Catholic military chaplaincy in the Catholic Academy in Bavaria in Munich, under the title Security for Germany in the unleashed world of globalization .

Naumann is married and has a daughter and a son.

Awards

Naumann is considered the most highly decorated German soldier since World War II . His medals, decorations and prizes include a.

Fonts (selection)

literature

  • Dermot Bradley , Heinz-Peter Würzenthal, Hansgeorg Model : The Generals and Admirals of the Bundeswehr, 1955–1999. The military careers (= Germany's generals and admirals . Part 6b). Volume 3: Laegeler - Quiel . Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 2005, ISBN 3-7648-2382-8 , pp. 360–362.
  • Viktor Toyka , Rüdiger Kracht: Clausewitz Society. Chronicle 1961–2011 . Edited by the Clausewitz Society, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-9810794-6-3 , pp. 100-101.

Web links

Commons : Klaus Naumann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ to debate - the journal of the Catholic Academy in Bavaria: security for Germany in the unbridled world of globalization. ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed December 19, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kath-akademie-bayern.de
predecessor Office successor
Richard Vincent Chairman of the NATO Military Committee
1996–1999 		Guido Venturoni
personal data
SURNAME Naumann, Klaus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Naumann, Klaus Dieter (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military, General of the Army of the Bundeswehr; General Inspector of the Bundeswehr (1991–1996); Chairman of the NATO Military Committee (1996–1999)
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich