Ansgar Bethge

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Ansgar Bethge (born November 16, 1924 in Roxförde ; † January 13, 2008 ) was a German naval officer , most recently Vice Admiral of the Federal Navy and from 1980 to 1985 Inspector of the Navy .

Life

Ansgar Bethge was born the son of a pastor. After attending the Fürst-Otto-Gymnasium in Wernigerode , he joined the Navy on June 1, 1942 as an officer candidate . First he served in the ship master division in Stralsund and received training on the battleship Scharnhorst from October 1942 . Bethge completed next to the Seeoffiziersausbildung a submarine training and was in World War II u. a. Commander of a micro submarine .

After the war, Bethge made a fresh start as a carpenter's apprentice, completed a technical school as a journeyman and finally completed his training as a furniture salesman in September 1956. In the same year he joined the Bundeswehr . As a lieutenant at sea , he initially acted as a personnel and inspection officer at the Cologne acceptance point. As early as 1957 he reached the rank of lieutenant captain and served as a watch and cadet officer in the 1st escort squadron. In 1959 he completed a long-distance navigation course in England .

With the rank of corvette captain , Bethge became a teaching officer at the naval location school in 1960. The following year he served as an operations officer on destroyer 3 . He began his admiral staff training at the command academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg in 1962. From 1964 he was employed there as a teaching staff officer for naval warfare, and in 1965 he was promoted to frigate captain . In 1966, Bethge became first officer on the training ship Deutschland and in 1967 the commander of the destroyer Hamburg .

After training for guided missile destroyers in the US Navy (1968), he became the commander of the guided missile destroyer Lütjens in 1969 . A year later, he was promoted to sea captain . Bethge took on the role of A3 staff officer and deputy commander of the destroyer flotilla. In 1971 he joined the naval command staff as a consultant, and in 1973 he was chief of staff there.

Bethges was promoted to Flotilla Admiral in 1974, and in 1976 he was promoted to Rear Admiral , Deputy Inspector of the Navy and Chief of Staff in the Armed Forces . On April 1, 1980, Ansgar Bethge took over the official duties of Inspector of the Navy as the successor to Günter Luther . In the following five years the Vice Admiral led the expansion of the German Navy, u. a. with the takeover of the first speedboat of the new class 143A . This modernization step was still based on procurement permits from the Bundestag in 1978.

Bethge was creative and at the time suggested bringing new projects into parliamentary discussion, such as the new mine attack boat 343 and improvements to the submarine class 206 . During this time and later, the admiral pointed to the armament of the Soviet Union at sea and called for further investments in sea armament. Bethge also saw the strong increase in the Soviet merchant fleet from a military point of view, since these ships could also be used militarily in an emergency.

For reasons of age, Ansgar Bethge retired on April 1, 1985 after five years, a long time as an inspector. Dieter Wellershoff became his successor as inspector of the Navy .

Honors

literature

  • Dermot Bradley: The Generals and Admirals of the Bundeswehr. Volume 1 (Adam - Fuhr), Osnabrück 1998, ISBN 978-3-7648-2492-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 31, No. 19, January 27, 1979.
personal data
SURNAME Bethge, Ansgar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer, inspector of the navy
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Roxförde
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 2008