Office blank

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Employees of the Blank office in front of the Ermekeil barracks . Front from left to right: Gerhard Loosch , Ernst Wirmer , Theodor Blank , Wolfgang Holtz and Adolf Heusinger .

The Amt Blank (also called Dienststelle Blank ) was the predecessor institution of the Federal Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany from October 1950 to June 1955 . The official name was the office of the authorized representative of the Federal Chancellor for questions related to the increase of the Allied troops . The head of the agency was initially Theodor Blank , who was Federal Defense Minister from 1955 to 1956. The service building was initially located in a makeshift building at the Koenig Museum , then in the Ermekeil barracks in Bonn .

tasks

From May to October 1950, Gerhard Graf von Schwerin had already advised Chancellor Konrad Adenauer on security issues and made preparations for the establishment of a future defense ministry. For this purpose, the Schwerin office with the code name Zentrale für Heimatdienst (ZfH) was formed (not to be confused with the Federal Center for Heimatdienst ). The ZfH was affiliated with the Friedrich Wilhelm Heinz Service (FWHD). Adenauer dismissed Schwerin in October 1950 after talking to representatives of the press about his work. Theodor Blank then became his successor on October 26, 1950, at the same time the office was officially founded and the Schwerin office, the ZfH, was taken over.

Important employees in the Blank office were the generals Adolf Heusinger , Hans Speidel and Ernst Wirmer, the pioneer of a civil armed forces administration . The work of the Blank office, which served to prepare for rearmament , contradicted the Allied provisions that Germany should remain demilitarized in the long term; however, it was known to and tolerated by the Western Allies.

job

The Blank office examined, among other things, camouflage patterns, combat and dress suits for the Bundeswehr, whereby a decision was made to use a slightly modified splinter camouflage pattern that had been introduced in the Reichswehr in 1931. In connection with the European Defense Community (EVG) planned since 1952 , to which several European states should belong , experiments were also carried out with a slightly modified variant of the SS body pattern, a flecktarn pattern, developed until 1945 . These patterns and fabrics were made in Belgium. After France did not approve the EVG plans, which had already largely been ratified, at the last moment, the further issue of the EVG uniform to the newly founded Bundeswehr was discontinued in 1956.

Overall, the Bundeswehr equipment still had many echoes of the Prussian-German army tradition. Theodor Blank was also responsible for the introduction of military vehicles such as the DKW Munga .

The Blank Office largely financed the Society for Military Studies . A cooperation based on the division of labor was formed.

literature

  • Dieter Krüger : The Blank Office. The difficult establishment of the Federal Ministry of Defense . Rombach, Freiburg 1993, ISBN 3-7930-0198-9 , ( individual publications on military history 38).
  • Montecue J. Lowry: The forge of West German rearmament. Theodor Blank and the "Amt Blank" . Lang, New York NY et al. 1990, ISBN 0-8204-1157-4 , ( American university studies Series 9: History 83).
  • Military History Research Office (Ed.): Beginnings of West German Security Policy. 1945-1956 . 4 volumes. Oldenbourg, Munich 1982–1997, (also reprint: ibid 2001, ISBN 3-486-50882-2 ).

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Footnotes