Dieter Wellershoff (Admiral)

Admiral Wellershoff as Inspector General at the farewell of the 1st Infantry Division of the US Army (1991)

Dieter Wellershoff (born March 16, 1933 in Dortmund , † July 16, 2005 in Euskirchen-Flamersheim ) was a German naval officer , most recently an admiral and from 1986 to 1991 inspector general of the Bundeswehr .

Life

Wellershoff was born the son of a mining engineer and grew up in the Lower Rhine region . After graduating from Fichte-Gymnasium in Krefeld , Wellershoff began studying mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University in the 1953/54 winter semester , where he joined the Corps Marko-Guestphalia . In the winter semester of 1956/57 he gave up his studies and joined the German Navy on April 1, 1957 as an officer candidate .

From 1960 to 1964 he was an officer on watch and commander of a minesweeper , then a consultant in the naval office and an operations officer on the destroyer Schleswig-Holstein .

From 1967 to 1968 he completed the admiralty staff course at the command academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg and received the General Heusinger Prize for the best in the course. During the course he wrote a scientific paper on the subject of the international legal situation of the Kiel Canal and the coastal sea in the Baltic Sea and their approaches - conclusions for the passage of warships in peace . He then became a consultant in the headquarters of the armed forces. From 1971 to 1973 he was in command of the destroyer Hesse , then operations officer at the fleet command in Glücksburg, then commander of the flotilla of the mine forces in Wilhelmshaven . In 1977 he became head of the armaments department in the naval command staff. From 1981 to 1984 he was commander of the command academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg-Blankenese. Since April 1, 1985 he was inspector of the navy , from April 1, 1986 to 1991 as admiral ninth inspector general of the Bundeswehr . He was the youngest General Inspector to date and the first to no longer serve in the Wehrmacht .

The most important event of his tenure was the German reunification , which brought together the Bundeswehr and the National People's Army under the motto "Army of Unity". This process, which is unique in history, is largely seen as a success in retrospect and is considered Wellershoff's greatest achievement.

From 1981 to 1983 he was Vice President of the Clausewitz Society .

From 1992 to 1995 he was the founding president of the Federal Academy for Security Policy . He was also a lecturer at the Institute for Peacekeeping Law and International Humanitarian Law at the Ruhr University in Bochum .

He was married and had three children.

Honors

• 1969: General Heusinger Prize
• 1982: Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1988: Commander of the Legion of Merit
• 1992: Lucius D. Clay Medal
• 1993: Great Cross of Merit (1986) with star (1989) and shoulder ribbon (1993) of the Federal Republic of Germany

Fonts (selection)

• Freedom what is it Statements on the concept of freedom. Documents on the subject . Mittler, Herford 1984, ISBN 3-8132-0175-9 .
• (Ed.): Peace without power? Security policy and armed forces in transition . Bouvier, Bonn 1991, ISBN 3-416-02274-2 .
• (Ed.): Challenges and Risks. Germany's security in the changed world. Results of the seminar for security policy 1993 (= series of publications on the new security policy . Vol. 3). Mittler, Berlin a. a. 1993, ISBN 3-8132-0439-1 .
• (Ed.): Strategies and structures of German security policy. Results of the seminar for security policy 1994 (= series of publications on the new security policy . Vol. 9). Mittler, Berlin a. a. 1995, ISBN 3-8132-0464-2 .
• (Ed.): The European Union and its position in the world. The German security policy interests (= series of publications on the new security policy . Vol. 13). Mittler, Hamburg a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0468-5 .
• To lead. Want - can - take responsibility . Bouvier, Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-416-02703-5 .
• For sure. New security policy between yesterday and tomorrow . Bouvier, Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-416-02859-7 .

literature

• Wolf-Ulrich Jorke (Ed.): Security Policy on the Threshold of the 21st Century. Selected topics - strategies - options for action. Festschrift for Dieter Wellershoff (= series of publications on the new security policy . Annual volume 94/95). Mittler, Hamburg a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0480-4 .
• Dieter Wellershoff in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Web links

Commons : Dieter Wellershoff  - Collection of Images

• Literature by and about Dieter Wellershoff in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Dieter Wellershoff  in the German Digital Library
• Biography at the Federal Ministry of Defense ( Memento from July 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Good overview . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1977, pp. 38 ( online ).
2. ↑ DIED - Dieter Wellershoff . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 2005, pp. 150 ( online ).
3. ↑ Ex- Inspector General Wellershoff has died . In: Hamburger Abendblatt , July 20, 2005.