Ernst Ferber

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Ernst Ferber (1964)

Ernst Ferber (born September 27, 1914 in Wiesbaden , † December 31, 1998 in Munich ) was a general in the army of the Bundeswehr . He was from 1971 to 1973 inspector of the army and 1973-1975 Commander of the Allied Forces Central Europe of NATO .

Life

Ferber was born as the son of Ernst Ferber Sr., a major whose origins can be traced back to the Bavarian Swabia and several European countries, grew up in Munich and attended the Maximiliansgymnasium from 1924 . Here he passed his Abitur with distinction in March 1933 , among others with Richard Jaeger . Like his grandfather and father, he too wanted to take up the soldier's profession.

Training in the Reichswehr and service in the Wehrmacht

In 1933 Ferber entered the service of the Reichswehr's 19th Infantry Regiment as an officer candidate and served in this until 1939. When he was accepted into the Wehrmacht , he took part as a company commander in the attack on Poland that initiated World War II . After this campaign he became the first orderly officer (O1) in the staff of the XXVII. Army corps under the Infantry General Alfred Wäger and took part in the western campaign with the corps in 1940 .

After promotion to captain , Ferber completed the shortened general staff training . He was then transferred  to the 134th Infantry Division as Second General Staff Officer (Ib) under the command of General of the Mountain Troops, Hans Schlemmer , where he took part in the advance on Belarus as part of the Russian campaign . After that he was briefly battalion commander and was then transferred to the General Staff of the 2nd Panzer Army under Colonel General Rudolf Schmidt as ID.

With the promotion to major in February 1943, Ferber took over the duties of Captain Ulrich de Maizière , who later became General Inspector of the Bundeswehr , in the organizational department of the Army High Command , and was thus responsible for structuring, setting up and refreshing the field army divisions. After he had also taken over the personnel replacement planning of the field army for NCOs and men, Ferber became group leader in this organizational department in the summer of 1944. On April 20, 1945, shortly before the German surrender, Ferber was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the general staff (i. G.).

During the war he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class.

Captivity and organization Gehlen

At the end of the war, Ferber was taken prisoner by the US, but was released again in autumn 1945. From 1946 to 1951 he was a member of the Gehlen Organization , the predecessor of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND).

Participation in the reconstruction of the German armed forces

Due to his experience in the Army High Command, he was appointed as a personnel officer in the Blank office , the forerunner of the Federal Ministry of Defense , in 1951 . From 1951 to 1954 he headed the military part of the German delegation for a European Defense Community (EDC) in Paris under the leadership of Ulrich de Maizière, the group for fundamental questions of military personnel and internal management . After the failure of the EDC treaties in 1954 due to the non-ratification of the treaties by France, the Federal Republic of Germany joined NATO in May 1955. Back in Bonn , Ferber took over the planning for the top staff in the future Ministry of Defense.

After the establishment of the Bundeswehr in 1955, Ferber was reactivated as a colonel in January 1956 and until 1957 headed the subdivision for basic personnel issues in the Ministry of Defense.

After graduating from the NATO Defense College in Paris, he was transferred to Schwanewede , where on October 30, 1958, he took command of the 32nd Panzer Grenadier Brigade, which was currently in formation . Ferber was then transferred to Cologne and served in the local troop office from 1961 to September 30, 1962 as chief of staff and deputy to Lieutenant General Hellmuth Mäder . In this role he was also appointed brigadier general. From October 1, 1962 to the end of February 1964, he first headed sub-division II ( military intelligence ) in the command staff of the armed forces , which was also responsible for the control of the military counterintelligence service (MAD). He then took over sub-division III and dealt with issues of operational planning and military policy. After his appointment as major general , Ferber headed the liaison office between the Standing Group and the permanent NATO military committee in Washington, DC from August 1, 1964. Three years later, in February 1967, Ferber returned to Germany and took over there on April 5, 1967 Command of the 2nd Panzer Grenadier Division in Marburg until January 9, 1970 .

Army inspector and NATO use

Ernst Ferber (on the right of the flag) at a handover in 1975.

After critical statements on the internal state of the Bundeswehr in 1969 at the Bundeswehr Leadership Academy in Hamburg and the collaboration in the Schnez study , which became known in 1969 and which criticized the concept of Inner Leadership , the Deputy Inspector of the Army Hellmut Grashey was given instructions on January 1, 1970 of the Federal Defense Minister Helmut Schmidt replaced by Ferber. In this position he was promoted to lieutenant general in July 1970 and succeeded his superior, Albert Schnez , who was also under pressure due to the study named after him, as inspector of the army on October 1, 1971.

During his tenure as Army Inspector, the changes occurred due to the shortening of military service from 18 to 15 months (January 1, 1973), with which the federal government wanted to curb the mass conscientious objection in the course of the 68 movement . Since, in contrast to earlier times, 75 percent instead of 50 percent were available for one year, the organization and training of the army had to be fundamentally changed. In the course of this, the six-month basic training was shortened to three months, which left many units with a strong mix of soldiers on the one hand, and recruits on the other. The first considerations on Army Structure IV , which were implemented in 1980 , also go back to Ferber .

After only two years in office, Ferber was appointed General appointed and took over on 1 October 1973 by General Jürgen Bennecke the supreme command of the Allied Forces Central Europe of NATO in the Dutch Brunssum .

During this term of office, the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and the Turkish occupation of Cyprus fell in 1974. In his NATO assignment, Ferber was primarily concerned with tightening the command structures in his area and aligning the different deployment procedures and weapon systems in the Alliance. At the suggestion of the United States , the Allied Air Forces Central Europe , comprising all air forces stationed in Europe, were finally set up in Ferber's command area .

On September 30, 1975, he handed over his NATO post to General Karl Schnell and was retired.

Private

Ferber was married to Mette Freiin von Düring . After his retirement he devoted himself to hunting and art history and was involved in the German Atlantic Society .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matriculation of the Maximiliansgymnasium, school year 1932/33
  2. ↑ Helmut R. Hammerich : "Always on the enemy!" - The Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) 1956–1990 . 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-525-36392-8 , pp. 97 .
predecessor Office successor
Jürgen Bennecke Commander in Chief, Allied Forces Central Europe
1973–1975 		Karl Schnell
personal data
SURNAME Ferber, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military, General of the Bundeswehr
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Wiesbaden
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1998
Place of death Munich