Franz-Joseph Schulze

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Franz-Joseph Schulze (born September 18, 1918 in Salzkotten ; † January 31, 2005 in Bonn ) was a German general and from 1977 to 1979 commander in chief of the NATO armed forces in Central Europe .

Wehrmacht and activities until 1956

Roll of honor at the Theodorianum high school in Paderborn: Left page at the bottom: Franz-Joseph Schulze

The son of a teacher from the Westphalian town of Salzkotten graduated from high school in 1937 at the Theodorianum Gymnasium in Paderborn . In the same year he joined the Air Force as a conscript . He then became a reserve officer candidate and belonged to an anti-aircraft association until 1945. On November 30, 1944, as first lieutenant in the reserve and chief of the 3rd battery of the Flak-Sturm-Regiment 241 (motorized), he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross after repelling a British tank attack during the final phase of the Battle of Rimini and thereby one The breakthrough at the front of the Western powers in this phase of the war had failed.

From April to October 1945 he was a British prisoner of war . This was followed by a degree in law at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster . After passing the First State Examination in February 1949 with a “good”, Schulze continued his training as a chartered accountant and worked in industry until the beginning of 1956.

Officer in the Bundeswehr

In March 1956 Franz-Joseph joined Schulze as a captain in the army and was initially Prüfgruppenleiter at the Bundeswehr-receiving offices in Cologne, Paderborn and Münster until he as head of the department for Military District Command III to Dusseldorf was transferred.

In 1957 Schulze was promoted to major and from February 1958 to February 1959 he completed general staff training at the command academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg. In May 1959 he switched to the command staff of the Bundeswehr in Bonn. In 1961 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1962, Schulze became the commander of Army Anti-Aircraft Battalion 1 in Langenhagen near Hanover and, 25 years after starting his military career, was back with his old weapon. From September 1964 to February 1965 he was a participant in the 26th course at the NATO Defense College in Paris , qualifying for use in so-called "integrated" (i.e., multinational) NATO staffs. On April 1, 1965, Schulze was appointed Colonel Head of Planning in the Operations Department at NATO Headquarters ( AFCENT ) in Fontainebleau . During this time, Schulze was involved in drafting the General Defense Plan (GDP) of NATO and in moving the NATO headquarters from Fontainebleau to Brunssum (Netherlands). The Colonel in the General Staff (Colonel i. G.) and close collaborator of the then Commander-in-Chief of NATO Central Europe, General Johann Adolf Graf von Kielmannsegg , was commander of the 19 Panzer Grenadier Brigade in Ahlen from September 7, 1967 to September 30, 1968 .

General time

In October 1968 Franz-Joseph Schulze was promoted to brigadier general and at the same time head of the department for "military policy, leadership and operations" in the command staff of the armed forces in the Federal Ministry of Defense . It was precisely during this time that Schulze was able to follow his military hobbyhorse, strategy theory.

After this assignment, Schulze was promoted to major general in December 1970 and succeeded major general Dr. Karl Schnell Commander of the 6th Panzer Grenadier Division in Neumünster . With that he took over the leadership of a large military unit, which was important for the national defense north of the Elbe. Major General Schulz not only intensified military training during his time in command, but also increased the standards of officer training.

On May 1, 1973, he was promoted to lieutenant general . Once again he was also the successor to Lieutenant General Dr. Quickly, this time as Deputy Chief of Staff at the SHAPE headquarters in Casteau (Belgium). In this function, Lieutenant General Schulze was a key member of the NATO commanders-in-chief Andrew J. Goodpaster and Alexander Haig , as he was responsible for five of the seven departments of the NATO staff. During his tenure, he made extensive analyzes of the Yom Kippur War and the Cyprus crisis . The Cyprus crisis in particular led to tensions within NATO, as Turkey did not always see itself as an ally with equal rights within the alliance. Lieutenant General Schulze, through his clear strategic analyzes and, not least, his intellectual brilliance, contributed to eliminating these tensions and turning Turkey on the southern flank of the NATO alliance into the cornerstone of air defense.

On January 10, 1977, Lieutenant General Schulze became the direct successor of General Dr. Appointed quickly. When he was appointed State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defense, Schulze was promoted to General Supreme Commander of NATO in Central Europe in Brunssum. In this position, too, he was chief planning adviser to the American NATO commander-in-chief, General Alexander Haig .

After his term of office had been extended by one year to ensure the continuity of the troops and the international staff work, Schulze was retired on September 30, 1979 with a " big tattoo ".

Memberships and Publications

After retiring, General a. D. Schulze member of the Atlantic Bridge Association . He also published articles on security policy such as B .:

  • Security policy and military strategic framework for the defense of Europe. In: Europa-Archiv , episode 11/1984

Awards

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of high school graduates of the Association of Former Theodorians, page 21 , 1985, Bonifatius-Druckerei, Paderborn
  2. ↑ a b Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 692.
  3. ↑ a b c Annual Report 2009 of the Association of Former Theodorians , Paderborn 2009, p. 58
predecessor Office successor
Karl Schnell Commander in Chief, Allied Forces Central Europe
1977–1979 		Ferdinand von Senger and Etterlin
personal data
SURNAME Schulze, Franz-Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German general
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Salzkotten
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 2005
Place of death Bonn