Helge Hansen

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Helge Hansen (born March 13, 1936 in Dresden ) is a retired general . D. of the army of the Bundeswehr . He was from 1992 to 1994 inspector of the army and, most recently from 1994 to 1996 Commander of Allied Forces Central Europe of NATO .

Military career

Promotions

Training and first commands

Hansen, son of Major General Ottomar Hansen , joined the German Armed Forces as an officer candidate after graduating from the Hermann Lietz School in Spiekeroog in 1957 and was trained with the Panzer Grenadier . In 1959 he was promoted to lieutenant and served as a platoon leader in an armored infantry battalion . Six years later, in 1965, Hansen was promoted to captain and took over the post of company commander in the 173rd Panzer Grenadier Battalion in Hamburg for two years . From 1967 to 1969 he completed the general staff course as a major at the command academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg and was awarded the General Heusinger Prize as the best of his year . He was then used as a staff officer ( G1 ) of the 12th Panzer Division in Veitshöchheim . From 1971 to 1972 Hansen graduated from the NATO Defense College in Rome and then served as a staff officer in the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn .

From 1974 to 1977, Hansen took command of the 312 Panzer Grenadier Battalion in Delmenhorst as a lieutenant colonel . After this troop command, Hansen was transferred to Brunssum in the Netherlands in 1977 , where he served as a staff officer in the headquarters of the Allied Forces Central Europe of NATO . Back in Germany, he then served as head of the division for military policy foundations in the headquarters of the armed forces in Bonn under General Inspector Jürgen Brandt .

Service in the rank of general

As a colonel , Hansen took over from September 26, 1980 to October 11, 1982, the 9th Panzer Training Brigade in Munster . In 1982 he was promoted to brigadier general. From October 1982 to March 1984, Hansen was employed as head of the military policy department in the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to NATO in Brussels . Subsequently, Hansen returned to Germany and took over as major general on May 1, 1985 in Hanover, the 1st Panzer Division from Henning von Ondarza and led it until September 30, 1987. From October 1, 1987 to September 30, 1990 Hansen took over as Lieutenant General in Koblenz the III. Corps .

In October 1990 Hansen took over a NATO post again, this time at the NATO Headquarters Europe ( SHAPE ) in Mons, Belgium . Until the spring of 1992 he served there as deputy chief of staff, responsible for planning and operations, under Generals Hans-Henning von Sandrart and Henning von Ondarza .

The post of Inspector of the Army , which became vacant through the appointment of Lieutenant General Jörg Schönbohm as State Secretary , was filled on February 18, 1992 by Hansen, who held this post until March 21, 1994. As an inspector, he brought Army Structure V on its way. However, he was unable to accompany these structural changes for long, as he did not stay long on the inspector's post. After only two years, on March 21, 1994, he handed over the post to Hartmut Bagger and, appointed general , set off for Brunssum. There he took over the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces Central Europe of NATO from Henning von Ondarza on April 1 and led this command until his retirement in March 1996.

After retirement

After his retirement, Hansen, appointed by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), supervised seminars for “Operative Art” for senior NATO executives as well as courses for “Operational Planning” for staff officers at the NATO school in Oberammergau as a “Senior Mentor” .

He often served as a "Senior Mentor" at the British Joint Services Command and Staff College , the Canadian Canadian Forces College , the Austrian National Defense Academy and the Armed Forces Leadership Academy. In 2003 the Royal Military College of Canada awarded Hansen an honorary doctorate in the field of "Military Science". He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Memorial and Peace Foundation of the German War Graves Commission .

In 1999, Hansen was a member of the Weizsäcker Commission , which took stock of the Bundeswehr and made suggestions for future developments.

He has been a partner in the consulting company ELENXIS Unternehmerberatung GmbH since 2002 and advises medium-sized companies in particular on the subject of corporate succession.

family

Hansen is married and has three sons.

Awards

literature

  • Dermot Bradley , Heinz-Peter Würzenthal, Hansgeorg Model : The Generals and Admirals of the Bundeswehr, 1955–1999. The military careers (= Germany's generals and admirals . Part 6b). Volume 2, 1: Gaedcke - Hoff . Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 2000, ISBN 3-7648-2562-6 , pp. 234-236.

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Henning from Ondarza Commander in Chief, Allied Forces Central Europe
1994–1996 		Dieter Stöckmann
personal data
SURNAME Hansen, Helge
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German general
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden