Karlheinz Viereck

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Karlheinz Viereck

Karlheinz Viereck (* 9. March 1951 in Kassel ) is a Lieutenant General of the Air Force of the Armed Forces retired. In his last assignment he was from 1 May 2009 to 30 June 2013, deputy chief of staff armed forces wide training ( Deputy Chief of Staff Joint Force Training ) at the Allied Command Transformation of NATO in Norfolk , Virginia .

Military career

Viereck joined the German Armed Forces in 1970 and began two years later as a lieutenant with his pilot training at Sheppard Air Force Base in the US state of Texas . His flight experience as a jet pilot includes over 2,500 hours on the types RF-4C, RF-4E, F-4F, the F-4 "Phantom II" and the Tornado fighter-bomber . After various assignments in the reconnaissance wing 52 in Leck , he completed the 27th general staff course as a captain at the command academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg from 1982 to 1984 .

Karlheinz Viereck and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in April 2012 in Norfolk / Virginia

He then attended the General Staff Course at the Danish Defense Academy in Copenhagen for a year . In the following years (1985-87) he served as a staff officer in use General NATO - Headquarters Air BALTAP ( Allied Forces Baltic Approaches ; dt about command of NATO air forces Baltic Approaches.) Danish Karup . From 1987 to 1990 Major Viereck was deputy and then commander of the flying group of the fighter-bomber squadron 36 "Westphalia" in Hopsten . From 1990 to 1991 he served as a lieutenant colonel and operational general staff officer in the air force command staff (Fü L III 3) in the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn . He stayed in Bonn and then served another year as a staff officer in the planning staff of Defense Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg . From 1992 to 1994 Viereck was Deputy Adjutant of the Defense Minister Volker Rühe .

In 1994 Viereck was promoted to colonel and again took over command of the troops. From 1994 to 1996 he was employed as the 13th commodore of Fighter Bomber Squadron 34 "Allgäu" in Memmingen . Just two years later, in 1996, he was transferred back to the Ministry of Defense, where he served as head of department for conception and further development in the air force command staff (Fü L III 1). In 1998 he was promoted to brigadier general and took on the post of Deputy Head of Staff Department III, responsible for military policy and arms control, in the command staff of the armed forces (Fü S III) in Berlin . In 2000 he resumed international duties as Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Operations in NATO -Verbandshauptquartier Nord ( Joint Command HQ Northern Europe ) in Stavanger in Norway true. After his promotion to major general in 2003, he took over a troop command with the 4th Air Force Division in Aurich until 2005 . In 2005 he was transferred to Potsdam , where he assumed the post of deputy commander of the Bundeswehr operations command , which leads all Bundeswehr missions abroad . On March 16, 2006, he replaced Holger Kammerhoff as Commander in Chief and was appointed Lieutenant General in April.

Viereck joined the Allied Command Transformation of NATO in Norfolk , Virginia , on May 1, 2009 , as Deputy Chief of Staff Joint Force Training . He handed over the command in Potsdam to Rainer Glatz , who until then had served as his deputy. On the part of the press, Viereck's transfer to the USA was suspected as a "removal" to a foreign post.

Within NATO, Lieutenant General Viereck deals internationally with the subject of "training and further education". e-NATO: Development and implementation of education and training, training with modern options, B. also e-learning. In addition, there is the teaching of e-learning standards for civil education providers in Africa.

Karlheinz Viereck and Javier Solana in Potsdam .

Affairs

From April 2006 to February 2007, Viereck commanded the EUFOR mission in the Congo in addition to the operational command , but was on vacation in August 2006 when the situation in the country worsened.

At this time there was multiple escalation of violence in the Congo. President Joseph Kabila's life guards attacked the home of his challenger Jean-Pierre Bemba , which sparked further fighting. Due to the attack on Bemba's house, soldiers under Viereck's command had to rescue foreign diplomats who were there for talks.

At that time Karlheinz Viereck was on approved vacation in Sweden with his current wife. This caused sharp criticism, for example from the retired Brigadier General a. D. Helmut Harff , who had commanded the armed forces operations in Somalia and Kosovo in the 1990s and was controversial because of his comments. Harff accused Viereck of inappropriate and wrong behavior. The press reported that Lieutenant General Viereck's request for leave "miraculously" from the Federal Ministry of Defense, led by CDU Minister Franz Josef Jung , came to the public.

In contrast, the Congo mission in December 2006 was rated a complete success by the federal government.

During a troop visit to Afghanistan in the spring of 2007, Karlheinz Viereck is said to have brought his partner on board a Bundeswehr machine to the camp, where she also accommodated what earned him the name "Container General" in the media. In fact, his current wife was a member of the delegation of Defense Minister Peter Struck 's trip at the time . The press spoke of the "intrigue against a German general".

honors and awards

Private

Viereck is married for the second time and has a son and two daughters. He lives in Stockholm and Virginia Beach / Virginia.

Others

Viereck was the first general in the Bundeswehr to use Twitter . While working there, he founded the NATO e-learning portals e-NATO.org, e-nato.info and e-nato.net in March 2012 . NATO offers thousands of courses with educational and training content (Education & Training).

Documentation EUFOR RD CONGO, European Union Operation Headquarters, English, Author: Karlheinz Viereck

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Personnel changes in top military positions ( Memento from April 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (BMVg.de from March 31, 2009)
  2. ↑ a b c Laptop General must resign (Welt.de, May 31, 2009)
  3. ↑ Spiegel-Online from August 30, 2006
  4. ↑ a b wiegold.focus.de - Friendly Fire  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 2007@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / wiegold.focus.de  
  5. ↑ sueddeutsche.de - 100 soldiers returned to the Congo, accessed on April 11, 2011
  6. ↑ "The Ministry is not even capable of proper intrigue", accessed on June 8, 2012
  7. ↑ Bundeswehr operational command: Excellent , Bundeswehr, November 21, 2007
  8. ↑ a b Bundeswehr operations command: General Viereck receives award from the EU and Estonia , Bundeswehr, February 26, 2008
  9. ↑ Thomas Wiegold : The first German general on Twitter. Eyes straight ahead !, April 25, 2011, accessed August 17, 2011 .
predecessor Office successor
Holger Kammerhoff Commander of the Bundeswehr Operations Command
2006–2009 		Rainer Glatz
personal data
SURNAME Viereck, Karlheinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military, commander of the operational command of the Bundeswehr
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH kassel