Klaus Kuhlen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Colonel Klaus Kuhlen (2006)

Klaus Peter Kuhlen (* 14. April 1952 in Homberg in the Lower Rhine ) is a German staff officer ( Colonel ret. ) Of the Army of the Armed Forces and the support of the Medal of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany .

Military career

Training and first uses

After graduating from high school in 1971, Kuhlen entered the service of the German Armed Forces at Air Defense Battalion 11 in Achim / Uesen, part of the Army Air Defense Force .

In 1973 he completed his officer training at the Army Officer School in Hanover and was made a lieutenant on July 2, 1973 . Subsequently, Kuhlen was deployed as platoon leader , reconnaissance officer and S2 officer (head of staff department S2 ) in the air defense regiment 1 in Hanover; during this time he was promoted to first lieutenant on July 1, 1976 . In 1978 he was employed as a youth officer in Wehrbereichskommando II in Hanover for a few months , before he also became battery chief in the 7th AA regiment in Borken in 1978 . During this use he became a captain on October 1, 1979 .

General staff training and service as a staff officer

From 1983 to 1985, Kuhlen completed the 26th general staff course at the command and control academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg. During the course, he became friends with Jürgen Bornemann , later Lieutenant General and Director International Military Staff of NATO in Brussels, and with Wolf-Dieter Langheld , later General and Commander of the Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum .

After his general staff training, Kuhlen served as a G4 staff officer from 1985 to 1987, and then from 1987 to 1990 as a G3 staff officer in the 28th Panzer Brigade in Dornstadt . He was promoted to major on October 1, 1987 . Subsequently, he was employed as a G3 staff officer in Department I 1 at the Army Office in Cologne , from October 1990 to April 1991 as a G3 staff officer in the Army Command East in Potsdam in the course of German reunification. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on October 1, 1990.

In 1992, Kuhlen returned to the place where he had already worked for four and a half years as battery chief, was commander of the 7th air defense regiment / battalion in Borken and led this until 1994. This deployment of the troops was followed by a period of service as a policy officer in the Federal Ministry of Defense at the command staff until 1997 of the Army (FüH) in Bonn. He then moved as Chief G2 / G3 to HQ ARCC in Mönchengladbach and in 2000 as Chief Exercise Section at RHQ AFNORTH in Brunssum / Netherlands. In 2003, Kuhlen was transferred to the army command in Koblenz as head of the G3 staff department . In the same year he was promoted to colonel.

In 2006 there was another transfer, this time to the Army Air Defense School in Rendsburg . There he became head of teaching / training and deputy commander of the Army Air Defense School. In November 2007 he succeeded his predecessor, Brigadier General Wolfgang Köpke .

With the change in the course of the transformation of the Bundeswehr, the Army Air Defense School was decommissioned by the Commander Army Schools and Deputy Head of the Army Office, Brigadier General Dieter Schuster , who himself was the predecessor of Brigadier General Köpke as Army Air Defense General and Commander of the Army Air Defense School. At the same time, the Army Air Defense Force Training Center was set up, which is subordinate to the Munster Training Center .

General of the Army Air Defense Force

Kuhlen was the last general of the Army Air Defense Force and the first and last commander of the Army Air Defense Force Training Center. On March 12, 2012, he was released from office and command by the Army Inspector , Lieutenant General Werner Freers , as part of the appeal for the dissolution of the military . During the time at the head of his arm, he had to implement their gradual abolition. He had to relocate the training center from the traditional location in Rendsburg to Munster, thus ending the city's 350-year history as a garrison. In March 2010, shortly before the move was completed, the then Inspector of the Army, Lieutenant General Hans-Otto Budde , himself an honor gunner of the Army anti-aircraft troops, ordered the Gepard anti-aircraft gun tank to be taken out of use with immediate effect for cost reasons . At the same time, he was responsible for one of the most important armaments projects of the army, the system " short-range protection system MANTIS " (formerly NBS C-RAM) for field camp protection during missions abroad, which closes the glaring gap in the protection of German soldiers against the threat of rocket, artillery and mortar attacks ( RAM) should lead to success.

Only a few weeks after the relocation from Rendsburg to Munster was completed, the then Federal Minister of Defense Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg decided in July 2010 to disband the Army Air Defense Force and to transfer some of the tasks to the Air Force . On March 12, 2012, the Army Air Defense Force was decommissioned by the Army Inspector, releasing Kuhlen from the position of General of the Army Air Defense Force and the command of the Army Air Defense Force Training Center.

As the commander of the Army Air Defense Force Training Center, when the transfer to Munster was completed in June 2010 , he was directly subordinated to the Munster Officer Candidate Battalion (OA-Btl Munster), which is one of three battalions for the basic training of all Army officer candidates . In addition, as General of the Army Air Defense Force, he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Army Air Defense Force Community .

Until his retirement, Kuhlen was the head of the preliminary command at the Army Command and was responsible for the preparations for the move of the command from Koblenz and Bonn to Strausberg . He was again directly subordinate to Wolfgang Köpke.

Community of Protestant Soldiers

Kuhlen was chairman of this community. With the GES he set himself the goal of making an active contribution to the professional ethical education and orientation of all soldiers and civilian employees of the Bundeswehr, especially before, during and after missions abroad, even across the borders between the faiths. The responsibility before God and people for peace, freedom, justice and democracy should always play a major role.

Others

He is married and lives in Behrensdorf in Schleswig-Holstein .

Awards

personal data
SURNAME Kuhlen, Klaus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kuhlen, Klaus Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Colonel and General of the Army Air Defense Force
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Homberg on the Lower Rhine