Markus Bentler

Markus Johannes Bentler (born May 16, 1953 in Paderborn ) is a former lieutenant general . D. of the Army of the Bundeswehr and was German military representative at the NATO military committee from December 6, 2012 to August 21, 2015 .

Military career

Training and first uses

Bentler joined the German Armed Forces on July 1, 1972 with Jägerbataillon 41 in Göttingen and completed the various stations of officer training and his first assignments as a platoon leader by 1979 . As part of this training, he studied pedagogy at a university of the German Armed Forces , making him one of the first students at these universities, founded in 1973, and one of the first officer candidates who had to complete a scientific university degree according to the Ellwein concept as part of their training. Bentler completed his studies as a qualified teacher.

In 1979, as company commander, he was given command of the 3rd  Company of Jägerbataillon 42 in Kassel , which was reclassified to the Panzergrenadier Battalion on October 1, 1980 as part of the restructuring to Army Structure 4 . Bentler carried out the reclassification of this unit to the Panzergenadierkompanie and remained there until 1984 company commander. Then he completed the 27th general staff course at the command academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg by 1986  .

Service as a staff officer

His first employment as a General Staff Officer (officer in the General Staff Service - i. G.) led him to the staff of the 2nd Panzer Grenadier Division in Kassel, where he served as a G2 officer until 1987 . This was followed by a transfer to Hofgeismar to the staff of Panzer Brigade 6 , where he served as a G3 staff officer from 1987 to 1989. Only with the following use did he leave the north Hessian area, in which he had found his previous military uses with the exception of various training courses and courses.

From 1989 to 1992 he served in the German Embassy in Washington, DC , as Deputy Army Attaché . Back in Germany, he completed the intended use as a battalion commander in the General Staff Service until 1994 with the 12th Panzer Grenadier Battalion in Osterode am Harz . He then gained experience in the Federal Ministry of Defense , to which he served from 1994 to 1996 as a consultant in the command staff of the armed forces and then until 1999 as an adjutant to the general inspector , General Hartmut Bagger .

From there he was transferred back to Washington, DC, to study at the National War College of the National Defense University . After successfully completing these studies and being awarded the master’s degree in 2000, Bentler was transferred as a staff officer to the Army Command in Koblenz, where he served until 2001.

Service in the rank of general

Afterwards he took over the Mountain Infantry Brigade 23 in Bad Reichenhall as commander.

As part of this assignment, he went from December 12, 2002 as commander of the 6th German contingent of KFOR and the Multinational Brigade Southwest in Kosovo to Prizren . Returning from there in June 2003, Bentler remained in command of the Mountain Infantry Brigade until 2004, after which, also as a commander, he took over the army officers' school in Dresden's Albertstadt barracks as the successor to Brigadier General Fritz von Korff . He led this until he was given command of the 10th Panzer Division in Sigmaringen on May 9, 2006 by the commander of the Army Command, Wolfgang Otto . After three years, he handed this command over to Erhard Bühler on July 29, 2009 . On August 19, 2009, Bentler was appointed lieutenant general with effect from September 1, 2009 by the Federal Minister of Defense, Franz Josef Jung.

On September 8, 2009, he finally took over the post of commander of the international KFOR troops in Pristina ( Kosovo ) and succeeded the Italian Giuseppe Emilio Gay in this post . He handed this command over to Erhard Bühler on September 1, 2010 .

On September 30, 2010, Bentler took over the vacant command post from Wolf-Dieter Langheld at the Ulm Command, Operational Leadership, Response Forces . He handed over this post to Richard Roßmanith on December 18, 2012 . On December 6, 2012, he began his service as the German military representative in the NATO military committee in Brussels. Bentler retired on September 1, 2015.

Web links

• Official biography
• Interview with Bentler ( Memento from February 18, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )

Individual evidence

1. ^ BMVg press and information staff (ed.): Personnel changes in top military positions . Berlin April 3, 2006, p. 1 ( PDF ( Memento from May 1, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed on April 3, 2016]).
2. ↑ Griephan letters of February 12, 2010
3. ↑ Michael Heschler: Commander Kfor. General Bühler succeeds Bentler in Kosovo . In: Schwäbische Zeitung from August 3, 2010
4. ^ Commander Bentler leaves Ulm In: Südwest Presse from December 19, 2012
5. ↑ The former commander of the 10th Panzer Division is retiring in: Schwäbische Zeitung from August 25, 2015

predecessor	Office	successor
Hans-Lothar Domröse	German military representative in the NATO military committee 2012–2015	Hans-Werner Wiermann