Markus Kneip

Major General Markus Kneip crossing the Weser on the occasion of the anniversary of the Battle of Minden

Markus Kneip with the Swedish King in Afghanistan

Markus Kneip (born May 23, 1956 in Koblenz ) is a general in the Army of the German Armed Forces and Chief of Staff at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe  (SHAPE) in Casteau near Mons , Belgium.

Military career

Training and first uses

Pinching occurred in 1975 as officer candidates in the service of the army and was to 1977 for artillery - officer formed. From 1977 to 1979 he was a platoon leader , fire control officer and observation officer in the Panzerartilleriebataillon 105 in Weiden in the Upper Palatinate and in the Panzerartilleriebataillon 145 in Niederlahnstein . After this deployment of the troops, he completed a degree in economics and organizational science at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg , which he completed in 1983 with a degree in business administration. In 1983 he was transferred to Neustadt am Rübenberge , where Kneip was deployed as platoon leader and later as battery chief in the 35 armored artillery battalion.

General staff training and service as a staff officer

From 1988 to 1990 he completed the general staff course at the command academy of the German Armed Forces in Hamburg and was then employed as a consultant at the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn until 1992 . From 1992 to 1993 Kneip completed the British General Staff Training in Camberley .

Back in Germany, he served from 1993 to 1995 as Chief of Staff at the 14th Panzer Brigade in Neustadt (Hesse) . He then took over from 1995 to 1997 with the 285 tank artillery battalion in Münsingen . In 1997 he was employed again in the Ministry of Defense, this time until 1999 as a planning staff officer and press officer for the Army Inspector , Lieutenant General Helmut Willmann . He made Kneip his adjutant and office manager in 1999 . Kneip held this post until Willmann's retirement in 2001. Colonel Kneip remained in the ministry and from 2001 to 2004 he was head of the division for basic matters, troop leadership and exercises for the army / multinational cooperation army in the command staff of the army (FüH III 1) under the command of the chief of staff, Major General Hans-Otto Budde .

General uses

General Markus Kneip (center) with Lieutenant Colonel Peter Mirow (left) and Lieutenant Colonel Heico Huebner in Afghanistan

Taloqan Governor's Seat in 2009

From 2004 to 2006 Brigadier General Kneip again took over a troop command, this time the Jägerbrigade 37 in Frankenberg, Saxony . During this assignment he was from April to October 2006, parts of the brigade as part of ISAF in foreign deployment in Afghanistan . There he was deployed as commander of the regional command north (RC N) of the ISAF in Mazar-e Sharif .

Back in Germany, Kneip was reinstated in the Ministry of Defense. From 2006 to 2008, he was Head of Staff Division III (leadership, conception, operational principles) in the Army Command Staff under the Chiefs of Staff Volker Wieker and Werner Freers . On December 19, 2008, Kneip took over command of the 1st Panzer Division in Hanover from Wolf-Dieter Langheld , which was also associated with the appointment of Major General .

On February 24, 2011, Kneip took over from Major General Hans-Werner Fritz the post of Regional Commander North of the ISAF in Afghanistan . On May 28, 2011, Kneip was wounded in an explosives attack (see AOR No. N324) in the governor's seat of the northern Afghan province of Takhar in Taloqan . According to widespread opinion, it was a so-called internal perpetrator incident in which the assassin had helpers in the ranks of the Afghan security forces. In the attack were Daud Daud , four Afghans and the Sergeant Tobias able stone killed. Major General Kneip survived seriously injured. Kneip's advisor Major Thomas Tholi was also killed. After his wounds had healed, Kneip returned to Afghanistan on July 29, 2011, and on the same day took up his post as commander of RC North in Mazar-i Sharif. His mission in Afghanistan ended on February 26, 2012 when the regional command north was handed over to Major General Erich Pfeffer . On that occasion, Kneip was awarded the Legion of Merit by ISAF Commander General John R. Allen . Kneip moved back to the Federal Ministry of Defense in June 2012 and has since been deputy head of the Strategy and Operations department. From May 2013 he was the head of this department and was promoted to lieutenant general. From October 1, 2015 to July 2017, he was Deputy Inspector General of the German Armed Forces , succeeding Peter Schelzig . He was also the Bundeswehr agent for reservist matters.

On July 12, 2017, he succeeded General Werner Freers as Chief of Staff at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe  (SHAPE) in Casteau near  Mons , Belgium. His successor is Admiral Joachim Rühle , who is currently being prepared for his role.

Private

Kneip is married and has two children.

Web links

Commons : Markus Kneip  - Collection of Images

• Vita commander. Major General Dipl.-Kfm. Markus Kneip. Federal Ministry of Defense, December 16, 2010, archived from the original on June 10, 2012 ; Retrieved May 29, 2011 . 
• Vita General Markus Kneip (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Personnel changes in top military and civilian positions. BMVg press and information staff, December 8, 2008, archived from the original on February 13, 2010 ; Retrieved April 4, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Afghanistan: Two German soldiers killed in a bomb attack. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE . May 28, 2011, accessed on May 28, 2011 (given source: mbe / mgb / dpa / Reuters ). 
3. ^ Press and information staff : Afghanistan: Blast attack in Talokan. (3rd update). Federal Ministry of Defense, May 29, 2011, archived from the original on August 7, 2011 ; Retrieved May 29, 2011 . 
4. ↑ Marcel Bohnert : Enemies in your own ranks. On the problem of internal perpetrators in Afghanistan. if. Journal for Inner Leadership, 2, 2014, p. 5 ff.
5. ↑ GenMaj Markus Kneip returns to the Afghanistan deployment area. Archived from the original on August 8, 2014 ; Retrieved July 29, 2011 .  
6. ↑ ^{a b} Bundeswehr changes command of ISAF troops in northern Afghanistan. The West, February 26, 2012, accessed February 27, 2012 . 
7. ^ SHAPE welcomes the new Chief of Staff. Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, July 12, 2017, accessed July 13, 2017 . 
8. ↑ Personnel changes in top military positions / April 2020. In: Bundeswehr. Federal Office for Personnel Management of the Bundeswehr, accessed on March 25, 2020 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Werner Freers	Head of Staff at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe since 2017