Officer (Germany)
An officer in Germany is a German soldier from the rank of lieutenant upwards (or a sub-lieutenant , if this rank is available in the respective organization).
Federal Republic
armed forces
An officer in the Bundeswehr is a soldier in the Bundeswehr from the rank of lieutenant to general . He is the leader , instructor and educator of his subordinate soldiers. The officer may disciplinary powers are transferred. An officer has a rank of the Bundeswehr of the rank groups of lieutenants , captains , staff officers or generals . The career group of officers comprises ten careers : the careers of officers of the troop service , the medical service , the military music service , the geoinformation service of the Bundeswehr and the military technical service, as well as a career corresponding to these careers for reserve officers .
Federal Border Guard
Until 1976 there were ranks in the Federal Border Police (BGS). The rank group of the officers ranged from lieutenant in the BGS to major general in the BGS, the inspector of the Federal Border Police . In 1976, the ranks were converted into official designations that corresponded to those of the state police . Ranks and official titles were added in the Federal Border Police , in the BGS or i. BGS .
German Democratic Republic
National Peoples Army
The officers of the National People's Army and the Barracked People's Police were trained in a three-year, from 1984 four-year course at the officers' college. At the beginning of the second year of study, there was an internship as a group leader . After the final exam, appointed lieutenant, the officers were usually used as platoon leaders. In addition, they were the official position company commander prepared and the battle management as a battalion commander briefed.
Prospective reserve officers were selected from the best at the end of their basic military service , trained in several courses at the officers' college and, after passing an examination, appointed sub-lieutenant .
After three to four years of service in the troops, particularly qualified officers, including those of the VP readiness , were selected to study at the Friedrich Engels Military Academy or a Soviet Military Academy . There the training for commanders from regimental commanders and for prominent posts in the commandos of the NVA or at the Ministry of National Defense took place .
Ministry of State Security
The majority of the members of the then Ministry for State Security (MfS) were professional soldiers . The Ministry last had 91,015 full-time employees (as of October 31, 1989), of which only 185 were civilian employees. The employment relationship of the professional soldiers was designed according to the NVA professional soldiers. Since 1972 the minimum regular service period has been 25 years. Until 1952 the officers carried the rank designations of the People's Police . Then they were reassessed, that is, their skills and performance were assessed and assigned to military ranks. Two special groups of career officers were the officers on special operations (OibE) and the U-employees.
Special duty officers
Specialized officers were deployed outside of the MfS apparatus, usually in "positions of importance in terms of security policy in the state apparatus, in the economy or in other areas of social life" in the GDR or abroad (or the Federal Republic) and acted there undercover and equipped with a " legendary " biography, in the sense of the MfS. Thus, they had tasks that corresponded to those of the unofficial employees , but were full-time members of the MfS.
Underground staff
On the one hand, U-employees were active in the area of "observation and investigation" and counter-espionage in order to fend off espionage actions against the MfS, against employees of high government agencies of the GDR as well as members of the armed organs. On the other hand, they were used to observe suspected members of the MfS and former members of the MfS. These U employees were located in Department 4 of the Disciplinary Department of the Management and Training Main Department. They were only listed as U-employees in 1989, before they were classified as OibE.
U-employees were not allowed to enter the MfS objects and not appear as MfS employees. For this purpose, recruitment candidates who had previously proven their reliability as perspective cadres were used directly as U employees. They were usually legendary through a sham employment relationship with organs of the Ministry of the Interior (MdI) or the NVA. The highest rank known to date was major.
Salary
The salaries of the officers of the MfS were, like all soldiers of the MfS, subject to their own pay regulations. It consisted of remuneration for the rank, for the service position, a percentage surcharge according to the seniority as well as allowances and surcharges for certain activities. The professional soldiers, who were not barracked, were paid housing, clothing and food allowances. There were also financial gratuities associated with awards.
The salary range for the rank ranged in 1987 from 400 Marks (Unterleutnant) to 1400 Marks (Colonel General).
The post was paid according to 23 levels of remuneration, a distinction being made between the service in the headquarters, in the guard regiment "Feliks Dzierzynski" and the district administration (BV) Berlin on the one hand and service in the other district administrations on the other. In 1978, the range ranged from 500 marks (security staff in a BV outside Berlin) and 3350 marks (deputy minister).
The basis for the percentage seniority supplements were the remuneration for grade, position and allowances. It was eight percent from three years of service, from five years of service ten percent, from ten years of service 15 percent, from 15 years of service 20 percent and from 20 years of service 25 percent.
Allowances were granted, for example, for flight personnel, doctors, dentists and pharmacists as well as university lecturers and academic staff at the Potsdam Law School . Surcharges were paid to “compensate for special physical and psychological stress”, such as shift and border work.
The officers' income, like that of all MfS employees, was largely tax-free. Only the remuneration for the grade was subject to wage tax. They also paid ten percent of the gross wage as a contribution to the MfS special pension fund. The pension amounted to 75 percent of the last gross earnings.
Newly hired officer students who studied on behalf of the MfS received flat-rate salaries (in 1987: 1st year of service: 675 marks, 2nd year of service: 725 marks, 3rd year of service: 775 marks, 4th year of service: 850 marks).
Minister Erich Mielke last had an annual income of 79,062.50 marks, the other generals earned 4,000 to 6,500 marks. A as a case officer for IM inserted captain with at least ten years of service came up to 2,242.50 marks.
See also
- Prussian Army - Military Training, Everyday Life and Recruitment
- Association of German Officers (1943)
- German Officer Association Foundation
- Navy Officers Association
literature
- Detlef Bald : The German officer. Social and educational history of the German officer corps in the 20th century . Bernard & Graefe, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-5400-8 .
- Hans Bleckwenn : Old Prussian officer portraits. Studies from the estate . With miniatures by Bodo Koch, ed. commissioned by Bernhard R. Kroener and Joachim Niemeyer , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 2000, ISBN 3-7648-2584-7 .
- Ursula Breymayer, Bernd Ulrich, Karin Wieland (eds.): Willensmenschen. About German officers . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-14438-8 .
- Rolf Elble : From the future German officer. Current thoughts on the officer profession . Verlag WEU / Offene Zeiten Verlag, Bonn 1957.
- Hanns Hubert Hofmann (ed.): The German officer corps, 1860–1960 (= German leadership classes in modern times . Volume 11). In connection with the Military History Research Office, Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1980, ISBN 3-7646-1775-6 .
- Nina Leonhard : Integration and Memory. NVA officers in reunified Germany . UVK Verlagsgesellschaft, Konstanz u. a. 2016, ISBN 978-3-86764-648-2 .
- Thomas Eugen Scheerer : The naval officers of the Imperial Navy. Socialization and conflict. With 72 tables (= small series of publications on military and naval history . Vol. 2). Winkler, Bochum 2002, ISBN 3-930083-88-4 .
- Hans Meier-Welcker (ed.): Officers in the picture of documents from three centuries (= contributions to military and war history . Volume 6). DVA, Stuttgart 1964.
- Ingrid Welcker, Fritz F. Zelinka: Qualification as an officer? A content analysis of the recruitment requirements for officers from the Imperial Army to the Bundeswehr (= European University Papers, Volume 31). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-8204-5768-2 .
Web links
- Literature on the subject of officers in the catalog of the German National Library
- Army leaders and high officers of the Thirty Years War (Working Group Military and Society in the Early Modern Era)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Federal Ministry of Defense , BMVg P II 5 (Ed.): A-1420/24. Central service regulation. Ranks and rank groups . January 19, 2006 ( PDF ).
- ^ Art. 1 Order of the Federal President on the rank designations and uniforms of soldiers
- ↑ a b c d e Jens Gieseke: The full-time employees of the Ministry for State Security (= BStU [Hrsg.]: Anatomy of State Security - history, structure, methods ). 2nd Edition. BStU, Berlin 1996, ISBN 978-3-942130-25-7 , pp. 21 ff .; 101 ( bstu.de [PDF] reference date: October 31, 1989).