Roland Kather

Roland Kather (r.) With Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani , US Navy and Brigadier General Albert Bryant, Jr. , US Army , 2007.

Lieutenant General Roland Kather during a lecture in September 2010.

Roland Kather (born May 17, 1949 in Bennemühlen ) is a lieutenant general ret. D. of the army of the Bundeswehr . In his last assignment he was the German Military Representative (DMV) in the NATO Military Committee and in the Military Committee of the European Union (EUMC) in Brussels .

Military career

Kather joined the Bundeswehr as a temporary soldier in 1968 , completed his training as an officer and until 1979 served in various roles as platoon leader , officer in the staff and company commander in the 6th Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion (today 6th Reconnaissance Battalion) in Eutin . From 1979 to 1981 he completed the 22nd general staff training at the command academy of the German Armed Forces in Hamburg and then served as a logistics officer ( G4 ) of Panzerbrigade 18 in Neumünster . From 1983 to 1984 he graduated from the Spanish Army General Staff Academy in Madrid . He then took on a post at the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn until 1987 as a consultant in the organization department in the army command staff . From 1987 to 1989, Kather served as a planning officer (G3) in the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) of NATO in Mons , Belgium .

In 1989 he returned to Eutin and until 1991 took over as commander of the Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion 6 (today Reconnaissance Battalion 6). After this deployment of the troops, he served again in the Ministry of Defense until 1995, where he was employed in the command staff of the armed forces (FüS) as a consultant and staff officer at the chief of staff of the FüS. In 1995, Kather was transferred to Düsseldorf , where he took over the post of Chief of Staff of Defense Area Command III and the 7th Panzer Division until 1997 .

From April to August 1996, Kather served on the post of Chief of Staff of the German IFOR contingent in Trogir , Croatia . In 1997 he was then deployed as deputy head of the Bundeswehr command center in Bonn. Two years later, in 1999, he took over command of Panzer Brigade 42 “Brandenburg” of the 14th Panzer Grenadier Division in Potsdam . From December 1999 to June 2000 Brigadier General Kather served as the commander of the Multinational Brigade South of KFOR and was thus also the commander of the German forces in Kosovo in Prizren . He was then employed in February 2001 as Chief of Staff of the Army Command in Koblenz and served in this role until 2003. On September 19, 2003, he took over as commander of the 13th Panzer Grenadier Division in Leipzig and led it until 2006.

From 1 September 2006 to 31 August 2007 was Kather as KFOR commander ( - Commander Kosovo Force COMKFOR in) Pristina used in Kosovo and thus succeed the Italian Lieutenant General Giuseppe Valotto and became lieutenant general. A multinational NATO force of 18,500 soldiers from 35 nations, including 2,900 from Germany, was subordinate to him for one year. Kather was the third German commander over the NATO protection force KFOR. The German takeover of command came during the delicate phase of negotiations on the future status of Kosovo. On August 31, 2007 he handed over command to the French Lieutenant General Xavier de Marnhac .

On October 3, 2007, Kather took over the command of the Allied Land Component Command Heidelberg (CC-Land Heidelberg) of NATO, which had become free due to the promotion of General Karl-Heinz Lather . On May 5, 2010, Kather handed over command in Heidelberg to Lieutenant General John W. Morgan III. In July 2010, Kather succeeded Lieutenant General Jürgen Bornemann as the German Military Representative (DMV) in the NATO Military Committee and the Military Committee of the European Union (EUMC) in Brussels .

On October 19, 2011, Federal Minister of Defense Thomas de Maizière adopted him into retirement with a big tattoo .

Others

After his retirement, Kather was President of the German Army Support Group from October 1, 2012 to October 1, 2017 . He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Society for Security Policy .

Awards

Kather is a holder of the Legion of Merit of the USA. In 2012 he was awarded the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Web links

Commons : Roland Kather  - album with pictures

• Official Biography of KFOR (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} BMVg press and information staff: Military honors for a deserving soldier. BMVg.de, October 17, 2011, accessed on October 19, 2011 . 
2. ↑ German Army Support Group V . : Change of President In: Info letter Heer. No. 4, 2017, p. 3.
3. ^ GfW Berlin section: Brief introduction - Society for Defense and Security Policy. Accessed on April 20, 2020 .