School for intelligence of the German armed forces

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bundeswehr Intelligence School
- SNBw -

Internal association badge
active March 4, 1956 to December 31, 2002
Country GermanyGermany Germany
Armed forces Bundeswehr Kreuz.svg armed forces
Location Bad Ems.png Bad Ems

The Bundeswehr News School ( SNBw ; colloquial Bundeswehr news school ; initially G2 / MAD school then G2 / A2 school until summer 1959 ) existed from March 4, 1956 to December 31, 2002, was initially in Rengsdorf , from mid-October 1958 Stationed in the former gendarmerie barracks in Bad Ems ( Rhineland-Palatinate ) and finally subordinated to the Federal Armed Forces Office for Intelligence (ANBw).

task

The school carried out the training of officers and NCOs with Portepee of the Military Intelligence (Command Base Area 2). Courses and briefings for the German military attachés also took place there. The military shielding service (MAD) trained its staff at the school before it was transferred to today's Academy for Protection of the Constitution (AfV) in Swisttal - Heimerzheim .

structure

In peacetime the school was under the command of the Front News Training Company 300 as a training unit, which at that time trained the soldiers of the field intelligence unit and was responsible for their further development. The MAD had a teaching group at the school.

history

At the end of February 1956, the Federal Ministry of Defense issued the order for a "teaching group MAD" in Rengsdorf . This was housed in the former "Rheinhöhe" hotel, which was renovated for the purposes of the German armed forces. It was set up by Hans Meisner , who had previously been deputy head of the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Bremen , switched to the MAD in 1955 and was appointed government director. A "senior officer" was appointed as the soldiers' disciplinary superior. As teachers was also personnel of Directorate IV J in the Federal Ministry of Defense, the predecessor of today's Federal Office for the Military Counterintelligence Service (BAMAD), according Rengsdorf ordered and won nationals German security authorities and of friendly services as guest speakers. On March 5, 1956, the first MAD course was opened by the then head, Gerhard Wessel . The first permanent staff were 21 soldiers and officials. In the first school year, six MAD basic courses with 200 participants could be carried out. Also in 1956 began the training of security officers of all branches of the armed forces and security officers of the Bundeswehr administration . In the second school year, the first course for military attachés followed . In the summer a separate teaching group G2 / A2 was created under the direction of Colonel i. G. Hans-Adolf von Blumröder . The MAD teaching group continued to train in the sub-area of military security . On October 1, 1957, the teaching facility was renamed the G2 / A2 school after its first name as school G2 / MAD and consisted of the two teaching groups G2 / A2 and MAD as well as the MAD technology group. The latter was removed from the MAD teaching group at the beginning of January 1959 and subordinated to the school commander, and later to the school staff. It was directly subordinate to the BMVg. Konrad Stephanus became the first commander. In the summer of 1959, the school was named "Bundeswehr Intelligence School" (SNBw). The MAD teaching group was renamed several times in the summer of 1969 and was renamed the MAD teaching and training group. In October 1958, the company moved to the former gendarmerie barracks in Bad Ems. From 1967 an extension and accommodation building were added. From 1964 to 1967 Armin Eck was school commander before he became head of the MAD.

At the end of the 1960s, the school had 400 permanent staff, including over 60 teachers. In addition to the staff group, which included a library with 15,000 books, the special staff worked with a study group, a technical group, the language service and an archive. In addition, there was the Military Intelligence / Armed Forces teaching group and the MAD teaching and exercise group. In 1974, the MAD teaching and exercise group registered its 5,000th course participant. By the end of 1976, 92 basic courses for active personnel, 13 for reservists , 201 special courses, 20 courses for officer cadets in the military-technical service and for staff sergeants were held, in which 27,000 soldiers and civilian members of the Bundeswehr took part. For the 20th anniversary in 1976, Brigadier General Odo Ratza was the school commander. This year the technology group was again subordinated to the MAD teaching and training group.

In 1979 the school had 29 military and one civilian teacher. In 1983 Elmar Schmähling lost his post as head of the MAD because he had an extramarital affair with a secretary at the school for communications.

On October 21, 1983, an explosives attack was carried out on a building under construction at the school. Around midnight, a fire extinguisher filled with one kilogram of explosives and fitted with a time fuse detonated. In addition to the new building, surrounding houses were also damaged, but no one was harmed. An anonymous letter of confession indicated that the RAF environment or the revolutionary cells were the perpetrators. The attack resembled one on an American officers' mess at Hahn Air Base . From 1964 to 1967 Armin Eck was school commander before he became head of the MAD.

At the beginning of 1984, the MAD teaching and training group consisted of a basic department, the Intelligence Training Inspectorate and the Communication Technology group. The latter was divided into the departments of electrical engineering / electronics, optics / optronics and chemistry / physics. The teaching group commander was Colonel Rudolf Reibold , later commander of MAD Group IV in Mainz and then, as Brigadier General, deputy head of the Office for the Military Counterintelligence Service.

On December 31, 2002, the SNBw merged into the Bundeswehr Intelligence Center (ZNBw) in Grafschaft - Gelsdorf as the "Military Intelligence Training Group" of the Bundeswehr , which emerged on the same date from the Bundeswehr Intelligence Office.

With the dissolution of the ZNBw in 2007, the military intelligence teaching group was largely integrated into the School for Strategic Reconnaissance of the Bundeswehr in Flensburg . The training of the military attachés went to the Strategic Reconnaissance Command (KdoStrat Aufkl).

Commanders

In the early 1960s, Konrad Stephanus was school commander and from 1970 to 1973 Friedrich Rosenauer . Until 1983, the training facility was run by Brigadier General Helmut Behrendt , who subsequently became head of the military counterintelligence service.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Location database of the Bundeswehr. In: Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr . Retrieved March 24, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Reinhard Bettzuege: The German Military Attaché Service - From the beginnings of the Bundeswehr until today . TUDpress, Dresden 2001, ISBN 978-3-938863-34-3 ( online [PDF; accessed on November 12, 2019] dissertation).
  3. ↑ Helmut R. Hammerich : "Always on the enemy!" - The Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) 1956–1990 . 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-525-36392-8 , pp. 212 f . (Short biography of Meißner).
  4. ↑ a b Helmut R. Hammerich : “Always on the enemy!” - The Military Shield Service (MAD) 1956–1990 . 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-525-36392-8 , pp. 86; 143-145 .
  5. ↑ Helmut R. Hammerich : "Always on the enemy!" - The Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) 1956–1990 . 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-525-36392-8 , pp. 207 .
  6. ↑ Helmut R. Hammerich : "Always on the enemy!" - The Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) 1956–1990 . 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-525-36392-8 , pp. 145-148 .
  7. ↑ Answer of the federal government to the minor question of the members of parliament [...] and the parliamentary group of the CDU / CSU - printed matter 8/2785 - use of civilian teachers at the schools of the armed forces. (PDF) In: 8th  German Bundestag . June 12, 1979, accessed on November 12, 2019 (Drucksache 8/2960).
  8. ↑ Affair - E. is coming . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1984, pp. 34 ( online ).
  9. ↑ Helmut R. Hammerich : "Always on the enemy!" - The Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) 1956–1990 . 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-525-36392-8 , pp. 428 f .
  10. ↑ Defense technology . tape 23 , no. 1-5 , 1991, pp. 45 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  11. ↑ Joachim Mogwitz: The Center for Intelligence of the Bundeswehr in County Gelsdorf. In: Kreis-ahrweiler.de. Retrieved March 9, 2020 .
  12. ^ Manfred Bischoff: Command strategic reconnaissance. Retrieved November 12, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Rosenhauer, Friedrich. In: Federal Archives . Retrieved November 12, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Bonn: Released. In: The time . September 9, 1983. Retrieved November 12, 2019 .