Defense Committee (German Bundestag)

Defense Committee meeting in Bonn on April 13, 1988

The Defense Committee of the German Bundestag ( VgA ) is a mandatory committee provided for in Article 45a of the Basic Law (there: Committee for Defense ). The competence of the Bundestag committee corresponds to the business area of the Federal Minister of Defense . The task of the committee is to prepare resolutions of the German Bundestag, to issue recommendations and, by means of its right of self- involvement, to guarantee accompanying and co-steering parliamentary control of defense policy and the armed forces . The special importance of the committee can be seen in the fact that, as a mandatory committee, it does not require any formal appointment by the Bundestag and cannot be dissolved. This can be explained by the interest in comprehensive parliamentary control and constant monitoring of the armed forces. Parliamentary control over defense matters is also enhanced by the fact that the committee also has the rights of a committee of inquiry . Of the committees of the German Bundestag, only the Defense Committee has this right to set itself up as a committee of inquiry. At the request of a quarter of the members of the committee, he must make a matter the subject of an investigation. This means that even a minority in the committee is able to bring important matters to the fore for an investigation. So far, the Defense Committee has been constituted 15 times as a committee of inquiry in the German Bundestag . In 2013, the Defense Committee, as a committee of inquiry ( 17th electoral term ) , dealt with the controversial armaments project " EURO-Hawk ". In 2015, the Left demanded the same role for the G36 affair, instead of an investigative committee of the Bundestag serving only as a show trial.

Members in the 19th legislative period

Entrance to the Defense Committee in the Paul-Löbe-Haus

36 members of the committee

CDU / CSU parliamentary group

• Reinhard Brandl
• Ingo Gädechens (chairman)
• Eckhard Gnodtke
• Florian Hahn
• Karl Lamers (Deputy Chairman)
• Jens Lehmann
• Gisela Manderla
• Henning Otte
• Anita Schäfer
• Karin Strenz
• Oswin Veith
• Kerstin Vieregge

SPD parliamentary group

• Eberhard Brecht
• Karl-Heinz Brunner
• Katrin Budde
• Fritz Felgentreu (Chairman)
• Wolfgang Hellmich (Chairman)
• Thomas Hitschler
• Siemtje Möller
• Dirk Vöpel

AfD parliamentary group

• Berengar Elsner from Gronow
• Jens Kestner
• Rüdiger Lucassen (Chairman)
• Jan Nolte
• Gerold Otten

FDP parliamentary group

• Marcus Faber
• Alexander Müller (Chairman)
• Christian Sauter
• Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann

Left Party

• Christine Buchholz
• Matthias Höhn
• Alexander Neu (chairman)
• Tobias Pflüger

Alliance 90 / The Greens parliamentary group

• Agnieszka Brugger
• Katja Keul
• Tobias Lindner (Chairman)

history

Legislative period	Chair	fraction	Deputy	fraction	Members	comment
1. (1949-1953)	Franz Josef Strauss	CDU / CSU	Fritz Erler	SPD	21st	from July 19, 1952: Committee for the consultation of the EDC contract and the related agreements. From January 21, 1953: Committee for questionsof European security
2. (1953–1957)	Richard Jaeger	CDU / CSU	Fritz Erler	SPD	29	Committee on European Security Issues from 10 January 1956: Committee on Defense
3. (1957-1961)	Richard Jaeger	CDU / CSU	Hans Merten	SPD	29
4. (1961-1965)	Richard Jaeger	CDU / CSU	Hans Merten from November 15, 1963: Karl Wienand	SPD	27
5. (1965-1969)	Friedrich Zimmermann	CDU / CSU	Karl Wienand from April 13, 1967: Karl Wilhelm Berkhan	SPD	31
6. (1969–1972)	Friedrich Zimmermann	CDU / CSU	Hermann Schmidt	SPD	29 or 25
7. (1972-1976)	Hermann Schmidt from April 9, 1975: Werner Buchstaller	SPD	Manfred Woerner	CDU / CSU	27
8. (1976-1980)	Manfred Woerner	CDU / CSU	Werner Buchstaller	SPD	27
9. (1980-1983)	Werner Marx from October 27, 1982: Alfred Biehle	CDU / CSU	Erwin Horn	SPD	27
10. (1983-1987)	Alfred Biehle	CDU / CSU	Walter Kolbow from June 19, 1985: Friedrich Gerstl	SPD	27
11. (1987-1990)	Alfred Biehle from May 16, 1990: Uwe Ronneburger	CDU / CSU FDP	Walter Kolbow	SPD	29
12. (1990-1994)	Fritz Wittmann	CDU / CSU	Heinz-Alfred Steiner	SPD	37
13. (1994-1998)	Klaus Rose from January 29, 1997: Kurt J. Rossmanith	CDU / CSU	Dieter Heistermann	SPD	39
14. (1998-2002)	Helmut Wieczorek	SPD	Thomas Kossendey	CDU / CSU	38
15th (2002-2005)	Reinhold Robbe from April 14, 2005: Ulrike Merten	SPD	Thomas Kossendey	CDU	30th
16. (2005-2009)	Ulrike Merten	SPD	Karl A. Lamers	CDU	30th
17th (2009-2013)	Susanne Kastner	SPD	Karl A. Lamers	CDU	34	from 2009: Committee of inquiry to investigate the air attack on two tank trucks near Kunduz in Afghanistan in the night of September 3rd to 4th, 2009 from 2013: Committee of inquiry to investigate the Euro Hawk development project
18th (2013-2017)	Hans-Peter Bartels from May 20, 2015: Wolfgang Hellmich	SPD	Karl A. Lamers	CDU	32
19. (since 2018)	Wolfgang Hellmich	SPD	Karl A. Lamers	CDU	36

See also

• Bundestag committee

literature

• Hans-Erich Volkmann (ed.): The Bundestag committee for defense. The committee for the consultation of the EDC contract - July to December 1952 . On behalf of the Military History Research Office . Droste, Düsseldorf 2006, ISBN 3-7700-1700-5 .
• Bruno Thoss (Ed.): The Bundestag Committee on Defense. The Committee on European Security Issues. January 1953 to July 1954 (= The Bundestag Committee on Defense and its predecessors . Volume 2). On behalf of the Military History Research Office. Droste, Düsseldorf 2010, ISBN 978-3-7700-1701-0 .
• Burkhard Köster (ed.): The Bundestag committee for defense. The committee for questions of European security - September 1954 to July 1955 (= the Bundestag committee for defense and its predecessors . Volume 3). On behalf of the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr . Droste, Düsseldorf 2014, ISBN 978-3-7700-1702-7 .

Web links

Commons : Defense Committee of the German Bundestag  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Defense Committee pages on bundestag.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ spiegel.de