District Defense Command

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Command sign of a commander of a defense district command until 2004

Defense district commands ( VBK ) were subordinate to the military area commands of the Bundeswehr .

The main task was the territorial defense in their defense district. The first defense district commands were set up as part of the territorial army in the early 1960s and switched from the army to the armed forces base in 2001 . The defense district commands were decommissioned in mid-2007. Their orders were essentially taken over by the state commandos and the subordinate district and district liaison commands.

assignments

Reservists of the Heimatschutztruppe ( JgBtl 942 , Heimatschutzregiment 94 “ Kurpfalz ”, Defense District Command 45 ) practice with American GIs in 1988

As part of the Territorial Army , the Defense District Command took on regional armed forces joint subtasks of territorial defense in the rear area, limited to their defense district . Essentially, the defense district commands ensured the freedom of operation of the Allied troops operating in their defense district, as well as the field army of the Bundeswehr. To this end, they were supported by the troops directly subordinate to the higher military area command and territorial command. About the connection commands (and until 2001 to unterster level also Defense district headquarters ) defense area command of maintaining contact with the Allied forces, associations of the Army (from divisions down) civilian administrations (especially the regional councils , district administrators , mayors or provincial governments ), as well as departments of the Territorial Defense Administration (For example military area administrations , site administrations , district defense replacement offices ). In 2001, instead of the defense district commands, district liaison commands were set up to cooperate with the lower civilian authorities .

For this purpose, the defense district commands administered or operated depots in the defense districts for defense material , ammunition defeats , training areas , shooting ranges , smaller tank farms and other fixed military facilities or educational facilities such as the Bundeswehr technical schools . The site elders (in Hamburg and Munich : site commanders ) and site sergeants were mostly also commanders of the local defense district commands or the subordinate defense district commands.

The units of the homeland security troops subordinate to the defense districts were able to secure important infrastructure such as marching roads, river crossings, airfields, mobilization bases, special ammunition depots , command posts , fixed telecommunication facilities , etc. against airborne , infiltrated or breached enemies, with limited time and location . The subordinate Wallmeister troops prepare barriers in the event of a defense .

During peacetime, the defense district commands trained reservists as part of military exercises and led military command and reserve battalions , which were of particular importance for the replacement of the Bundeswehr and mobilization . In addition to the support commands, some defense district commands took on tasks within the framework of the WHNS program and supported Allied forces in mobilizing in Germany.

After the end of the Cold War , at the latest after the change to the armed forces base, the tasks for preparing the defense case , especially in the area of ​​mobilization, personnel replacement , construction of barriers and homeland security, were greatly reduced. The focus was now on the peacekeeping operations of the military facilities, contact with civilian agencies, civil-military cooperation and support for (now mostly voluntary) reservist work in cooperation with the Association of Reservists of the German Armed Forces .

structure

Like most units of the Territorial Army, the Defense District Commands comprised only a few active soldiers. Only in the event of a defense could the Defense District Command, through the summoning of reservists and mobilization of stored and civilian material, grow to a troop strength that fluctuated greatly from Defense District Command to Defense District Command, but around 1989 mostly corresponded to a brigade of the field army . For the longest time of their existence, most of the defense district commands, derived from the civil administrative structure, were further subdivided into subordinate defense district commands at the level of the districts and urban districts . Many defense district commands or their subordinate Defense district headquarters were around 1,989, depending on location more homeland security companies , homeland security regiments , usually with several subordinate hunter battalions and assurance companies and security battalions as the core of infantry dominated homeland security force assumed. Defense district commands near the border to the territory of the Warsaw Pact were often smaller than one of the brigades of the field army because units of the homeland security troops were mostly not deployed with them, or only to a very limited extent. In addition, they were often subordinate to Wallmeister troops , predominantly stationary telecommunication facilities , site commanderships , traffic commands , military training area commands , Bundeswehr technical schools , military command and reserve battalions , as well as liaison commands to allied armed forces, to units of the field army or to civilian administrative offices .

history

prehistory

In 1958, the establishment of “VP- TV rods ” began. The territorial defense staff were subordinate to the military area commands that had been planned shortly before .

Lineup

The defense district commands emerged from the "VP-TV staffs" to take over Army Structure II in the 1960s (mostly until 1963) as part of the territorial army . They were placed under the command of the six military area commands that had been planned some time before . Based on the civil administrative structure , each defense district usually roughly corresponded to one of the government districts (in Rhineland-Palatinate already the government districts targeted after the regional reform in 1969 ). In the small states of Saarland , Hamburg , and Bremen , the command area covered the entire state. In Lower Saxony, the small administrative district of Braunschweig and the small administrative district of Aurich were part of larger defense districts that comprised several administrative areas of Lower Saxony. No administrative districts were established in Schleswig-Holstein ; when dividing Schleswig-Holstein into two defense districts, the historical border between Schleswig and Holstein and the size of the administrative districts of other countries were used. Accordingly, the staffs were mostly located in the state capital or at the seat of the regional council for better coordination with the civilian staff. Because of the special international legal situation corresponding to the four-power status , no West German troops were stationed in West Berlin and consequently no territorial defense organization with defense district commands was planned. The following defense district commands were initially set up in the defense areas:

Reorganization in Schleswig-Holstein

The special organization of the NATO command structure in the area LANDJUT or in the territorial command Schleswig-Holstein / Wehrbereichskommando I and the special administrative structure in the state of Schleswig-Holstein , where the state government, unlike in the other large states , did not set up government districts , was also reflected reflected in the organization of the territorial army in Schleswig-Holstein. The defense district commands 11 and 12 were dissolved in 1975 and 1,966th The Schleswig-Holstein Territorial Command / Wehrbereichskommando I led the defense district command directly.

Dissolution in the context of territorial reforms

In the course of the municipal territorial reforms in North Rhine-Westphalia , the administrative district of Aachen was dissolved in 1972 and its territory was assigned to the district government in Cologne . Similarly, Defense District Command 36 was decommissioned. The defense district command 31 in Cologne took over the troops and orders in the defense entfallenen District 36th

Similarly, it was on the merger in 1978 of the administrative district of Osnabrück and the county Oldenburg to the newly established Weser-Ems process. The Defense District Command 21 was decommissioned and its command area was incorporated into the enlarged Defense District Command 24 . At about the same time, Defense District Command 26 was decommissioned and its previous area was incorporated into Defense District 25 in order to map the incorporation of the Stade administrative district into the Lüneburg administrative district .

After reunification

After reunification , the territorial structures known from West Germany were quickly created in the new federal states and Berlin as a whole. The previous administrative territorial structure of the land forces of the National People's Army with the military districts III and V as the highest level of organization no longer existed. Correspondingly, several newly planned defense district commands were subordinated to the new military area commands VII and VIII . However, when designing the new defense districts and choosing the locations for the staffs, they clearly oriented themselves towards the districts known from the German Democratic Republic . In Saxony the chosen defense districts corresponded to the government districts established later . In Saxony-Anhalt , the "division" of the former area of the Halle district into the new administrative districts of Dessau and Halle did not lead to a reorganization and division of the Defense District Command 81. In the other East German states, no government districts were set up, so the structure was based on the districts initially existed. The following defense district commands were newly planned in East Germany:

The Defense District Command 100 / Location Commandantur Berlin established for Berlin was set up at the same time as the other Defense District Command. In 1995 it was subordinated to Military District Command VIII. In 1997 it was renamed the Berlin site command. Despite being renamed, the Berlin site command continued to take on similar tasks to the other defense district commands.

The size of the homeland security force was reduced. In addition to the dissolution of many security battalions, security companies and homeland security companies, the homeland security regiments were reduced in size and reorganized as homeland security battalions from around 1992 . With the abolition of the WHNS program , the security troops set up in the defense districts were also disbanded beginning in 1992.

Merger with brigades

Plans to merge the staffs of a defense district command and a brigade to take over the army structure V (N) analogous to the merging of the divisional and military area command posts and the corps / territorial command east did not go beyond the beginnings between 1994 and 1996. Briefly merged:

Reorganization in Northern Germany

In Schleswig-Holstein, Defense District Commands 11 and 12 were reorganized in October 1993. The Defense District Command I was now subject to the following Defense District Commands:

On October 1, 1997, Military District Command VIII was dissolved. The management of the defense district command in the northern part of the "old" military area VIII, specifically in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , was transferred to the military area command I in Kiel . The defense district commandos in the southern military area, specifically in the states of Berlin , Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg , switched to military area command VII in Leipzig .

Change to the armed forces base

Command mark of a commander of a defense district command since 2004

In 2001 the territorial army was disbanded. The military area commands and defense district commands were subordinated to the newly established armed forces base . The defense areas and defense districts were fundamentally reorganized and their number reduced. The subordinate defense district commands were dissolved by 2004 and some of its tasks were transferred to the newly established district liaison commands. The defense district commands were now the lowest command authorities of the territorial defense organization. A defense district now usually comprised several administrative districts or similarly large areas. Most recently there were 27 defense district commands and the Berlin site command . They were under 50 liaison commands and the representatives for regional affairs (BeaRegA).

Weir area I - coast

Defense District Commands Map of the WBK with the VBKs
VBK 10 (V1) .png
VBK 10 		VBK 11 (Schleswig) .png
VBK 11 		Wbk in dtl1.png
VBK 20.png
VBK 20 		VBK 23 (V1) .png
VBK 23
VBK 24.png
VBK 24 		VBK 25.png
VBK 25
VBK 86.png
VBK 86 		VBK 87 (V1) .png
VBK 87

Defense area II

Defense District Commands Map of the WBK with the VBKs
VBK 31.png
VBK 31 		VBK 34 (V1) .png
VBK 34 		Wbk in dtl2.png
VBK 35 (Augustdorf) .png
VBK 35 		VBK 42 (V1) .png
VBK 42
VBK 46.png
VBK 46 		VBK 47 (V1) .png
VBK 47

Defense area III

Defense District Commands Map of the WBK with the VBKs
Coat of arms StOKdoBerlin.png
StOKdo Berlin 		State Command Thuringia.png
VBK 71 		Wbk in dtl3.png
VBK 75.png
VBK 75 		LKdo Sachsen.gif
VBK 76
VBK 81 (V1) .png
VBK 81 		VBK 82 (V1) .png
VBK 82
VBK 84 (V1) .png
VBK 84 		VBK 85.png
VBK 85

Defense area IV - Southern Germany

Defense District Commands Map of the WBK with the VBKs
Defense District Command 51 insignia.png
VBK 51 		VBK 52.png
VBK 52 		Wbk in dtl4.png
VBK 63 (V1) .png
VBK 63 		VBK 65.png
VBK 65
VBK 66 (V1) .png
VBK 66 		VBK 67.png
VBK 67

resolution

All defense district commands were decommissioned by approximately 2007. Some of his assignments were transferred to the newly established state commandos and subordinate district liaison commands , district liaison commands and the regional security and support forces set up until around 2012 as "successors" of the homeland security force. In Berlin, the previously established as a defense district headquarters remained Garrison Command Berlin received and acted by 2007 as Land Command for the State of Berlin.

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Note: The association badges are shown for the military area commands . For the subordinate defense district commands , the internal association badges ("breast tags") introduced from 1980 and last worn are shown. The internal association badges shown here were mostly only worn by the soldiers in the staff and / or in the staff company . Often the internal association badges shown here were used pars pro toto as a “coat of arms” for the entire defense district command. As an association badge ("sleeve badge" of the service suit ) the soldiers of the defense district command wore the association badge of the superior military area command. Defense district commands that were decommissioned prior to the introduction of the internal association badges never had internal association badges. The departments subordinate to the defense district commands mostly had their own internal association badges.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e O.W. Dragoons: The Bundeswehr 1989 . Territorial Command SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN. Territorial Command NORTH. Territorial Command SOUTH. Appendix: Territorial structure. 4th edition. 2.2 - Army, February 2012 ( religte.com [PDF; accessed July 10, 2018]).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Defense district commands. BArch, BH 30. In: invenio. Federal Archives, accessed on December 14, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b c Defense District Commands . BArch, BH 32. In: invenio. Federal Archives, accessed on December 14, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Military District Command II. BArch, BH 28-2. In: invenio. Federal Archives, accessed on July 14, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b Military District Command III. BArch, BH 28-3. In: invenio. Federal Archives, accessed on July 14, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Military area command IV.Barch, BH 28-4. In: invenio. Federal Archives, accessed on July 14, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Military area command V. BArch, BH 28-5. In: invenio. Federal Archives, 2004, accessed on July 14, 2018 .
  8. ^ Military District Command VI. BArch, BH 28-6. In: invenio. Federal Archives, 2004, accessed on July 14, 2018 .
  9. ↑ a b “Guenther”: Vbk 11 + 12. In: [Cold War Forum - Military Plants & Relics of the Cold War http://www.cold-war.de/ ]. February 27, 2015, accessed November 9, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Military area command VII / 13. Panzergrenadier Division. BArch, BH 40-7. In: invenio. Federal Archives, 2004, accessed on July 14, 2018 .
  11. ↑ a b Military District Command VIII / 14. Panzergrenadier Division. BArch, BH 40-8. In: invenio. Federal Archives, 2004, accessed on July 14, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Jürgen Dreifke: Heer im Wandel 1955–2017. July 2016, accessed December 10, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Military District Command I / 6. Panzergrenadier Division. BArch, BH 40-1. In: invenio. Federal Archives, 2004, accessed on July 14, 2018 .
  14. ↑ a b c d e Defense District Command I - Coast - (Kiel). BArch, BW 68-1. In: invenio. Federal Archives, 2004, accessed on July 14, 2018 .

Web links

Commons : Coats of arms Defense District Command (Bundeswehr)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files