Walter Spindler

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Walter Spindler

Walter Spindler (born May 4, 1954 in Detmold ) is a major general a. D. of the army of the Bundeswehr . His last assignment was from July 1, 2013 to April 2017, commander of the training command in Leipzig .

Life

Spindler was born the son of a farmer and grew up in the small town of Maspe . Just like the later SPD politician Frank-Walter Steinmeier , he attended the municipal modern high school in Blomberg. Without the intention of becoming a professional soldier , he joined the Bundeswehr in 1973 . His passion for the army developed already during his early days . Spindler, who speaks fluent English and French, lives with his wife in Müllheim (Baden) . The couple has been married since 1983 and has four children (three daughters and one son).

Military career

Promotions

Training and first uses

Spindler was first on 1 July 1973 as compulsory military service in the Infantry Battalion 323 in Schwanewede convened. After continuing his engagement, he studied economics and organizational sciences from 1974 to 1978 at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich . During his studies in Munich he was active in the Corps Suevo-Guestphalia . He then returned to the troops and was deployed for two years as platoon leader and later as S2 in Panzergrenadier Battalion 11 in Wesendorf . From 1980 to 1985 he was company commander in the 12th Panzer Grenadier Battalion in Osterode .

General staff training and service as a staff officer

Spindler completed the German general staff training at the command academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg from 1985 to 1986 and the French general staff training at the Ecole Supérieure de Guerre in Paris from 1986 to 1988 . He then worked for one year as staff officer G4 / G3 of the 29th Panzer Brigade in Sigmaringen and from 1989 to 1991 he was a consultant in the command staff of the armed forces of the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn .

From 1991 to 1993 he was staff officer G3 (operations) at the Military District Command VIII in Neubrandenburg and then until 1995 commander of the Panzergrenadier Battalion 72/173 in Hamburg-Fischbek . Spindler had his first international assignment as a G3 OP for two years in the Eurocorps in Strasbourg and then from 1997 to 1998 he was the Operation Group Leader of the Army Command in Koblenz . After that he was employed as head of department in the planning staff of the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn and Berlin until 2002 . In that year he also attended the 2002 Seminar for Security Policy at the Federal Academy for Security Policy in Siegburg . Until 2003, Spindler was a listener at the French Center for Higher Military Studies (CHEM) in Paris and took part in the general course there.

General uses

Walter Spindler (2013)

From September 1, 2003, he commanded the Franco-German Brigade in Müllheim (Baden) and went with it as commander of the Kabul Multinational Brigade from July 2004 to January 2005 in Afghanistan . There he was responsible, among other things, for security in the first democratic elections in Afghanistan , which Hamid Karzai won.

In 2005 he became Deputy Chief of Staff - Operation of the Eurocorps . In 2007 he took over the position of Head of Department II in the Army Office in Cologne and thus became General for Army Training . On May 2, 2011, he was temporarily transferred to the post of Chief of Staff of the Army Office, as the previous post holder , Brigadier General Wolfgang Köpke , moved to the ISAF headquarters in Kabul for a year . On June 28, 2011 he became Deputy Commanding General of the Eurocorps in Strasbourg . On July 1, 2013, he became commander of the training command in Leipzig .

Dismissed as commander of the training command

At the end of April 2017, Federal Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen released him from his position as commander of the Army Training Command and was transferred to another post until his planned retirement in August 2017. He is accused of "failing to investigate energetically enough again in a previously unknown case of misconduct by army instructors in Sondershausen, Thuringia". His recall sparked a public debate about the spirit of the Bundeswehr. Spindler himself expressed himself critically in public about this process, in particular about the fact that he had not been informed about his impending transfer in front of the media ( Twitter and Spiegel Online ). According to his statement, he was only informed of this by the inspector of the army after the message had been online for several minutes:

“What I would have liked to have been that I didn't find out about my premature delivery on Twitter and Spiegel Online. It was 11:39 a.m. on Twitter and I was snapped away. 11:49 am I was fired via Spiegel Online. At 11:55 am, a representative of the minister, namely the inspector of the army, became official and informed me. With the wording that was in the press. That is undignified and stylish from my point of view. "

- Walter Spindler : Controversial

Spindler's successor is Norbert Wagner , former commander of the training center in Munster. Spindler retired on September 1, 2017.

Orders and awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günter Platzdasch: Steinmeier's youth: What does not belong together . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . September 25, 2008.
  2. ^ Directory of Weinheimer Corps Students 1990, p. 450
  3. ^ Change in leadership in the Army Office , deutschesheer.de, May 2, 2011.
  4. ↑ Marcel Bohnert : About corps spirit and combat troops. In: Frankfiurter Allgemeine Zeitung, p. 8-29 April 2017, accessed on May 1, 2017 .
  5. ↑ a b Thomas Wiegold: Deposed army training chief defends himself against von der Leyen: eyes straight ahead. In: Augengeradeaus.net. June 14, 2017. Retrieved June 23, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Von der Leyen deposed chief trainer of the army. In: Spiegel Online from April 26, 2017.
  7. ^ Changes in military and civilian top positions - August 2017. Accessed July 28, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Spindler, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German general
DATE OF BIRTH May 4th 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Detmold