Military District Command I

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Military area command I
- WBK I -
XX

Association badge military area command I

Association badge
active January 24, 1956 to February 1, 2013
Country GermanyGermany Germany
Armed forces Bundeswehr Kreuz.svg armed forces
Armed forces Bundeswehr Kreuz.svg army
Type Military area command
Last seat of staff Kiel

The military area command I ( WBK I ) was a military area command of the Bundeswehr . The task of this command authority was the territorial defense in Defense Area I.

The WBK I was set up in Kiel in 1956 and was integrated into the Schleswig-Holstein Territorial Command from 1969 to 1994 . Between 1994 and 1997, the management of the military area was carried out by the merged staff "Military Area Command I / 6th Panzer Grenadier Division ". Until 1997, the military district I covered the areas of the country Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg , from 1997 to 2001 in addition to the field of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern . In 2001 the defense areas were reorganized. The command was reorganized as WBK I "Coast" and took over the command of the "new" Defense Area I, which included Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as well as the federal states of Bremen and Lower Saxony . WBK I “Coast” was decommissioned in 2013.

history

Military District Command I was set up in Kiel as part of the Territorial Army at the beginning of 1956 and was subordinate to the Territorial Defense Command until 1969 . From 1958 to 1961 territorial defense staffs (TV staffs) were set up, which from 1963 were reclassified into defense district commands (VBK) and were subordinate to the WBK. The following VBKs were established:

From 1964 the establishment of subordinate defense district commands (VKK) began in the defense districts . From 1965 the commander in Defense Area I was also the "German Plenipotentiary in the Area Allied Forces Northern Europe (AFNORTH)".

As an integrated part of the Territorial Command (1969–1994)

WBK I was incorporated into the army from 1969 to take over Army Structure III . Like the other WBKs, it should be subordinate to one of the newly established territorial commands . For this purpose, the Schleswig-Holstein Territorial Command was essentially reorganized by reorganizing the staff of Defense Area I. Because of the special military and organizational situation in the north of Germany as part of the command area AFNORTH and stronger cooperation with the Danish armed forces as part of the multinational corps LANDJUT were territorial and field army Bundeswehr in this area structured differently than the rest of West Germany . WBK I, also because it was the only WBK of the newly established Schleswig-Holstein Territorial Command, in fact did not manage Defense Area I as an independent command authority.Instead, the staff of WBK I became an integral part of the staff of the Schleswig-Holstein Territorial Command from 1969. The commander of the Schleswig-Holstein Territorial Command and "German Plenipotentiary in Area AFNORTH" led Defense Area I directly with his staff.

Merger with the 6th Panzer Grenadier Division (1994–1997)

Headquarters on Niemannsweg on the Kiel Fjord

After the end of the Cold War , the territorial army was significantly reduced in size. The Schleswig-Holstein Territorial Command was decommissioned; the military area command I took over the management of the military area as the highest command authority in the area of Jutland and Hamburg. In Army Structure V , the WBKs and division staffs were merged. On April 1, 1994, WBK I merged with the 6th Panzer Grenadier Division . The merged staff in Kiel was called "Military District Command I / 6. Panzergrenadierdivision ”and was subordinate to the I. Corps in Münster, whereby the WBK I continued to support LANDJUT. The separation between a field army subordinate to NATO and the territorial army, which also remains under national command in the event of a defense , was thus organizationally softened in the peace structure. Only in the event of a defense would the merged staffs have probably been separated again.

In 1997, the northern part of Defense Area VIII , which was dissolved at the same time , was the area of ​​the federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , the "Military Area Command I / 6. Panzergrenadierdivision "subordinated.

In October 1997 the merger was reversed. The 6th Panzer Grenadier Division continued to exist for a short time as an independent division and was decommissioned in autumn 1997. The WBK I continued.

The "new" Military District Command I "Coast" (2001-2013)

The location of the Defense Area Command I “Coast” with subordinate defense districts

In 2001 all WBKs were fundamentally reorganized. The "old" Defense Areas I (Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) and II ( Lower Saxony , Bremen) were merged to form the "new" Defense Area I. The leadership continued unchanged by the staff of the WBK I in Kiel, which was given the new designation WBK I "Coast" after the expansion of its command area and integration into the newly established armed forces base . The "old" WBK II in Hanover was omitted. The focus of WBK I “Coast” was logistics .

The defense districts were partly reorganized and reduced. The following defense district commands were subordinate to WBK I "Coast":

The subordinate VBKs were dissolved in 2007. The following state commands were subordinate to WBK I "Coast" as subordinate associations :

In addition:

resolution

The Military District Command I "Coast" was decommissioned in 2013 and its territorial tasks were transferred to the Territorial Tasks Command of the Bundeswehr and the previously subordinate state commands .

structure

Association badge

Staff WBK I "Coast"

The military area command carried a union badge with the following blazon :

" Tied by a silver cord with woven black thread, divided into black, red, gold in a golden central shield a one-headed black eagle , the head turned to the right, the wings open, but with closed plumage, beak, tongue and fangs of red color ( Federal eagle); the middle shield below accompanied by the black Roman numeral  I. "

The shield division corresponded to the flag of Germany . The motifs of the association badge were also similar to the coat of arms of Germany . The eagle was the German heraldic animal . He was depicted similarly on the troop flags of the Bundeswehr . The close reference to the coat of arms and the flag of Germany made it clear that the territorial army and its military area commands remained under the authority of the national commander in the event of a defense and were not assigned to NATO .

The association badges of the command authorities in the territorial army were particularly similar. In particular, the association badges of the higher-level territorial commands and the other military area commands differed only in their labeling. The association badge of the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg) was almost identical except for the board . The silver / black braided border on the WBKs symbolized the position below the BMVg, which accordingly had a "higher quality" golden cord.

Commander

The last commanders in the military area were:

No. Rank Surname Beginning of the appointment
1. Rear admiral Uwe Kahre March 28, 2003
2. Major general Heinz-Georg Keerl January 2005
3. Rear admiral Jens-Volker Kronisch January 18, 2008
4th Brigadier General Wolfgang Brüschke June 27, 2011

literature

  • OW 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]).

Web links

Active and former corps with the participation of the German army
Active corps

1st German-Dutch Corps  | Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps  | Eurocorps  | Multinational Corps North-East

Former corps

I. Corps  | II. Corps / II. (German-American) Corps  | III. Corps  | IV Corps  | Headquarters of the Allied Land Forces Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland

Corps equivalents

Territorial Command East  | Weir area command I · II · III · IV · V · VI

Coordinates: 54 ° 21 '  N , 10 ° 9'  E