Military District Command III

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Military area command III
- WBK III -
XX

Association badge military area command III

Association badge
active 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 Erfurt

The military area command III was a military area command of the Bundeswehr . The task of this command authority was the territorial defense in Defense Area III.

The military area command was set up in Düsseldorf in 1956 . Between 1994 and 2001, the management of the military area was carried out by the merged staff "Military Area Command III / 7th Panzer Division ". Defense area III comprised North Rhine-Westphalia until 2001 . In 2001 the defense areas were reorganized. In Erfurt , the Military District Command was reorganized III. The “new” military area command III took over the management of the “new” military area III, which included Berlin , Brandenburg , Saxony-Anhalt , Thuringia and Saxony . The Military District Command III was decommissioned in 2013.

history

The "old" Military District Command III (1956–2001)

The Military District Command III was set up in Düsseldorf as part of the Territorial Army from January 1956 . Defense area III comprised the state of North Rhine-Westphalia . The Military District Command III was subordinate to the Territorial Defense Command until 1969 . From 1958 to 1961 TV rods (territorial defense rods ) were set up, which were reclassified into defense district commands from 1963 and were subordinate to the military area command. The following defense district commands were set up:

From 1964, the establishment of subordinate defense district commands began in the defense districts . The military area command was incorporated into the army from 1969 to take over Army Structure III and subordinated to the Territorial Command North .

After the end of the Cold War , the territorial army was significantly reduced in size. In Army Structure V , the military area commands and division headquarters were merged. The Defense District Command III merged on April 1, 1994 with the 7th "Westphalian" Panzer Division . The merged staff was called "Wehrbereichskommando III / 7th Panzer Division". The merged staff was under the 1st Corps . The separation between a field army subordinate to NATO and the territorial army , which remains under national command even 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.

On July 1, 2001, the merger was reversed and the Territorial Army dissolved as a part of the Army . The 7th Panzer Division continued to exist as an independent division until 2006 .

The "new" Military District Command III (2001-2013)

The location of the "new" military area command III with subordinate defense districts

In 2001 all military area commands were fundamentally reorganized. On October 1, 2001, a "new" Military District Command III was set up in Erfurt . Parts of the personnel were called in by the Military District Command VII / 13th Panzer Grenadier Division. As part of the newly established armed forces base, the “new” military area command III took over the command of the troops and the organization of the territorial defense in the “new” military area III. This now included the states of Berlin , Brandenburg , Saxony-Anhalt , Thuringia and Saxony . Between 1997 and 2001 this part of eastern Germany corresponded to Defense Area VII . The military area command VII was dropped.

The "old" Defense Areas III (North Rhine-Westphalia) and IV ( Rhineland-Palatinate , Hesse , Saarland ) were merged in 2001 to form the "new" Defense Area II . The management was taken over by the staff of the "old" Military District Command IV in Mainz , which in 2001 was renamed Military District Command II . The "old" Military District Command III with headquarters in Düsseldorf was dropped.

The main focus of the Military District Command III was command support . The defense districts were partly reorganized and reduced. The following defense district commands were subordinate to the "new" Defense District Command III:

2007 III downstream were as the Military District Command associations , the country commands restructured. The previously subordinate defense district commands were dropped. The task of the state command in Berlin was taken over in 2007 by the Berlin site command, which was upgraded from a defense district command to a command authority equivalent to the state command. The following newly established regional commandos were subordinate to the Military District Command III:

In addition:

resolution

The Military District Command IIII was decommissioned in 2013 and its territorial tasks were transferred to the Territorial Tasks Command of the Bundeswehr and the previously subordinate state commands and the Berlin site command.

structure

Association badge

Woven association badge of the military area command
Internal association badge of the staff of the "old" military area command III with the Westphalia horse , Lippe rose , iron cross , federal eagle and a stylized Rhine
Internal association badge of the staff of the “new” military area command III with the federal eagle and Mainz wheel from the Erfurt coat of arms

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  III. "

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 federal eagle was the German heraldic animal . He was depicted similarly on the troop flags . 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 even 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. Also, the Badge of the Ministry of Defense was up on the board almost identical. The silver / black braided border of the military area commands symbolized the position below the Federal Ministry of Defense, 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. Major general Josef Priller October 1, 2001
2. Major general Johann G. Oppitz September 14, 2005
3. Major general Heinrich Geppert March 27, 2009

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]).
  • Military area command III - Department information work (Ed.): Military area command III. Chronicle for the 10th anniversary . Erfurt 2011 ( streitkraeftebasis.de [PDF; accessed on July 17, 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: 50 ° 57 '  N , 11 ° 3'  E