Wolfgang Köstlin

Wolfgang Otto Köstlin (born March 3, 1914 in Esslingen am Neckar , † 1997 ) was a German major general in the Federal Ministry of Defense .

Live and act

After graduating from high school at a Darmstadt school, the previously raised in Stuttgart applied Köstlin in 1933 as an officer cadet in the cavalry and was in the 18th Cavalry Regiment in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt added, where he on August 1, 1938 Lieutenant was promoted . During the Second World War he belonged to the staff of the 5th Infantry Division , into which the cavalry regiment had been integrated, as adjutant , squadron chief and finally as department commander with the rank of Rittmeister . After being promoted to major in the General Staff Service on August 1, 1943, he served first under Johann Adolf Graf von Kielmansegg and then as First General Staff Officer under Adolf Heusinger in the Operations Department of the Wehrmacht High Command . As part of the Ardennes offensive , Köstlin was seriously wounded at Christmas 1944 and was taken prisoner by the Americans.

After his release from captivity in 1948, Köstlin began to study law at the University of Tübingen and passed his first state examination in 1951 . He then moved to the University of Stuttgart , where he passed his second state examination in 1955.

After a brief activity as a lawyer in an association of the textile industry, he joined the Bundeswehr, newly founded a year earlier, in February 1956 with the rank of lieutenant colonel . Here he was employed as chief of staff in an army command authority and a year later he was appointed to the Federal Ministry of Defense.

There Köstlin was promoted to Colonel i. G. was appointed from July 1, 1958 as a consultant in the command staff of the Federal Armed Forces (Fü BI) and from February 1, 1960 temporarily commissioned with the performance of the duties of a subdivision leader " Inner Leadership ". A few months later, on June 16, he was transferred to the 30th Panzer Grenadier Brigade , in which he served until September 30, 1963. Subsequently, Köstlin was transferred back to Fü B I, where he was appointed sub-department head “Inner Management” and promoted to Brigadier General. In 1968 Köstlin was promoted to major general as deputy commanding general of the III. Corps of the Bundeswehr deployed under Gerd Niepold and retired in 1971.

As an officer in the command staff of the Bundeswehr, in addition to his day-to-day business, Köstlin was a member of the planning staff for drawing up the new superiors' ordinance of the Bundeswehr, which came into force in 1956. In addition, as a subdivision leader in Fü B I, he was later involved in the development and orientation as well as the concepts of the training offers of the command academy of the Bundeswehr .

Works (selection)

• With us in the east: a series of images from the deployment of d Ulm Infantry Division , Belser, Stuttgart, 1942
• Freedom and commitment of the military command under the influence of nuclear weapons and modern command systems , BMVg, 1966

literature

• Frank Nägler : The wanted soldier and his change, personnel armament and internal leadership in the years of establishment of the Bundeswehr 1956 to 1964/65 , Oldenbourg-Verlag 2010; Pp. 408-410, 419, 465, 472. google online

Web links

• Wolfgang Köstlin in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rittmeister Köstlin in the div. Staff - management department
2. ↑ Cabinet decision on personal details