Wolfgang Otto (General)

Wolfgang Otto (* 1947 in Verden ) is a lieutenant general ret. D. of the Army of the Bundeswehr and was most recently in command of the Army Command .

Military career

After graduating from high school , Otto joined the German Armed Forces as an officer candidate in 1967 and was trained in the armored infantry troops until 1970 . From 1970 to 1971 he served as an officer for military intelligence ( S2 ) in the staff of the Panzergrenadier Battalion 72 in Hamburg and then took over a platoon from the same battalion until 1974 . Otto was then transferred to Cuxhaven and served there from 1974 to 1978 as a company commander in the 71st Panzergrenadier Battalion.Then he completed the general staff course at the management academy of the German Armed Forces in Hamburg from 1978 to 1980 and then served from 1980 to 1982 as head of the logistics department (G4) in the staff of the 3 Panzer Brigade in Nienburg . This use was interrupted by attending the Indian Defense Services Staff College in Wellington, India (1982-1983). Back in Germany, Otto served in the Nienburg Brigade in 1983 as Head of Operations (G3). During this time he also attended the Indian University of Madras , where he received a Master of Science degree in Defense Studies on June 22, 1984 .

From 1986 to 1988 he took over the Panzergrenadierbataillon 13 in Wesendorf as a lieutenant colonel . Afterwards, a position as a lecturer in troop leadership led him back to the leadership academy in Hamburg for two years. In 1990 he was finally transferred to the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn , where he served as a consultant in the personnel department, where he was responsible for basic matters of army officers until 1991. He then served for two years, until 1993, as head of operations in the staff of III. Corps in Koblenz under the command of Lieutenant General Peter Heinrich Carstens . In this use, he was awarded the Bundeswehr Cross of Honor in Gold on May 25, 1993 . After this assignment, Otto moved back to the Ministry of Defense in Bonn, where he served from 1993 to 1995 as head of division in the command staff of the armed forces under Inspector General Klaus Naumann . From 1995 to 1999 he headed the department for fundamental matters of army officers in the personnel department, in which he was already active in 1990.

In 1999 Otto took over a troop command as a colonel , this time the 41 Panzer Grenadier Brigade in Eggesin , which he led for a year. In 2000 he was reassigned to the Ministry of Defense and served there until 2002 as a sub-department head (principles of military personnel management and individual personnel management, generals and supreme) in the personnel, social and central affairs department, which he then headed as deputy head of department until 2005. On June 27, 2005 he took over the Army Command in Koblenz, appointed Lieutenant General, which he handed over to Carl-Hubertus von Butler on March 16, 2009 .

After his release from the command as commander of the Army Command, Otto was retired in the presence of the Federal Minister of Defense , Franz Josef Jung , and the General Inspector of the Federal Armed Forces , General Wolfgang Schneiderhan , with a big tattoo . In addition, he was awarded the Order of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on this day for his services .

Others

Otto is married and has three children. From 2009 to 2016 Otto was chairman of the board of the Evangelical Working Group for the Care of Soldiers . He is a member of the Clausewitz Society .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ With truthfulness - and always with heart. Evangelical Working Group for Soldier Care, March 18, 2016, archived from the original on March 25, 2016 ; accessed on March 23, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Wolfgang Otto: On the development of the officer's self-image in the 21st century . In: Clausewitz-Gesellschaft (Ed.): Yearbook 2011 . Volume 7, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-9810794-7-0 , p. 103.