Wolfgang Altenburg

Wolfgang Altenburg
Altenburg in 1983
Born	(1928-06-24) 24 June 1928 Schneidemühl, Posen-West Prussia (today Piła, Poland)
Allegiance	Germany
Years of service	1956 - 1989
Rank	General
Awards	Grand Cross with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Commander of the Legion of Merit (US) Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Italy)

Wolfgang Altenburg (born 24 June 1928) is a retired German general. He served as Chief of Staff of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, from 1983 to 1986, and as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 1986 to 1989.^[1]

Biography

Altenburg was born in Schneidemühl, Posen-West Prussia (today Piła, Poland) and was conscripted as a Marinehelfer (Navy aide) in 1944 serving at Heligoland. After the end of World War II he completed a professional training in hotel business and volunteered the Bundeswehr in 1956 at the Artillerytroops.^[2]

Altenburg talking to members of the Bundestag, 1983.

Altenburg passed his general staff training at the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr in 1962 - 1964 and became the Deputy Director of Nuclear Planning at SHAPE in 1971. He returned to the German Department of Defense in 1973 as an Oberst and commanded the Panzergrenadierbrigade 7 (Hamburg). In April 1978 Altenburg became the Director of the Executive Staff of the Federal Forces and in 1979 the German Representative at the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee in Brussels. In 1981 Altenburg took over the command of the III. Korps at Koblenz and became the Chief of staff of the Federal Forces (Generalinspekteur der Bundeswehr) in 1983, a position he held until 1986. On 1 October 1986 Altenburg became the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee himself.^[2]

Altenburg retired in 1989 and lives in Bremen. He is married and has three children.

References

External links

Military offices
Preceded by Cornelis De Jager	Chairman of the NATO Military Committee 1986 – 1989	Succeeded by Vigleik Eide
Preceded by General Jürgen Brandt	Chief of Staff of the Federal Armed Forces 1 April 1983 – 30 September 1986	Succeeded by Admiral Dieter Wellershoff
Preceded by Generalleutnant Paul-Georg Kleffel	Commanding General, III Corps (Bundeswehr) 1 October 1968 – 30 September 1972	Succeeded by Generalleutnant Hans-Joachim Mack

Inspectors General of the Bundeswehr

Adolf Heusinger Friedrich Foertsch Heinrich Trettner Ulrich de Maizière Armin Zimmermann Harald Wust Jürgen Brandt Wolfgang Altenburg Dieter Wellershoff Klaus Naumann Hartmut Bagger Hans-Peter von Kirchbach Harald Kujat Wolfgang Schneiderhan Volker Wieker

Chairmen of the NATO Military Committee

1949–1951 Omar Bradley
1951–1952 Etienne Baele
1952–1953 Charles Foulkes
1953–1954 E. J. C. Quistgaard
1954–1955 Augustin Guillaume
1955–1956 Stylianos Pallis
1956–1957 Giuseppe Mancinelli
1957–1958 B. R. P. F. Hasselman

1958–1959 Bjarne Øen
1959–1960 J. A. Beleza Ferras
1960–1960 Rustu Erdelhun
1960–1961 Louis Mountbatten
1961–1962 Lyman Lemnitzer
1962–1963 C. P. de Cumont
1963–1964 Adolf Heusinger
1964–1968 C. P. de Cumont

1968–1971 Nigel Henderson
1971–1974 Johannes Steinhoff
1974–1977 Peter Hill-Norton
1977–1980 H. F. Zeiner-Gundersen
1980–1983 Robert Hilborn Falls
1983–1986 Cornelis De Jager
1986–1989 Wolfgang Altenburg
1989–1993 Vigleik Eide

1993–1996 Richard Vincent
1996–1999 Klaus Naumann
1999–2002 Guido Venturoni
2002–2005 Harald Kujat
2005–2008 Ray Henault
2008–2011 Giampaolo Di Paola
2011–2015 Knud Bartels
2015–2016 Petr Pavel

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 4/24/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.