Military history of Germany

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

While German-speaking peoples have a long history, Germany as a nation-state dates only from 1871.Earlier periods are subject to definition debates. The Franks, for instance, were a union of Germanictribes, nevetheless some of the Franks later identified themselves as Dutch, Flemish, French and againothers as Germans.The capital of medieval ruler Charlemagne's empire was the city of Aachen, now partof Germany, yet he was a Frank. France was named after the Franks and the Dutch and Flemish peopleare the only ones to speak a language that decends from Old Frankish (The language of the Franks).Hence nearly all continental Western European historians can claim his victories as their heritage. TheHoly Roman Empire he founded was largely but far from entirely German speaking. Prussia, whichunified Germany in the nineteenth century, had significant territory in what is now Poland. In the earlynineteenth century the philosopher Schlegel referred to Germany as a Kulturnation, a nation of sharedculture and political disunity, analogous to ancient Greece.

During the ancient and early medieval periods the Germanic tribes had no written language. What weknow about their early military history comes from accounts written in Latin and from archaeology. Thisleaves important gaps. Germanic wars against the Romans are fairly well documented from the Romanperspective. Germanic wars against the early Celts remain mysterious because neither side recorded theevents.

Ancient times

Germanic tribes are thought to have originated during the Nordic Bronze Age in northern Germany andsouthern Scandinavia. The tribes spread south, possibly motivated by the deteriorating climate of thatarea. They crossed the River Elbe, probably overrunning the territories of the Celtic Volcae in the WeserBasin. The Romans recorded one of these early migrations when the Cimbri and the Teutones tribesthreatened the Republic itself around the late 2nd century BC. In the East, other tribes, such as Goths,Rugians and Vandals, settled along the shores of the Baltic Sea pushing southward and eventuallysettling as far away as Ukraine. The Angles and Saxons migrated to England. The Germanic peoplesoften had a fraught relationship with their neighbours, leading to a period of over two millennia ofmilitary conflict over various territorial, religious, ideological and economic concerns.

Germanic tribes often fought both against and for the Roman Empire. In 9 AD a Roman army led by Publius Quinctilius Varus was defeated by the

Cheruscan leader Arminius (Hermann) in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Around 260, the various Germanic tribes finally broke through the Limes and the

Danube frontier. The Goths, after settling in the region west of the Black Sea in the third century

AD, split into two groups, the Ostrogoths (East Goths) and the Visigoths (WestGoths).

In 364, the Visigoths ravaged much of Thrace, mostly present day Bulgaria. In 378, the Visigoths, led by Alatheus and Fritigern, massacred a Roman army,

led by Emperor Valens, at the Battle of Adrianople. In the late 4th and early 5th Centuries, West Germanic peoples led initially by

Hengist and Horsa, but later joined by leaders including Aelle of Sussex and thekings of Deria and Bernicia, leading tribes of Jutes, Saxons and Angles, began tooccupy and settle the lowlands of the South and East of Britain.

On Christmas Day 406, with the freezing of the Rhine, Franks, Allemanni,Burgundians, Suebi and Vandals crossed the Rhine from, what is now, Germanyinto Gaul. The Franks later expelled the Goths from Aquitaine and absorbed theBurgundians. They were later to give their name to modern France. The Suebi, inalliance with the Alans, an Indo-Iranian people from the Hungarian steppes,settled in Portugal, under the hegemony of the later Visigothic kings.

In 415, Visigoths led by Alaric I were the first people since the creation of theempire to sack Rome.

In 451, the two divisions of Goths were on opposite sides at the Battle of Chalons.The battle was caused by Attila the Hun's sacking and pillaging of much of theRoman Empire. The Visigoths, led by King Theodoric I, were on the Roman side,whereas the Ostrogoths were on Attila's side. The battle took an entire day, andTheodoric was killed during the battle. His son, Thorismund, took over the battlein his place and helped win the battle against Attila.

In 455, under the leadership of their King Gaiseric, the Vandals seized Rome,plundering it for 15 days (and henceforth giving their name to wantondestruction).

From 772 to 814, the Frankish King Charlemagne held the Carolingian Empire,an empire which included most of continental Western Europe within its territory.

The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (843-1806)

The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (also referred as the First German Empire) emergedfrom the eastern part of the Carolingian Empire after its division in the Treaty of Verdun of 843, andlasted almost a millennium until its dissolution in 1806. It was never a unitary state; from the beginningit was made up of many ethnicities and languages and would at its height comprise territories rangingfrom eastern France to northern Italy. Its unifying characteristic was its Carolingian heritage and strongreligious connotations, its claim to "German-ness" the ethnicity of most of its subjects and rulers.

From 919 to 936 the Germanic peoples (Franks, Saxons, Swaben and Bavarians) were united underHenry the Fowler, then Duke of Saxony, who took the title of King. For the first time, the term Kingdomof the Germans ("Regnum Teutonicorum") was applied to the Frankish kingdom.

In 955 the Magyars were decisively defeated at Lechfeld by his son Otto the Great, ending the threatfrom the Eurasian steppes for four centuries. In 962, partly on the strength of this victory, Otto went toRome and was crowned the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by the pope.

By 1155, the German states had descended into disorder. Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa) managed torestore peace through diplomacy and skillfully arranged marriages. He claimed direct imperial controlover Italy and made several incursions into northern Italy, but was ultimately defeated by the LombardLeague at Legano in 1176. In 1189, Frederick embarked on the Third Crusade. After a few initialsuccesses against the Turks, notably at Konya, Frederick was killed when trying to cross a river.Leaderless, panicked and attacked on all sides, only a tiny fraction of the original forces survived.

In 1226 Konrad I of Masovia in west-central Poland, appealed to the Teutonic Knights, a Germancrusading military order, to defend his borders and subdue the pagan Baltic Prussians. The conquest and

christianisation of Prussia was accomplished after more than 50 years, after which the Order ruled it as asovereign Teutonic Order state. Their confilct of intertrests with the Polish-Lithuanian state, over thecontrol of the land of a third party (the baltic prussian land) lead in 1410 to Battle of Gruenwald. APolish-Lithuanian army inflicted a decisive defeat and broke its military power, although the Ordermanaged to hang on to most of its territories.

The Hussite Wars, fought between 1419 and 1434 in Bohemia, had their origins in a conflict betweenCatholics and the followers of a religious sect founded by Johannes Huss. The inciting action of the warwas the First Defenestration of Prague, in which the mayor and the town council members of Praguewere thrown from the windows of the town building. Sigismund, the Holy Roman Emperor of the periodand a firm adherent of the Church of Rome, obtained the support of Pope Martin V who issued a papalbull in 1420 proclaiming a crusade. In all, four crusades were launched against the ‘heretics’, allresulting in defeat for the Catholic troops. The Hussites, capably led by Jan Zizka, employed noveltactics to defeat their numerically superior enemies, notably at Sudomer, Vyšehrad, Deutsch Brod anddecisively at Aussig. Whenever a crusade would end, the Hussite armies go on "Beautiful Rides" andwould invade the lands where the crusaders were from. One such place was Saxony. After Jan Zizka'sdeath in 1424, the Hussite armies were led by Prokop the Great to another victory at the Battle ofTachov in 1427. The Hussites repeatedly invaded central German lands, though they made no attempt atpermanent occupation, and at one point made it all of the way to the Baltic Sea. The Hussite movementwas ended in 1434, however, at the Battle of Lipan. During the Peasants' War, spanning from 1524 to1525 in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, the peasants were uprising against the nobility.The rebellion ultimately failed in the end and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V became much harsher.

From 1618 to 1648 the Thirty Years' War ravaged Germany, when it became the main theatre of war inthe conflict between France and the Habsburgs for predominance in Europe. Besides being at war withCatholic France, Germany was attacked by the Lutheran Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus, who wonmany victories until he was killed at Lützen. The war resulted in large areas of Germany being laidwaste, causing general impoverishment and a loss of around a third of its population. It ended with thePeace of Westphalia.

The imperial general Prince Eugene of Savoy faced the Ottoman Turks on the battlefield, first coming toprominence during the last major Turkish offensive against the Austrian capital of Vienna in 1683. Bythe closing years of the 17th century, he was already famous for securing Hungary from the Turks, andsoon rose to the role of principal Austrian commander during the War of the Spanish Succession.

From 1701-1714 the War of the Spanish Succession, Germany fought with the English and the Dutchagainst the French. During the early part of the war, the French were successful until Camille de Tallardwas victorious in the Palatinate. Later, in 1706, the Dutch and English helped the Germans take backtheir land.

During the reign of Frederick I (1713-1740), the military power of Prussia was significantly improved.He organized the government around the needs of his army, and produced an efficient, highly-disciplined instrument of war. The army was expanded to 80,000 men, about 4% of the total population.Peasants were drafted into the military and trained for duty, but were sent home for ten months out ofeach year.

In the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) Empress Maria Theresa of Austria fought successfullyfor recognition of her succession to the throne. However, during the subsequent Seven Years' War andthe Silesian Wars, Frederick II of Prussia, Frederick the Great, occupied Silesia and forced Austria toformally cede control in the Treaty of Hubertusburg of 1763. Prussia had survived the combined force ofits neighbours, each larger than itself, and gained enormously in influence at the cost of the Holy RomanEmpire. It became recognised as a great European power, starting a rivalry with Austria for theleadership of the German-speaking lands.

During the Seven Years' War, Prussia fought on the side of Britain against Russia, Sweden, Austria,France, and Saxony. Frederick II of Prussia first invaded Saxony and defeated a Saxon army at Lobositz.Frederick would then invade Bohemia, the Prussians sieged Prague, but they were defeated at Kolin.Since Prussia looked weak, the Austrians and French invaded Prussian lands. However, the Frenchwould be defeated at Rossbach and the Austrians at the Leuthen. In 1758, Frederick the Great tried toinvade Austria, but he failed. Now, the Russians tried to defeat the Prussians, but the Prussians earned aPyrrhic victory at the Zorndorf. The Swedes, however, fought the Prussians to a draw at Tornow.However, Austria would gain a victory against the Prussian main army at Hochkirch. In 1759, thePrussians saw even more defeats. They lost at Kay and at Kunersorf to the Russians. The Prussianssuffered major defeats to the French and Swedish armies, so much that Berlin itself was taken in 1762.However, the great alliance against Prussia would break up whenever Elizabeth of Russia died. It wasfrom her death that a pro-Prussian ruler, Peter III would sue for peace. It was only because of this thatthe Prussians had survived the war.

The Napoleonic Wars (1805-1815)

The Napoleonic era ended the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and created new German-speaking states that would eventually form modern Germany. Napoleon reorganized many of the smallerGerman-speaking states into the Confederation of the Rhine following the battle of Austerlitz in 1805.Essentially this enlarged the more powerful states of the region by absorbing the smaller ones, creating aset of buffer states for France and a source of army conscripts. Neither of the two largest German-speaking states were part of this confederation: Prussia and Austria remained outside it.

Napolean at the battle of Austerlitz, by François Pascal Simon, Baron Gérard

King Frederick William III viewed the Confederation of the Rhine as a threat to Prussian interests andallied against Napoleon. At this time the reputation of the

Prussian army remained high from the period of the Seven year's War. Unfortunately they retained thetactics of that period and still relied heavily on foreign mercenaries. The lack of military reforms wouldprove disastrous. Prussian defeats at Jena and Auerstadt led to a humiliating settlement that reduced thesize of the country by half.

the original Iron Cross military medal from 1813

A demoralised Prussia brought its distinguished old general Gebhard von Blücher out of retirement andreorganized the army. The reforms of the Prussian military were led by von Scharnhorst and vonGneisenau, and converted the professional army into one based on national service. They brought inyounger leaders, increased the rate of mobilisation and improved their skirmishing and unit tactics. Theyalso organized a centralized general staff and a professional officer corps.

Following Napoleon’s defeat in Russia, Prussia and a few other German states saw their chance andjoined the anti-French forces in the Sixth Coalition, which won a decisive victory over France at Leipzigin 1813 and forced the abdication of Napoleon. Although declared an outlaw by the Congress of Vienna,Napoleon returned and met a final defeat at the hands of Blücher and Wellington at Waterloo in 1815.

The making of a reunited Germany (1815-1871)

The Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815 redrew the political map of Europe. It established 39 separateGerman speaking states and organised them in the German Confederation or Deutscher Bund, under theleadership of Prussia and Austria. Significantly, Prussia gained new territories in the west along theRhine river in geographic isolation from the rest of its lands. This Ruhr valley district underwent rapidindustrialisation, inspiring Prussia to establish the Zollverein, a customs union (without Austria) with theaim of promoting German economic growth.

Otto von Bismarck became Chancellor of Germany in 1871.

The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states were a series of popular uprisings that promotedliberalisation and German political unification. The Frankfurt Assembly of 1848 offered the crown ofGermany to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. He declined, stating that the assembly did notrepresent its respective states. A smaller Prussian-led unification plan was dropped in 1850 after Austriathreatened war. The rest of the decade was a period of political and economic consolidation. In the onemajor conflict during that period - the Crimean War - Prussia remained neutral and strengthened itsposition with the smaller German states at the expense of Austria.

After a period of constitutional deadlock between crown and parliament in Prussia, a crisis arose in 1863over the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, disputed between Denmark and the German Confederation.After the Danish annexation of Schleswig, Otto von Bismarck, the new prime Minister of Prussia, madethe smaller states of the German Confederation join Prussia and Austria in the war with Denmark. TheSecond War of Schleswig ended with the defeat of the Danes at Dybbøl, and an agreement betweenAustria and Prussia to jointly administer Schleswig and Holstein.

Battle of Königgrätz

Bismarck then set about making Prussia the undisputed master of northern Germany, weakening Austriaand the German Confederation. This eventually led to a German Civil War, the Austro-Prussian War,sealed by the victory of Prussia and its allies at Königgrätz in July 1866, gainst Austria and its allies.The result was the dissolution of the German Confederation, and the creation of the North GermanConfederation one year later.

The Prussian 7th Cuirassiers charge the French guns at the Battle of Mars-La-Tour, August 16,1870

A dispute over the succession to the Spanish throne resulted in France declaring the Franco-Prussian warof 1870-1871, expecting support from Prussia's recent enemies. Unlike in the war only a few years ago,the Germans turned not against each other, with the first emergence of a strong German nationalsentiment in the background. Instead, the southern German monarchs of Baden, Württemberg andBavaria honoured their secretly negotiated treaties of mutual defence with Berlin, while Austriaremained neutral.

The Germans, led by King Wilhelm I and von Moltke, mobilized a mass conscript army of 1.2 millionmen which faced 400,000 experienced regular French soldiers under Napoleon III. While the Germanswere mobilizing the French forces held the upper hand, but the massive size of the German armyallowed the mass-encirclement and destruction of enemy formations at Gravelotte, Metz and Sedan. Thewar culminated with the defeat of the French army during the siege of Paris, and was followed by theproclamation of the German Empire at Versailles in January 1871.

The results of these wars was the emergence of a powerful German nation-state and a major shift in thebalance of power on the European continent.

German Empire (1871-1914)

The creation of the second German Empire heralded the end of Bismarck’s expansionism. From thatpoint onwards until the end of his career, he skillfully used diplomacy to maintain the status quo inEurope.

In 1888 however, Wilhelm II ascended to the German throne. A grandchild of Queen Victoria, he wasan admirer of Britain's empire and naval power and opposed Bismarck's careful foreign policy. Tofurther his goals, he made Admiral von Tirpitz, an energetic campaigner for a greatly enlarged fleet,Secretary of State for the German Navy. Through successive "Fleet Acts" he succeeded in givingGermany by 1914 the second largest naval force in the world.

This expansion program was sufficient to alarm the British, starting a costly naval arms race and leadingindirectly to the emergence of a fragile stand-off between two alliances in Europe: the Triple Entente(Britain, France and Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austro-Hungary and Italy).

When in 1914 the growing nationalism in Europe claimed a victim in Archduke Franz Ferdinand ofAustria, the Austrians replied by setting a seemingly impossible ultimatum to Serbia which they heldultimately responsible. Although the Serbs almost completely relented, their Russian allies refused tohalt their mobilisation. Spurred on by their Austrian allies, Germany declared war on Russia on 1August 1914, ultimately resulting in an all-out war between the two opposing blocks.

The First World War (1914-1918)

German soldiers on the front in the First World War

The German Schlieffen plan was to deal with the Franco-Russian alliance involved delivering a knock-out blow to the French and then turning to deal with the more slowly mobilised Russian army. At thestart of the First World War, Germany attacked France through Belgium to avoid French defenses on theFrench-German border. They were beat back at the First Battle of the Marne. Years of stalemated trenchwarfare followed on the Western Front.

German artillery shown on a 1914 postcard

In the East, however, the war was very different. The Russian initial plans for war had called forsimultaneous invasions of Austrian Galicia and German East Prussia. Although Russia's initial advanceinto Galicia was largely successful, they were driven back from East Prussia by the victories of theGerman generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes in August andSeptember 1914. Russia's less-developed economic and military organisation soon proved unequal to thecombined might of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. In the spring of 1915 the Russians weredriven back in Galicia, and in May the Central Powers achieved a remarkable breakthrough on Poland'ssouthern fringes, capturing Warsaw on 5 August and forcing the Russians to withdraw from all ofPoland, known as the "Great Retreat".

By 1917 the German army had begun employing new infiltration tactics in an effort to break the trenchwarfare deadlock. Units of Sturmabteilung, or stormtroopers, were trained and equipped for the newtactics, and were used with devastating effect along the Russian front at Riga then at the Battle ofCaporetto in Italy. These formations were then deployed to the western front to counter the British tankattack at the Battle of Cambrai. In March, 1918 the German army Spring Offensive and began animpressive advance creating a salient in the allied line. The offensive stalled before reaching Paris,however.

Increasing numbers of American soldiers along the western front now began to make their presence felt.Although the German military was able to stand off the Allied forces on both fronts, by 1918 victoryappeared unobtainable and a negotiated peace seemed preferable to continuing to an inevitable defeat.The armistice impoverished Germany, setting the stage for the rise of the National Socialists in the1930s.

The first Republic and the Third Reich (1918-1939)

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was one of Germany's best fighter planes during World War 2

The treaty of Versailles imposed severe restrictions on Germany's military strength. The army waslimited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was toconsist of at most six battleships, six cruisers, and twelve destroyers. Tanks and heavy artillery wereforbidden and the air force was dissolved. A new post-war military (the Reichswehr) was established on23 March 1921. General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. Thetreaty also forced Germany, whom was blamed for the war, to pay billions of dollars in war reparations.The Occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian forces (1923 and 1924 was a result of Germany notbeing able to pay. The anger and resentment of this treaty was a cause of Adolf Hitler's rise to power.

The Weimar Republic largely obeyed the Versailles restrictions; the economic problems of reparations,hyperinflation and the Great Depression also made military spending difficult. However, the Germanarmed forces retained their strong officer corps.

The Nazi regime began remilitarisation, initially with stealth, in the 1930s. German armed forces werenamed the Wehrmacht from 1935 to 1945. The Heer was encouraged to experiment with tanks andmotorised infantry, using the ideas of Heinz Guderian. The Kriegsmarine re-started naval constructionand Hitler established the Luftwaffe, an independent airforce.

In 1936 German troops marched into the demilitarised Rhineland. On 12 March 1938, German troopsmarched into Austria. Under the Nazis, Germany annexed the Sudeten border country ofCzechoslovakia (October 1938), and then took over the rest of the Czech lands as a protectorate (March1939). The Germans were allowed to take Czechoslovakia because the League of Nations did not havethe power to stop them and did not want to start another World War.

The Second World War (1939-1945)

In September 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland after German special forces staged'border incidents'. The new German tactics combining the use of tanks, motorised infantry, and air

support - known as Blitzkrieg - caused Polish resistance to collapse within weeks. From the beginning ofthe war German forces engaged in massive war crimes. This invasion resulted in the United Kingdom,France and their allies declaring war in short order. However, neither side opened up a western front forseveral months in what became known as the phony war.

In April 1940, in Operation Weserübung, German troops invaded and occupied neutral Denmark andNorway to secure access to Swedish iron ore.

The French plans were largely based on a static defense behind the Maginot Line – a series offormidable defensive forts along the French-German border. General Erich von Manstein thought on anidea which led eventually to the approval of a Sichelschnitt ('Sickle Cut') plan to the conquest of France.On 10 May 1940 the Germans bypassed this obstacle by launching another Blitzkrieg through neutralBelgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands, drawing the Allied forces out. The main thrust of the Battleof France attack however was through the Ardennes which were to that time believed impenetrable totanks. In June 1940, with French troops encircled and cut off in the north, France capitulated. TheBritish Expeditionary Force and other allied units were driven back to the coast at Dunkirk, but managedto escape with most of their troops when Hitler made a fateful decision not to attack with tanks.

Through the winter of 1940-1941 Germany prepared for an invasion of Britain, but this plan wasshelved when Göring's Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force in the Battle ofBritain.

To support their weakened Italian allies who had started several invasions, the beginning of 1941 sawthe deployment of German troops in Greece, Yugoslavia and North Africa.

The Balkan operation had caused a delay, and about six weeks later than planned, on 22 June 1941,Germany reneged on its non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and launched Operation Barbarossa.The German army and its allies made enormous territorial gains in the first months of the war, reachingthe outskirts of Moscow when winter set in. Expecting another Blitzkrieg victory, the Germans had notproperly prepared for warfare in winter and over long distances.

The year 1941 saw the high point for the German army which controlled an area from France to Russia,and from Norway to Libya. Consequently, it also proved to be the turning point. The harsh Russianwinters and long supply lines worked in Russia's favour and German armies were decisively defeated inearly 1943 at Stalingrad and later in the Battle of Kursk. With German resources being concentrated onthe Russian front, the Allies managed to capture North Africa with victories at El Alamein. Italy wasinvaded in July 1943 and promptly capitulated. In June 1944, the Allies landed in France on D-day andgradually started pushing the Germans back to the Rhine.

In December 1944, the Germans under von Rundstedt launched a final offensive in the BelgianArdennes with the aim of re-capturing Antwerp and splitting the Allied lines, but were defeated in theBattle of the Bulge. Berlin fell to the Soviet troops in May 1945. The German high command and mostGerman armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on 8 May 1945.

The Cold War (1945-1989)

Occupation zones of Germany in 1945.

Among the legacies of the Nazi era were the Nuremberg Trials of 1945-1949. These established theconcept of war crimes in international law and created the precedent for trying future war criminals.

Following World War II, the eastern borders of the state of Germany were substantially modified as partof the surrender settlement. Prussia and other portions of eastern Germany were used to form the highlymodified state of Poland (with Poland losing a good portion of its eastern territory to the USSR.) Theremainder of Germany was split into Soviet (later Russian), American, French and British occupationzones.

In 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany was formed from the French, British and American zones,while the Soviet zone formed the German Democratic Republic. The western territory of Germany fellunder the protection of the NATO alliance in the west, while the eastern state joined the Warsaw Pact.Each state possessed its own military force, with eastern Germany formed along the Soviet model andfederal Germany adopting a more 'western' organisation. The allied zones of Berlin became part of theFederal Republic of Germany despite the city's location deep in the German Democratic Republic. Thiscondition continued until 1990 when the two states were reunited.

The Bundeswehr was established in 1955 in West Germany. In 1956, conscription for all men between18 and 45 in years was introduced after heavy discussions about re-militarising Germany. A significantexception came from the conscientious objector clause in the West German constitution: West Germanywas the first country to grant alternative service to all men who objected to military service on ethicalgrounds, regardless of religious affiliation.

Most cold war analysts considered Germany the most likely location for the outbreak of a possible thirdworld war. Tensions ran high during 1948 when the Soviet Union and German Democratic Republic

closed all roads bringing supplies to West Berlin. The Berlin Airlift sustained the population andavoided a new war. Construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 commenced shortly after the Bay of Pigsinvasion and preceded the Cuban Missile Crisis. This was the closest the cold war superpowers came tocommencing a nuclear war.

East German troops in 1989

During the Cold War the Bundeswehr had a strength of 495,000 military and 170,000 civilian personnel.The army consisted of three corps with 12 divisions, most of them armed with tanks and APCs. The airforce owned major numbers of tactical combat aircraft and took part in NATO's integrated air defence(NATINAD). The navy was tasked to defend the Baltic Approaches and to contain the Soviet BalticFleet.

In East Germany, the National People's Army was founded on 1 March 1956. The NVA was aprofessional, volunteer army until 24 January 1962, when conscription was introduced. In 1987 at thepeak of its power, the Nationalen Volksarmee (NVA) of the DDR numbered 175,300 troops.Approximately 50% of this number were career soldiers, while the remaining half were short-termconscripts.

Military today

After reunification in 1990, the Bundeswehr absorbed parts of the Nationale Volksarmee of the GDR,which was being dissolved. In 1999, the NATO war on Yugoslavia in Kosovo was the first offensive

conflict in which the German military actively took part since the Second World War. In 2000 theEuropean Court of Justice opened up the previously all-male (besides medical divisions and the musiccorps) Bundeswehr to women. Since the early 1990s the Bundeswehr has become more and moreengaged in international peacekeeping missions in and around the former Yugoslavia but also in otherparts of the world such as Cambodia, Somalia, Djibouti, Georgia and Sudan.

War on Terrorism

The ‘War on Terrorism’ is a campaign by the United States, supported by several NATO members andother allies, including Germany, with the stated goal of ending international terrorism. The ‘War onTerrorism’ (in its current context) is the name given by the George W. Bush administration to the effortslaunched in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. by al-Qaeda.

As part of Operation Enduring Freedom as a response to those attacks, Germany deployedapproximately 2,250 troops including KSK special forces, naval vessels and NBC cleanup teams toAfghanistan. German forces have contributed to ISAF, the NATO force in Afghanistan, and a Provincialreconstruction team. German army CH-53 helicopters have deployed to Afghanistan, one crashed inDecember 2002 in Kabul, killing seven German soldiers. Eleven other German soldiers have beenkilled: four in two different ordnance-defusing accidents, one in a vehicle accident, five in two separatesuicide bombings, and one in landmine explosion.