In his farewell speech before the graduates of the General and Admiral Staff course in 1982 the Generalinspekteur der Bundeswehr, General Brandt, by referring to his 1980 speech said:

The importance of General Staff training derives from the requirements of General Staff service with its multifaceted tasks, which, in principle, have not changed since it was established 200 years ago.

Thus, General von Seeckt's maxim, which he had communicated to the General Staff officers in 1919 after taking over the post as the Chief of the General Staff when the stipulations of the Treaty of Versailles were not yet in effect, is still valid today:

The form changes, the spirit remains the same. It is the spirit of silent, unselfish performance of duty in the service of the armed forces. General Staff officers have no name.

It is hardly possible to describe the past and contemporary history of German General Staff officers in a more precise way.

The far-reaching political and educational approach of General von Scharnhorst and the timelessly valid statements of General von Clausewitz on the interrelationship of political and military power rule out the politically insensitive General Staff officer. A high degree of professionalism and the performance-oriented selection procedures for General Staff officers were effective from the beginning of the 19th century, at a time when the leading positions in the armed forces and the civil service were mainly filled according to criteria of class and birth. In Prussia, and after the foundation of the German Empire in 1870, it was a small group of officers who developed at the beginning of the industrialization working methods and operational-tactical views that are still valid in today's Bundeswehr, which has just crossed the threshold to the computer age.

Since the days of Field Marshal Count Helmut von Moltke, the German axioms of military leadership have always been implemented in directives and later on in regulations. Their development can be traced to their antecedents, which continued without interruption. Fortunately, the Chiefs of General Staffs of Prussian-German armed forces were very often masters of the German language. An analysis of German command-and-control regulations shows that the views and formulations of the Field Marshals Count von Moltke and Count von Schlieffen, General Ludendorff, and of the Colonel Generals von Seeckt and Beck, continue to have a tremendous effect on the aforementioned September 1987 Army Regulation HDv 100/100, "Command and Control of Armed Forces." The references to past experience are clearly perceptible in many passages. The chapters "Military Command and Control" and "The Operation," as well as fundamentals in the chapters on "Types of Combat" have many passages taken almost directly from the tactical and operational views of these officers. The following examples illustrate this phenomenon:

  • The nature of command and control of the armed forces as developed in German military history was first formulated by Moltke and is described in Paragraph 601 as follows: "Command and Control of armed forces is an art, a creative activity based on character, ability and mental power."
  • Paragraph 609 contains another credo of Moltke and his successors: Resolute action is a must in war.... Commanders who merely wait for orders cannot seize favorable opportunities. They must always keep in mind that indecision and the failure to act might be just as fatal as action based on a wrong decision.
  • The requirements of modern leadership based on the experience of German military tradition are described in Paragraphs 616-625. Matter of course obedience, discipline and courage, mutual confidence of commanders and subordinates and the necessary comradeship between the soldiers of all ranks are postulated as the bonds of soldierly togetherness. Great emphasis is placed on the commander's unwavering care for his men. As was discussed above, mission-oriented command and control is the fundamental operating principle and rules out routine and bureaucratic command in the military community.
  • Numerous expositions of the HDv 100/100 on the allocation of forces in the enemy's flanks and rear, on deployment and reconnaissance, that is to say on operations, reflect Field Marshal Count von Schlieffen's operational concepts. They can be read in his writings which include the concise "Cannae Essay."
  • The German tactical principles of the types of combat go back to the regulations of the Supreme Army Command of 1917-18, which were elaborated on General Ludendorff's order. Examples are the "Defense in Position Warfare" and the "Attack in Position Warfare."
  • The Army Command Regulation of 1933 HDv 300/1, "Command and Control of Armed Forces" shows many parallels to the operational and tactical views that are still valid today.

All this illustrates that the German views of military leadership are deeply rooted in the past. They were developed by generations of General Staff officers and tested in Germany's wars. Bundeswehr General Staff officers have made sure that the experience of past wars has been put in an up-to-date mold for our time. They continue to have an effect on the present. Against this background, the Bundeswehr's General Staff officer can look back on a tradition and heritage he can be proud of, and which affects his everyday military life in a multitude of forms. His mission is to preserve this heritage and to make sure that it is permanently adapted to the changing environmental conditions of our time through his respective superiors.