There are General Staff officers in the Bundeswehr, but there is no General Staff officer branch or corps. And there is no General Staff division within the Federal Ministry of Defense that is in charge of the strategic operational planning of the Bundeswehr. The Chief of Staff of the Federal Armed Forces, the Generalinspekteur der Bundeswehr, is not a Chief of the General Staff vested with the classical General Staff functions of contingency operations, campaign planning and the conduct of operations in time of war.
The German Federal Ministry of Defense exercises the function of a technical department for military national defense and executes with its military staffs the roles of a supreme headquarters of the Federal Armed Forces. It comprises five military staffs-the Armed Forces Staff, the Army, Air Force and Navy staffs, and the Office of the Surgeon General-and six ministerial divisions-the Budget Division, the Personnel Management Division, the Quartering, Real Estate and Construction Division and the Social Services Division. The Chief of Staff of the Federal Armed Forces is the supreme military representative of the Bundeswehr and the military adviser to the Federal Government. He represents the Bundeswehr in international bodies in the position of a joint services Chief of Staff. Although he is not included in the chain of command between the Minister and the armed forces, he has been delegated by the Minister special responsibility for the overall concept of the Bundeswehr. His planning responsibility commits him to develop the structure, organization, command and control, education, training, and equipment within the scope of given political parameters.
In NATO staffs where the operational defense planning for the Federal Republic of Germany is developed, there are no divisions consisting exclusively of German General Staff officers. The Federal Republic of Germany is the only NATO country which in the event of war, relinquishes operational command over all combat units of her armed forces and a number of major formations of the Territorial Army to NATO commanders. This means that the Generalinspekteur, the Armed Forces Staff and the Army, Air Force and Navy service staffs of the Bundeswehr are not involved in operational defense planning, which was the classic task of former German General Staffs. As far as strategic-operational planning is concerned, they are involved in the coordination and approval processes of the NATO commanders' plans for the defense of German territory. This is again classic General Staff work. At present, the Bundeswehr forces on the territory of the former German Democratic Republic cannot be assigned to NATO in time of peace as long as Soviet forces are stationed there. Their operational planning must be executed by the Bundeswehr alone as a national endeavor. This does not exclude close cooperation with NATO authorities. It will be done within the established divisions of the Federal Ministry of Defense. There appears to be no need for a special General Staff planning agency.
The General Staff officer service (Generalstabsdienst) was defined in the so-called Heusinger-Directive of September 8, 1959. According to this directive, General Staff officer service is duty in a General or Admiral Staff officer position. These positions are specifically designated in the Tables of Organization and Equipment.2" Most General Staff officer positions will be filled with graduates of the Federal Armed Forces Command and General Staff Academy (Fuehrungsakademie) in Hamburg. It is also possible, however, that officers without General Staff officer training obtain temporary assignments to such positions. General Staff officers are frequently given line commands in order to keep them familiar with everyday unit problems. General Staff officers are entitled to add "in the General Staff Service" (im Generalstabsdienst) or "in the General Staff" (im Generalstab, or simply, i.G.) after their rank. In the German language both terms are used synonymously.