After selection, Bundeswehr General and Admiral Staff officers are trained separately. Since the establishment of the Bundeswehr, the selection methods and the curricula of General and Admiral Staff officer training have changed several times. Despite criticism, the selection procedures and the special training have never been abandoned.

The training of the Federal Armed Forces officers is conducted in three steps (see Figure 1). The first step includes studies at one of the two Federal Armed Forces Universities (Universitaet der Bundeswehr) in Hamburg or Munich. This is followed by several years of troop duty. When the officer has that status, his training for employment in field grade appointments begins at the Federal Armed Forces Command and General Staff Academy (Fuehrungsakademie der Bundeswehr) at Hamburg. His subsequent staff training is conducted at this institution. The Federal Armed Forces Command and General Staff Academy was established at Bad Ems in 1957 as the Army Academy (Heeresakademie) and was moved to Hamburg in 1958 where it became the Federal Armed Forces institution for future general and admiral staff duty in the Army, Air Force and Navy. In 1974, the Academy was given the task of training all regular officers of the three services for employment in field grade appointments as well as conducting advanced training for field grade officers and General Staff and Admiral Staff officers. This is the second step of the Federal Armed Forces officer training. To date, the advanced training is conducted within a specific system consisting of three phases.

First, the German Armed Forces Command and General Staff Academy is required to train senior captains and Navy lieutenants of the three services normally during their eighth year of commissioned service in the 3 1/2-month Field Grade Officer Selection and Qualification Course (see Figure 2). According to regulations, every career officer must successfully complete this course before he can be promoted to the rank of major or lieutenant commander. The Field Grade Officer Selection and Qualification Course is a joint course for the three services. There, the students receive basic instruction common to all three services, in the areas of general command and leadership doctrine, security policy, the armed forces, and social sciences. In a fourth area, single service-oriented aspects are dealt with separately for army, air force and navy students. Each subject concludes with an examination. The results are summarized in a final grade.

Second, the Staff Officer Courses are the next phase of Advanced Officer training and education. All career officers who have graduated from the Field Grade Officer Selection and Qualification Course must attend one of the Staff Officer Courses. About 10 percent of a career officer age group are selected by a commission for the 24-month General and

Admiral Staff training. The most important selection criteria are excellent performance in line service, outstanding results in the Field Grade Officer Selection and Qualification Course, and relevant assignment recommendations by senior commanders. Army officers, for example, must have commanded a company for 2 years and have achieved good ratings in the Tactical Professional Training Program which they have to undertake as a 1 year self-study course in their unit in the seventh year as a commissioned officer. It is controlled and administered by the division Chief of Staff and capped by a 2-week examination. Ninety percent of a career officer age group are to attend a Special Staff Officer Course of 8 weeks duration. The course starts with fundamentals of staff work and then focuses on the specific staff work with which the officer has to be familiar later, when working in his particular staff area. After being promoted to the rank of major, the officer's training will be completed by a 3-week Advanced Education for Field Grade Officers in Security Policy.

The third training phase is designed to prepare field grade officers for special tasks and functions within the Federal Armed Forces and NATO. A number of these special post graduate courses are attended also by civil servants from both the Federal Ministry of Defense and Federal and state governmental agencies. At present, a number of different courses, with a duration up to 10 weeks, are offered.

The German Armed Forces Command and General Staff Academy is the central institution responsible for the training of field grade, and General and Admiral Staff officers of the Bundeswehr. An essential element of its task is the conviction that modern armed forces must be led in the field with scientific knowledge and by military leaders who know how to apply reasoning and methods. Thus, the philosophy of today's Fuehrungsakademie is governed by three elements: joint service training, alliance-oriented doctrinal instruction, character and open-mindedness. In order to illustrate these goals, every year since 1962 the Academy has also conducted a 10-month Army General Staff Officer Course for officers from non-NATO countries. In 1986, the Academy started to conduct a similar course for air force officers. The objective of the Army Course is to familiarize non-NATO officers with General Staff officer duties, primarily at brigade and division levels of command in the Bundeswehr and the respective levels of command in the Air Force and Navy. About 600 foreign officers from 60 nations have completed this training.

There is no doubt, however, that the 24-month General and Admiral Staff Courses form the nucleus of the German Command and General Staff Academy. The Army, Air Force and Navy General Staff Course is composed as follows:

  • Army: Forty-five German and 12-15 allied NATO students organized in four syndicates or sections;
  • Air Force: Twenty-four German and two-to-five allied NATO students;
  • Navy: Fourteen German and four-to-six allied NATO students.

The syndicates are the most important instructional group and remain unchanged throughout the entire course. They are supervised by a senior lieutenant colonel i.G., who is a faculty class adviser, and a lecturer for the major subject of the respective single service-oriented instruction. He prepares an evaluation of his syndicate students at the end of the course. All syndicates are subordinate to one course director of colonel or navy captain's rank. An Army, Air Force and Navy General Staff Course starts every year at the beginning of October. It is preceded by a 6-month intensive language course at the Federal Office of Languages (Bundessprachenamt) at Huerth. A junior and one senior course is in progress simultaneously at the Academy at the same time.

Those fields of knowledge which are important for General and Admiral Staff officers of all three services are provided to all students, mostly in mixed working groups. Subjects dealing with the concept, organization, command and control and operations of the Army, Air Force and Navy are imparted only to the students of relevant individual services. This subdivision into two categories comes at the specific goal level: of the 2,200 broad-aim-oriented instructional hours, 1,000 (i.e., 45 percent) serve for joint-service-oriented training and 1,200 (i.e., 55 percent) for single service-oriented training. During the entire course, the two categories continuously alternate in terms of conduct of instruction. The faculty is responsible for planning, conducting and evaluating of the instructional programs conducted at the Academy. There are about 130 military and 20 civilian lecturers.

The Army, Air Force and Navy General and Admiral Staff Officer Course is designed to enable Academy graduates to fulfill tasks in General and Admiral Staff duty in peacetime, crisis and war, independently and responsibly. This must be done within and outside their individual services, on national and integrated NATO staffs, at levels of command from brigade to army group, and in all staff functional areas. The degree of desired ability is primarily oriented on the required qualifications for future assignments. The results of the instructional process are established by examinations and are taken into consideration in the assessment of contributions in the final evaluation by the faculty class adviser. Additionally, some young General and Admiral Staff officers will receive staff training abroad at staff colleges of a variety of NATO and non-NATO countries. Bundeswehr officers may take part in General and Admiral Staff officer qualification only once, and reserve officers are excluded from this type of career. Voluntary participation in General and Admiral Staff training is not possible.

The General and Admiral Staff Training at the German Forces Command and General Staff Academy imparts to relatively young officers a level of knowledge which their allied comrades-in-arms cannot acquire until a later stage of their career, usually as senior lieutenant colonels or colonels. British and Canadian officers, for example, do not receive training equivalent to that of the German General and Admiral Staff officers before they attend a senior service college. When French officers start their higher staff training, they are. on the average, 6 to 7 years older than their German contemporaries. As a result, young German General and Admiral Staff officers in their early thirties already are trained to think and act at the operational and strategic military-politico levels.

Following completion of studies, Fuehrungsakademie graduates pass through three ab initio assignments. These normally include General Staff posts at brigade, division or corps level, the respective levels of command in the air force and navy, in the Federal Ministry of Defense, or in a NATO headquarters. After an assignment as a battalion commander or in a similar position, the General Staff officer is supposed to work mainly in the staff functional area for which he is especially suited. This principle, however, is not rigidly applied. During these initial assignments, the young General Staff officer is controlled and managed by the same section of the Personnel Management Division that is responsible for generals and admirals. A field grade officer without General and Admiral Staff training normally retires holding the rank of lieutenant colonel. Career expectations for General and Admiral Staff officers include promotion to colonel or navy captain; however, this is not guaranteed.