German National Command Structures after Unification: A New German General Staff?

The Bundeswehr was intentionally created in 1955 without the capability to exercise centralized operational control above the Army Corps, or at the joint, level. The reason for this situation was German and Allied anxiety over the recreation of a "Generalstab." With unification, Germany now requires the ability to employ the Bundeswehr in less than war operations, which, therefore, requires a modest national capability to direct operations outside of NATO wartime command structures, i.e., a "J-3." This article details the evolution in the development of the modest centralization of operational control structures in the German Ministry of Defense and within the three armed services themselves. Integral to understanding this slow and stilted evolution in the MoD and the Bundeswehr is the sensitivity that continues to overshadow many key aspects of civil-military relations in the Federal Republic of Germany.