THE ORGANISATION OF THE BUNDESWEHR

Within the organisation of the Bundeswehr, the Armed Forces form the military core. They are made up of four services – the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Cyber and Information Domain Service – as well as the Bundeswehr Joint Support Service, which will assist the four services in fulfilling their tasks by providing scarce military capabilities such as logistics or medical services from April 2025.

Besides these major military organisational elements, there is the civilian Federal Defence Administration. It is divided into three major organisational elements, which are responsible for personnel, equipment and infrastructure respectively. The Military Chaplaincy and the Bundeswehr Military Legal System have the status of independent major civilian organisational elements. Moreover, some civilian and military agencies are directly subordinate to the Ministry of Defence. These are the Bundeswehr Joint Forces Operational Command, the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College, the Leadership Development and Civic Education Centre and the Federal Office of Military Counterintelligence.

The Bundeswehr adheres to the principle of a general separation of the Armed Forces from the civilian Federal Defence Administration. According to Article 87b of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, it is imperative that personnel and armaments management are in the hands of a civilian structure. However, this does not mean that there are no servicemen and women working in the Federal Defence Administration and no civilian personnel are employed in the Armed Forces. In fact, both of these things are possible depending on the specific post concerned.

The Army, the Air Force, the Navy, and the Cyber and Information Domain Service constitute the four services of the Bundeswehr. In principle, each service fights in its own domain: the Army fights on land, the Navy at sea, the Air Force in the air and in space, and the Cyber and Information Domain Service fights in the cyber and information space. However, there are a couple of exceptions. Army and Naval Aviation forces operate in the air domain, for example. At the same time, force protection teams of the Air Force and the Sea Battalion’s naval infantry forces fight on land. Finally, digitalisation causes Cyber and Information Domain Service personnel to be active in all domains.

At present, the Joint Support and Enabling Service and the Bundeswehr Joint Medical Service are other major military organisational elements serving alongside the four services outlined above. While the Joint Support and Enabling Service incorporates various support services such as CBRNchemical, biological, radiological, nuclear  defence and military police, the Bundeswehr Joint Medical Service is responsible for the medical care of German military personnel. As from April 2025, the capabilities of these major military organisational elements will be merged in the new Joint Support Service. 

In addition to the Armed Forces, the Bundeswehr also has major civilian organisational elements. These are made up of the Federal Defence Administration as well as the Bundeswehr Military Legal System and the Military Chaplaincy. The Federal Defence Administration consists of the major organisational elements “Personnel”, “Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support” and “Infrastructure, Environmental Protection and Services”.

In addition, the Bundeswehr organisation includes a number of agencies that report directly to the Chief of Defence. During the transition phase of the restructuring of the Bundeswehr between October 2024 and April 2025, these are the Bundeswehr Joint Forces Operational Command, the Bundeswehr Homeland Defence Command, the Bundeswehr Joint Forces Operations Command, the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College, the Bundeswehr Office for Defence Planning, the newly established Bundeswehr Joint Support Service Headquarters, and the Federal Office of Military Counterintelligence. Once the reorganisation of the Bundeswehr has been completed, only the Bundeswehr Joint Forces Operational Command, the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College, the Leadership Development and Civic Education Centre, and the Federal Office of Military Counterintelligence will remain at this level.