Faculty of Land Forces

Who we are

As experts in the fight on land and in low-level airspace, the members of the Faculty of Land Forces convey the fundamental principles of command and control, operations planning and military decision-making to future staff and general staff officers. In doing so they focus particularly on the command and control of land forces as an art, a creative activity based on character, skill and mental prowess that involves the implementation of a systematic approach (source: German Army Headquarters 2017).

The faculty’s staff includes soldiers of different ranks and from different nations, who have gained a wealth of experience in different assignments in Germany and abroad. Among them are former commanders as well as assistant branch chiefs from the Federal Ministry of Defence, from agencies and commands, and staff officers from brigade, division and corps staffs. In addition, two exchange officers from the Netherlands and the United States contribute their multinational experience. In class, the faculty’s specialist lecturers share their experiences and views not only from fields such as military engineering, army aviation or fire support but also from the fields of logistics, communication and information systems support and personnel management.

Aside from being in charge of land forces education at the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College, the head of the faculty is also the Representative of the Chief of the German Army. In this capacity, he advocates the Chief’s interests with regard to education and training at the college.

What we do

The Faculty of Land Forces imparts knowledge about its fields of expertise by contributing to the following courses taking place at the BwCSC:

• Basic Staff Officer Course (BSOC, ten weeks)
• Fundamentals of the Planning and Conduct of Operations for Future Army Staff Officers (eight weeks) 
• National General/Admiral Staff Officer Course (NGASOC, two years)
• International General/Admiral Staff Officer Course (IGASOC, one year)

In the BSOC, our lecturers teach fundamental principles of land forces, always guided by the question: ‘What does a future Bundeswehr senior officer have to know about the Army?’

For military personnel in Army uniform, attending the eight-week course ‘Fundamentals of the Planning and Conduct of Operations for Future Army Staff Officers’ is also mandatory. In this course, future senior Army officers are taught general principles of command and control and they become acquainted with the procedures governing the command and control, operation and employment of land forces at brigade level. Action training takes top priority in the course.

Building on previous courses, the officers delve deeper into the principles of the command and control of land forces during the NGASOC or IGASOC, where they work with the German land forces’ decision-making process as well as with the respective NATO procedures (COPD).

All courses employ the concept of competency-based education and training, with students actively contributing their experiences to the training activities. Here, they are faced with challenges and their potential is nurtured in a manner corresponding to their individual competences. Scenarios and seminars as well as troop visits and exercises reflecting aspects of current missions and operations meet the need to cover the operational dimension.

This way, we prepare our students for tasks in the context of national and collective defence, international crisis management and routine duty.

The education and training we offer

Apart from contributing to the aforementioned courses, the Faculty of Land Forces also offers a range of short courses in the form of modules. These modules are open to military command personnel and experts as well as to civilian executive personnel and specialists from the Bundeswehr and the public service. Currently, the faculty offers the following modules:

• Land Forces
• Military Engineering
• Special Operations Forces
• Military Intelligence
• COPD for Special Operations Component Commands
• Designing Exercises

For further information on the individual modules, please refer to the Module Catalogue of the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College.