Country Germany Part of Central Army Group Last commander GenLt Klaus Reinhardt | Branch German Army Headquarters Koblenz | |
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Active 6 April 1957 - 31 March 1994 | ||
III Corps was a corps of the German Army (Bundeswehr Heer) active from 1957 to 1994.
The preparation of the staff of the corps took place from 16 March 1957 at Gneisenau-Kaserne, Koblenz; the corps was officially formed on 6 April 1957. Initially, the 2nd Panzergrenadier Division and 5th Panzer Division moved in 1957 from the II Corps to III Corps. The corps was integrated into defence planning from mid-1957, as part of NATO's Central Army Group, commanded by the commander of the U.S. Seventh Army. The area of operations was the FRG-DDR and German-Czechoslovak border in Hesse and Franconia. On 1 December 1958 the 7th Panzer Division was transferred from the III Corps to the I Corps. Among the first corps troops were Ordnance regiment 504 (formed May 16, 1957 in Diez, transferred January 1958 in Koblenz), and Corps Artillery Command 403 (based until 1 July 1957 at Munsterlager, from August 1957 in Koblenz). Under corps command were a rocket artillery battalion, a supply battalion, and a geophysical measurement train.
Smilo Freiherr von Lüttwitz was the first commander of the corps, as a Lieutenant General.
In 1994 the corps headquarters was disbanded and re-designated the headquarters of the German Army Forces Command.
Initially from 1959 the corps' troops under Heeresstruktur II consisted of :
At the end of the Cold War in 1989, the corps commanded the 2nd Panzergrenadier, 5th Panzer, and 12th Panzer Divisions.