Inspector of the Air Force

Updated on Dec 11, 2023

Edit

Comment

The Inspector of the Air Force (German: Inspekteur der Luftwaffe) is the commander of the Air Force of the modern-day German Armed Forces, the Bundeswehr. The Inspector is responsible for the readiness of personnel and materiel in the German Air Force, in that function reports directly to the Federal Minister of Defence. The current Inspector is Karl Müllner, appointed in April 2012.

The Inspector of the Air Force is the chief of the Air Force Command, based in Gatow, Berlin. They sit under the General Inspector of the Bundeswehr and are a member of the Defence Council for Bundeswehr-wide matters. Both the Inspector and their deputy hold the rank of lieutenant general (German: Generalleutnant) while in office, although the first Inspector, Josef Kammhuber, was an exception, holding the rank of full general.

List of Inspectors of the Air Force

General Josef Kammhuber (1 June 1957 - 30 September 1962)

Lieutenant General Werner Panitzki (1 October 1962 - 25 August 1966)

Lieutenant General Johannes Steinhoff (2 September 1966 - 31 December 1970)

Lieutenant General Günther Rall (1 January 1971 - 31 March 1974)

Lieutenant General Gerhard Limberg (1 April 1974 - 30 September 1978)

Lieutenant General Friedrich Obleser (1 October 1978 - 31 March 1983)

Lieutenant General Eberhard Eimler (1 April 1983 - 30 September 1987)

Lieutenant General Horst Jungkurth (1 October 1987 - 31 March 1991)

Lieutenant General Jörg Kuebart (1 April 1991 - 30 September 1994)

Lieutenant General Bernhard Mende (1 October 1994 - 30 September 1997)

Lieutenant General Rolf H. Portz (1 October 1997 - 31 March 2001)

Lieutenant General Gerhard W. Back (1 April 2001 - January 2004)

Lieutenant General Klaus Peter Stieglitz (12 January 2004 - 29 October 2009)

Lieutenant General Aarne Kreuzinger-Janik (29 October 2009 - 25 April 2012)

Lieutenant General Karl Müllner (25 April 2012 - present)

References

Inspector of the Air Force Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA