The Bundeswehr is the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities. The states of Germany are not allowed to maintain armed forces of their own, since the German Constitution states that matters of defense fall into the sole responsibility of the federal government.
A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor of a band commonly bears the title of Bandmaster or Director of Music. Ottoman military bands are thought to be the oldest variety of military marching bands in the world, dating from the 13th century.
The National People's Army were the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1956 to 1990.
In some militaries, foot guards are senior infantry regiments. Foot guards are commonly responsible for guarding royal families or other state leaders, and they also often perform ceremonial duties accordingly, but at the same time are combat soldiers.
The German Army is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German Bundeswehr together with the Marine and the Luftwaffe. As of April 2020, the German Army had a strength of 64,036 soldiers.
Public duties are performed by military personnel, and usually have a ceremonial or historic significance rather than an overtly operational role.
The Federal Ministry of Defence, abbreviated BMVg, is a top-level federal agency, headed by the Federal Minister of Defence as a member of the Cabinet of Germany. The ministry is headquartered at the Hardthöhe district in Bonn and has a second office in the Bendlerblock building in Berlin.
Adolf Bruno Heinrich Ernst Heusinger was a German military officer, whose career spanned the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany and West Germany. Heusinger joined the German Army as a volunteer in 1915 and later became a professional soldier. He served as the Operations Chief within general staff of the High Command of the German Army in the Nazi German Armed Forces from 1938 to 1944, before being appointed acting chief of the general staff for two weeks in 1944 after his predecessor resigned his post due to a nervous breakdown. He was then appointed head of the military cartography office when the war ended. He later became a general for West Germany and served as head of the West German military from 1957 to 1961 as well as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 1961 to 1964.
A guard of honour (GB), also honor guard (US), also ceremonial guard, is a guard, usually military in nature, appointed to receive or guard a head of state or other dignitaries, the fallen in war, or to attend at state ceremonials, especially funerals. In military weddings, especially those of commissioned officers, a guard, composed usually of service members of the same branch, form the Saber arch. In principle any military unit could act as a guard of honour. However, in some countries certain units are specially designated to serve as a guard of honour, as well as other public duties.
The Military Counterintelligence Service is one of the three federal intelligence agencies in Germany, and is responsible for military counterintelligence. The other two are the Bundesnachrichtendienst , which is the foreign intelligence agency, and the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz which is the domestic civilian intelligence agency.
The Großer Zapfenstreich is a military ceremony performed in Germany and Austria. It is similar to the military tattoo ceremony performed in English-speaking countries, and is the most important ceremonial act executed by the German federal armed forces, the Bundeswehr, and by the Austrian federal armed forces Bundesheer. The Zapfenstreich is performed only during national celebrations and solemn public commemorations, to honour distinguished persons present at such special events. Examples are the farewell ceremony for a German federal president, or at the conclusion of large military exercises. It takes place in the evening hours and consists of a military formation of at least one military band, two platoons of armed infantrymen, and two lines of soldiers carrying torches, in total about 400 men.
The Joint Support Service is a branch of the German Bundeswehr established in October 2000 as a result of major reforms of the Bundeswehr. It handles various logistic and organisational tasks of the Bundeswehr. The SKB is one of six components of the Bundeswehr, the other five being the Army, Navy, Air Force, the Joint Medical Service, and the Cyber and Information Domain Service. As of April 2020, the force is composed of 27,840 personnel. In May 2021 the minister of defense Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer together with inspector general Eberhard Zorn published a plan to dissolve the Joint Support Service and to reintegrate its units into the army, navy, airforce and cyber command.
The Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, is the highest-ranking military position held by a commissioned officer on active duty in the Bundeswehr, the present-day armed forces of Germany.
The Wachbataillon is the German Bundeswehr's elite drill unit. The Wachbataillon number about 1,000 soldiers stationed in Berlin. It consists of seven active companies and belongs to the Streitkräftebasis of the Bundeswehr. The soldiers of the Wachbataillon often refer to themselves as Protter or Protokollsoldaten, meaning protocol soldiers.
The Decorations of Honour of the Bundeswehr are a series of military decorations of the Bundeswehr, the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. These honours and awards were introduced in 1980 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Bundeswehr by then Minister of Defence Hans Apel and subsequently approved by President of the Federal Republic Karl Carstens.
The Friedrich Engels Guards Regiment was a special guard unit of the East German National People's Army (NVA). The regiment was named after Friedrich Engels, the German socialist that collaborated with Karl Marx in systematizing Marxism.
There are 14 military bands of the Bundeswehr, including those of the German Army, Air Force, Navy, and joint bands. Before 2009, the military musicians of the Bundeswehr constituted a joint specialist service, the Military Music Service, subordinate to the Armed Forces Office. In 2009, as part of a larger reorganisation of the Bundeswehr, the organization of the Military Music Service was replaced by the new Military Music Center of the Bundeswehr in Bonn, and several bands were disbanded. The bands of the Bundeswehr provide music for official ceremonies such as the Großer Zapfenstreich and the swearing-in of new recruits. In addition to their traditional military music repertoire, they perform concert band and light music, as well as genres such as jazz, rock, and pop.
The Kommando Territoriale Aufgaben der Bundeswehr short (KdoTerrAufgBw) "Bundeswehr Territorial Tasks Command" of the Bundeswehr is based in the Julius-Leber- Kaserne (Barracks) in Berlin-Wedding was founded in 2013 and is in charge of all territorial tasks of the forces as well as for the support of the civil administration.
The Gardebataillon is a ceremonial unit in the Austrian Armed Forces. The Gardebataillon is one of the most important military units in the Austrian Armed Forces as its main task is to represent Austria at home and abroad. It is stationed exclusively at Maria Theresien Barracks in Vienna.
The Military Music Service of the National People's Army was made up of the Military Bands of the Nationale Volksarmee and the Corps of Drums of the Military Music Service.
Germany 
Bundeswehr 
German Army 
