Carsten Breuer

Post

Service

Carsten Breuer was born on 1 December 1964 in Letmathe, North Rhine-Westphalia. He joined the Bundeswehr in 1984 at Air Defence Regiment 11 in Achim and trained as an army air-defence officer at the school in Rendsburg. From 1985 to 1988 he studied educational theory at the Bundeswehr University in Hamburg. His early troop duty was with Air Defence Regiment 10 in Sigmaringen, as an intelligence officer and platoon leader, and as a youth officer and aide to the commander of the 10th Armoured Division, also in Sigmaringen.

From 1992 to 1995 he commanded the 4th Battery of Armoured Air Defence Demonstration Battalion 6 in Lütjenburg. He then taught army air defence at the Armour School in Munster. From 1997 to 1999 he attended the 40th General Staff Officer Course at the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College in Hamburg. He served on the staff of the Vice Chief of Defence in Bonn and, in 2001 and 2002, at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. Back in Germany he was chief of staff of 41 Armoured Infantry Brigade in Torgelow. From 2004 to 2006 he commanded 12 Armoured Air Defence Gun Battalion in Hardheim.

From 2006 to 2008 he was military assistant to the Chief of the German Army in Bonn. From 2008 to 2010 he was at NATO headquarters in Brussels as deputy to the representative of Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, as a branch chief for capability development, and as chief of staff of that office. Further posts in the defence ministry in Berlin followed: military-strategic fundamentals, then military policy and bilateral relations. From 2013 to 2014 he commanded 37 Armoured Infantry Brigade Freistaat Sachsen in Frankenberg, Saxony.

His official curriculum vitae records two deployments. From November 2003 to February 2004 he commanded the German element of the multinational brigade in Prizren, with the 8th German KFOR contingent. From January to July 2014 he was director of current operations at the ISAF joint command in Kabul.

In 2014 he became a division chief in the ministry directorate for security and defence policy. In 2015 and 2016 he managed the project for the 2016 White Paper on German security policy and the future of the Bundeswehr. From 2016 to 2017 he was deputy chief of staff for operations, military intelligence, and training at German Army Headquarters in Strausberg. From 2018 to 2021 he commanded the Bundeswehr Territorial Command in Berlin. From 2021 to 2022 he headed the COVID-19 crisis staff at the Federal Chancellery. In 2022 he stood up the Bundeswehr Homeland Defence Command in Berlin and then commanded it.

On 17 March 2023 he became the 17th Chief of Defence, succeeding General Eberhard Zorn. The defence ministry describes the Chief of Defence as the highest-ranking soldier, with authority to set binding rules for the whole force, and as the officer responsible for the military defence concept and for planning and conducting operations. He was still in that post on 21 October 2026. On 19 September 2026, at the NATO Military Committee conference in Copenhagen, the allied chiefs of defence elected him the next chair of the committee. NATO says he will take that post in the summer of 2027, for three years, after Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone. The outgoing chair has put the handover in July 2027. The defence ministry has said Breuer remains Chief of Defence until he moves.

1. Joined the Bundeswehr, 1984
2. 12 Armoured Air Defence Gun Battalion, Hardheim
3. KFOR, Prizren, 2003-2004
4. 37 Armoured Infantry Brigade, Frankenberg, 2013-2014
5. ISAF Joint Command, Kabul, 2014
6. Bundeswehr Territorial Command, 2018-2021
7. COVID-19 crisis staff, Federal Chancellery, 2021-2022
8. Bundeswehr Homeland Defence Command, 2022-2023
9. Chief of Defence, from 17 March 2023