Talk:Inspector General of the Bundeswehr

Wrong translation of "Generalinspekteur"
It's difficult to find an authorised translation for "Generalinspekteur der Bundeswehr" (or GenInspBw). You find "Chief of the Defence Staff", to which either "Bundeswehr" or "German Federal Armed Forces" are being added. That would be the most common, I suppose, as they're all "CHODs" when they meet at international conferences. You also find "Chief of Staff, Bundeswehr", which is the preferred term at the Federal Office for Linguistics and Terminology and all that (Bundessprachenamt), but the GenInspBw himself seems to like CHOD better - that's what it says on his business card, anyway. NATO even lists him as "Chief of the General Staff, Federal Armed Forces of Germany", but they also have the CHOD as his current position a little further down on that page. So, for all practical purposes this entry should be changed to CHOD with a reference to the Bundeswehr rather than the Federal Armed Forces (there's actually a ministerial decree against translating the term "Bundeswehr" at all). Long story short, one thing is absolutely certain: "Inspector General" is definitely wrong. By the way, I believe that's a term used only for the top internal anti-fraud auditors in the (US) Departments of Justice, HHS, Defence and so on. --193.17.232.2 (talk) 12:55, 6 February 2008 (UTC)


 * The Bundeswehr has no "Chief of Staff" or Generalstabschef. Generalinspekteur is a generic designation and can only be translated as "Inspector General". Transforming the GI into a "Chief of staff" is just another example of the usual Anglo-saxon arrogance and their obsession with the Nazi area, during which the term "Generalstabschef" was used for the last time. I also dispute the claim that the GI's position is "roughly equivalent" to that of the US or UK chiefs of staff, as he has no direct command authority (truppendienstlicher Vorgesetzer) over the Teilstreitkräfte, which rests with their respective Inspekteure. The position of GI was deliberately weakened in comparison with it's historical predecessors to ensure the civilian control of the armed forces. 91.45.92.79 (talk) 12:04, 13 October 2009 (UTC)


 * There should be a NATO guideline available on how to address the Generalinspekteur. For the purposes of the Wikipedia the best solution would be not to translate it at all as terms as Taoiseach, Folketinget etc. Arebenti (talk) 15:40, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

General Trettner
In WW II Trettner was an air force officer (paratrooper). In the Bundeswehr he was in the army.

Lemma translation
Whose genius idea was it to change this lemma to "Chief of Federal Armed Forces Staff"? There are different translations, but nobody uses this version, I'd go so far as to say a user made it up. -- Imladros (talk) 23:26, 22 February 2014 (UTC)
 * The capacity of Brussels bureaucrats to mangle translations is to blame: it's used by NATO, although they do seem to prefer the more sensible "Chief of Staff of the Federal Armed Forces". &mdash;innotata 20:54, 25 August 2014 (UTC)

Requested move 25 August 2014

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: Page moved: no objections Ground Zero | t 16:59, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

Chief of Federal Armed Forces Staff → Inspector General of the Bundeswehr – or Chief of Staff of the Federal Armed Forces. The current name doesn't make much sense in English, especially considering the German equivalents; you can find about a half-dozen NATO or such uses of it via Google. Official websites mostly seem to use "Chief of Staff…", as does the English website of the German president, so that title would be fine too. However, "Inspector General of the Bundeswehr" has more Google Books results (50 vs 16), is used on plenty of official websites (including ISAF's), is a literal but still understandable translation, and uses the German name of the Bundeswehr, as we usually do. &mdash;innotata 21:08, 25 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Support as this is less likely to confuse people about what country the title originates from.   - WPGA2345 -     ☛   02:36, 30 August 2014 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Requested move 15 September 2017

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: not moved  Dr Strauss   talk   15:27, 30 September 2017 (UTC)

Inspector General of the Bundeswehr → Chief of Defence (Germany) – According to the official website for the Germany Federal Ministry of Defence, the leader of the armed forces is called the Chief of Defence Skjoldbro (talk) 14:46, 15 September 2017 (UTC) --Relisting. — usernamekiran (talk)   13:44, 23 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Comment. Odd one this, as the German title does indeed translate as Inspector General of the Bundeswehr . They seem to have chosen a completely different title for English usage. -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:24, 15 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Not so keen on this move. The currently used, literal translation is used most frequently in books, and official usage varies: see the move request from 2014, above. &mdash;innotata 17:57, 21 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Oppose - Per WP:NATURALDIS An alternative name is better than the ambiguous title "Chief of Defence".ZXCVBNM (TALK) 14:35, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Oppose Per WP:NATURALDIS. Also as pointed out above the official German title is correctly translated as "Inspector General of the Bundeswehr" AusLondonder (talk) 03:25, 25 September 2017 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Image Heinz Trettner
I have removed the image of Heinz Trettner and substituted it by the generic placeholder icon. Even this generic icon is far better than the image that was used before. There is an official image of Trettner as Inspector General available at the German Federal Ministry of Defence's web page here that should be public domain since it was created in service of the government. Please upload this image and add it to the list. Thanks!--91.221.58.22 (talk) 09:03, 29 November 2018 (UTC)
 * 1.) It was the only image in the list that didn't show the person during his tenure as Inspector General and therefor didn't fit.
 * 2.) It showed Trettner as an Oberst (colonel), not with the rank of General (four stars) he had as General Inspector.
 * 3.) It showed Trettner in blue Luftwaffe (air force) uniform. When Trettner joined the Bundeswehr, he became an officer in the Heer (army), wearing a grey uniform for the rest of his service.
 * 4.) It showed — and this is most important — Trettner in Wehrmacht uniform. While this image is perfectly suited for Trettner's personal article, it is simply misplaced in an article about a position that didn't even exist in the Wehrmacht.
 * Granted, the image of Heinz Trettner is not the best, but there are no other free images available, the photo which you have link is copyrighted. On that basis the image should be readded. Skjoldbro (talk) 10:29, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

I have now requested a photo on Trettner's article's talk page. In general, I don't agree with your reasoning. The photos in this list have the purpose to illustrate the topic. Trettner's Luftwaffe photo is not suitable as an illustration for this specific list, as it has nothing to do with its topic. Photos are no value on their own, they should only be just as illustrations in context. No illustration is still better than a misleading and plain wrong illustration. As I said above, the photo depicts an air force colonel, not an army general. However, I won't press the matter.--91.221.58.23 (talk) 11:06, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 07:51, 30 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Generalinspekteur der Bundeswehr, General Eberhard Zorn (cropped).jpg