Career idea: Officer in the army

Since I found the contribution from @Micky_Maus was very interesting, I thought I could make it my profession as well. I would be really happy if we could start a new trend with it #Berufsvorstellung

1. briefly about me

1.1 Armored infantry

2. general information

2.1 Free military welfare and no social security contributions

3 What do officers do?

4 Content of the training

5 Course of training

6 Training allowance/salary after training

6.1 Why is it easier for soldiers to save money than many civilians?

7 Opportunities for promotion

8 Conclusion

Just like Mickey Mouse, I will describe this profession on the basis of my personal experiences and I will limit myself to officer training in the army. Anyone can google general facts and figures.

1. briefly about me:

I turned 24 this month and have been in the Bundeswehr for just over 4 years. I didn't have a single day of idle time between graduating from high school and joining the Bundeswehr. On the contrary, in the first 5 days of basic training I didn't even have my high school diploma (NRW takes its time) and at the end of the first week I drove home from the barracks, put on my suit and went straight on to the graduation ball. The fact that I've never worked in a civilian job is something I notice again and again in that I lack a general understanding when it comes to social security contributions or legal issues relating to a civilian employer, for example.

1.1 Armored infantry

I am an officer and a trained mechanized infantryman. Panzergrenadiers are part of the infantry and armored forces. In the "classic" scenario, they accompany main battle tanks with smaller infantry fighting vehicles, the crew of which can dismount in the rear to carry out infantry tasks, while the commander, driver and gunner can continue to operate while mounted. The Panzergrenadiertruppe was designed to protect its own battle tanks and fight enemy tanks and infantry. In foreign missions such as in Mali or Afghanistan, the Bundeswehr did not deploy main battle tanks, meaning that the mechanized infantry used their mounted and dismounted combat power independently of the main battle tank theme. They took on more infantry tasks such as patrolling or forming the Rapid Reaction Force, a reserve force that is on alert to intervene in the event of an armed conflict.

2. general

Training to become an officer usually takes 6 years. As soon as you become a soldier, you have a status similar to that of a civil servant. You are not a civil servant, but are sometimes treated as such. Of course, training takes place in the Bundeswehr and therefore in the public service of the Federal Republic of Germany.

2.1 Free military welfare and no social security contributions

Soldiers enjoy the privilege of free military welfare, which means that they do not have to pay social security contributions and receive medical care from the federal government. This means you have to go to the army doctor if you have a problem. If the panaceas Voltaren, Ibuprofen and Bepanthen don't seem to help, the military doctor will refer you to a specialist. Medical care in the barracks is limited to general medicine and dentists.

The Bundeswehr also has hospitals, which in my opinion are what all hospitals should be. I was operated on three times in the Bundeswehr hospital in Ulm and have been there at least 50 times and my impression was the same every time: Where did all this staff come from? More doctors than you can count and helpful nursing staff everywhere. It was common for one or two nurses to check on me every hour during my inpatient stays. I've seen it very differently in civilian hospitals.

As a soldier, you are obliged to take out compulsory nursing care insurance, but it doesn't cost anywhere near as much as normal social security contributions. When you leave the Bundeswehr as a regular soldier, the federal government pays an amount into the pension insurance for the former soldier, but the statutory pension is not something you should rely on. For this reason and due to the high risk of accidents, it is extremely important in my opinion to make private provisions and build up assets as a soldier. I will summarize why a soldier can do this better than many civilians in point 6.1.

3 What do officers do?

The officer career is the highest career in the Bundeswehr. Officers serve as responsible officers and disciplinary superiors. There are a total of 11 officer ranks (if you include the extremely rare staff captain and reconcile the equivalents of the different branches and branches of the armed forces). Officers can sit in an office all day, but they can also lead 30 or 300 soldiers or an entire battalion with large and small equipment in the field and then do office work. Officers are not spared office work. The range of tasks is so broad that I can't summarize it here, mainly because it depends in which function you are deployed in which branch of the armed forces, so I want to go into the (in my opinion) core tasks of officers.

Troop officers

There are troop officers and staff officers. The troop officers are, for example, platoon leaders, company operations officers or company commanders. They lead the troops directly in the field. Their task is to implement the instructions that come from the staff within the troops assigned to them and to maintain and, in the best case, increase the performance of the troops in the long term.

Staff officers

Staff officers sit in a separate building, the staff building, and coordinate what is happening in the barracks. Not only officers work in the staff, but the highest ranks of a location can be found here. There are various staff departments, each of which has different tasks such as personnel, military intelligence or logistics. The staff organizes on a large scale what is implemented on a small scale in the troops.

Disciplinary superiors

Disciplinary superiors are officers who have direct disciplinary authority over their subordinates. This means that they are responsible for the education of the soldiers under their command within a legal framework. Disciplinary superiors can impose punishments. From fines (very popular, because money gone = ouch) to writing essays and even arrest, disciplinary superiors can sanction their subordinates. This is the reason why the military law examinations and the associated lessons for training NCOs and officers are practiced ad nauseam. The company commander is the disciplinary superior of the soldiers serving in the company, i.e. he is the disciplinary superior of up to 250 people. The battalion commander above him is the next highest disciplinary superior. I know from stories told by a battalion commander that a significant part of a battalion commander's work consists of dealing with the (alleged) offenses committed by the soldiers and the disciplinary reactions to them. This is not about "soldier Dosenkohl was 5 minutes late". It is about violations of military discipline or even criminal offenses, which can also be punished in civilian matters, regardless of military matters.

Education and duty of care

The education of soldiers is the responsibility of every superior, whether officer or not. Superiors have the task of educating soldiers politically, providing them with a moral compass and making them aware of the importance of their profession. In addition to the self-evident task of creating a military habitus in which the soldiers can master the tasks assigned to them, a superior is also a representative internally and externally for the Bundeswehr and what it stands for. It is the officer's task to set an example to his subordinates of what he expects from them, because a troop is not led by disciplinary measures, but by passion, motivation and a good work ethic that spreads to the troops.

The duty of care of a military superior obliges him to take care of the problems and emergencies of his subordinates as if they were his own. In certain situations, he is responsible for the lives of his subordinates and must live up to this responsibility by respecting life as a person's most valuable asset.

Self-image of a soldier

Soldiers live and die to bravely defend the right and freedom of the German people, so help them God. This is the oath (for those who renounce God's help, even without his help) that every soldier takes. In my opinion, being a soldier means being part of something much bigger than yourself. Being a soldier starts in the mind. If you are a soldier because you want to earn money, you are a mercenary. There is a world of difference between a soldier who is prepared to die for the freedom of his country and someone who picks up a weapon because he wants to be paid for it. I know that the points I have raised have a lot to do with one's own attitude and are not always implemented in the way I have described. I could write a lot more about what it means to me to be a soldier and my goosebumps wouldn't stop, but I don't have to do that to you.

4. content of the training & 5. course of the training

Like everything else in the civil service, training to become an officer is constantly being adapted. I'll tell you about the training I'm still undergoing.

Basic training

I started my service in Hammelburg, the infantry training center. Here I had 6 months of basic training + an extension of the basic training for officer candidates. The first three months were typical basic training. Some of you probably remember that. Get up early, march to the troop kitchen, have breakfast, march somewhere, map-compass, weapons, sports training, transport heavy luggage from one place to another, swearing-in, bivouac and final exercise (also called recruit inspection). I was trained with the G36, P8 and the MG3, had military law lessons and wrote an exam, held weapons and equipment training courses, which were graded. I had to do guard duty, take sports exams, do orientation marches, performance marches, express marches and the instructors gave me dirty looks around the clock. By the end of the 6 months, the atmosphere was a bit more relaxed. We started with around 50 OAs (officer candidates) and 6 cadets (foreign OAs or officers being trained in Germany) in the platoon. We successfully completed these 6 months, during which you could make use of your right of withdrawal, with 31 OAs and 7 cadets (we gained one cadet).

English course

As I didn't pass the English test well enough in basic training to be able to skip the English course, I had to attend an English course at the Army Officers' School in Dresden for 3 months and take exams. My daily routine actually consisted of 5 hours of English lessons every day and then doing sports. After passing the English course, I was sent on a troop internship.

Troop internship

The 3-month (6-month if you skip the English course) troop internship serves to give the OAs an insight into the reality of troop training, as they had previously only been in training with other OAs. I was lucky, I came to Augustdorf to the Panzergrenadierbataillon 212, where I was already undergoing training to become a Panzergrenadier on the Marder infantry fighting vehicle. The company commander made sure that I was included in this training, so that I was trained as an armored infantryman as part of the rear crew in the infantry fighting vehicle (at the time I was a lance corporal (OA)). I was trained in 4 other weapons and learned a lot about infantry. I was allowed to lead men in training battles for the first time and enjoyed training in local and house-to-house combat. These 3 months really helped me to develop my basic infantry skills and I am very grateful for this time.

Officer training course 1

After that, I went back to the Army Officers' School in Dresden. Here I went through the 3-month Officer Training Course 1. You can imagine it like a school. You go there in the morning, have lessons, write exams and have sports exams. The subjects you are taught are military history, political education (as part of the PolBil you go on excursions from time to time), military law, leadership and tactics in action and sport. The highlight was a 24-hour exercise in which you had to master alternating physical and mental tasks from station to station. There was a change of leadership at each station, so that two OAs always led the auditorium through the task. The leader's performance was assessed by the auditorium leader (lieutenant colonel). There were stations that were relatively easy (quiz questions and disassembling and reassembling weapons), but there were also stations that were really tough, such as the water course with weapons, rucksack and transporting wounded, where I briefly thought I was going to drown (weapons are not as easy in water as I had imagined). If you pass officer course 1, you get your officer's certificate, which entitles you to continue training as an officer.

Studies

Now the relaxed part begins. The Bundeswehr has two universities, Hamburg and Munich, where all the OAs and officers study, except for the medical students and special master's programs in intelligence. I am studying education at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich. The program includes media, intercultural, educational science, adult education, philosophy, psychology, statistics and systems theory modules. You are required to complete a Bachelor's and Master's degree before continuing your military training.

Why German officers are supposed to have studied is due to Helmut Schmidt, who is said to have said something like: "It can't be that our teachers are better educated than our officers" during his time as defense minister. Thank you at this point Helmut, studying makes some people despair, but for many it gives them access to rationality and reflection, which is important as a superior. In addition, you have something to show after your time in the armed forces to gain a foothold in the civilian working world. At Bundeswehr universities, you study in trimesters instead of semesters. This means that a study period only lasts 3 months instead of 6, which increases the pace and means that you can complete your Bachelor's and Master's degrees more quickly. The degrees at the Bundeswehr universities are regarded in exactly the same way as at other universities in Germany.

The professors at the Bundeswehr universities are not soldiers. In general, there is a very relaxed atmosphere at the universities. Academic events can be attended in civilian dress and students are given a great deal of freedom. For example, you can move around the entire Munich public transportation system during service hours. There are very few prescribed military events. The OAs and officers are granted freedoms that go hand in hand with responsibility. You have to organize yourself, take care of your own physical fitness, master your studies and prepare for further training. I would be lying if I said that this freedom does not tempt some to let themselves go and stray away from the virtues of soldiering.

Freedoms that are also encouraged are, for example, interest groups (IGs). With the support of the sports promotion association, you can take part in various IGs or set one up yourself. From martial arts, sailing, marching, to the various troop IGs and even a racing team (you can always hear the comrades drifting across the university test track). The general education of human beings praised by Wilhelm von Humboldt, according to which every person, driven by their own interests and motivation, forms their personal character and generates knowledge, is the original idea behind the concept of a university. This also applies to the universities of the Bundeswehr, whereby the academic aspect comes to the fore and the military aspect recedes into the background.

Officer course 2 & 3, lone fighter course

After graduation, you go back to the Army Officer School in Dresden for 4 months. Apart from sport, the officers' course is again very theoretical, mainly dealing with tactics, accompanied by the other subjects already known. This is followed by Officer Course 3, which focuses on practical training. This can last up to 18 months. Here, the officers are trained as platoon leaders, adapted to their unit type. The theory should now be applied in practice. As I have not yet completed these courses, I can't say much about them.

All army officers are required to at least attempt the lone fighter course (EK). The lone fighter course is an exhausting course that is very prestigious, especially within the fighting force. It is preceded by a lone fighter preparation course, which you have to pass in order to be allowed to take part in the EK at all. The EK lasts 6 weeks and represents a scenario in which parts of a platoon have been scattered behind enemy lines. The aim is to survive, fight the enemy, find your bearings in unfamiliar territory and withstand the constant high physical strain under rationed food (in places only 800kcal a day) and perform as a leader. If you want to watch young people suffering, you are welcome to enter a lone fighter course on YouTube. The few who pass this course are allowed to go on to lone fighter course 2, which is not part of officer training.

After more than 6 years, you have completed your officer training. However, the first officer rank is awarded 3 years earlier.

6 Training allowance/salary after training

The salary, known as pay, is determined according to the traditional civil service salary scale and varies according to experience level, risk supplement, post or candidate supplements. Overtime can be paid out, but is usually paid in lieu. DuZ (work at unfavorable times) is paid out and overtime is paid.

In the following, I summarize the ranks that one regularly passes through in the officer career and always indicate the gross minimum and the maximum rate with experience level 8:

Figures in euros

Recruit: 2,370-2,693 (from the start of training)

Private: 2,370-2,693 (after 3 months)

Corporal: 2,420-2,798 (after 6 months)

Fahnenjunker: 2,428-2,895 (after 12 months)

Ensign: 2,614-3,298 (After 21 months)

Midshipman: 2,766-3,581 (after 30 months)

Lieutenant: 2,985-3,867 (after 36 months)

First lieutenant: 3,195-4,334 (After 66 months)

Captain: 3,652-4,832 (After 5 years as an officer, performance promotion)

These are the ranks that can be achieved as a regular soldier, with the exception of the rarely encountered staff captain. If you want to continue after 13 years as an officer, you can apply to become a professional soldier. Professional soldiers work as soldiers until they retire. If you are interested in the salary, you can simply google it, but it goes up to B10, the general earns €14,626. All promotions after first lieutenant are performance promotions with standing time.

6.1 Why is it easier for soldiers to save money than many civilians?

As a soldier, you are entitled to live in the barracks until the age of 25 and can do so even after that, if there is capacity. Depending on your age and type of accommodation, you pay a fee which is deducted directly from your pay. In my case, this is just over €200. As a reminder, I live in Munich. In Munich, you can't even get a shoebox to sleep in for €200.

You can eat in the troop kitchen. I don't, but you can eat three times a day for around €3.60 per meal. Of course the choice is limited and you have to get used to the times (dinner is only available until 17:00), but it's a way to save money and time. The food isn't as bad as you've heard in horror stories, it's normal canteen food.

Soldiers pay taxes just like civilians, but civilians are forced to pay social security contributions that soldiers don't have to pay. This leaves more net from the gross. Soldiers have to make more private provisions than civilians, especially when it comes to disability and incapacity for work, but they are relieved by a flat-rate tax allowance. This is where the "civil servant-like status" comes into play.

What I personally noticed is that I didn't have any time or energy to spend a lot of money during my intensive, practical training.

Last but not least, soldiers are allowed to travel from their place of service to home and back again free of charge in uniform. This is done via a Bundeswehr app. It's 660 km by car from Munich to the Ruhr area. So at least 2, more likely 2.5 tank loads to visit home and then return to their place of duty. The regulation that came into force in 2020 with the free rail travel comes in very handy.

7. opportunities for promotion

The Bundeswehr is a place where hard work is rewarded, at least in the higher careers. The Bundeswehr is a very specialized employer, which can be difficult to get along with. However, if you have found your calling as a soldier and can adapt to the system, you have a good chance of a career if you perform well. My insight into the Bundeswehr's personnel decisions is very limited, not to say that I have no idea how things work in the Bundeswehr's personnel department, but what I have noticed is that IT specialists in particular are bought at a high price and can negotiate good deals with the Bundeswehr.

You can serve your time in the Bundeswehr and make sure that your time is as pleasant as possible, but you can also really go full throttle and, with good performance, have a good chance of gaining professional soldier status. One fact that plays a role here is clearly the lack of personnel. The Bundeswehr has far too few soldiers. This applies more to the lower ranks than the higher ones. The fact that the Bundeswehr is unable to select the best is absolutely unsatisfactory, but it is beneficial for the individual, because the Bundeswehr does not have many alternatives.

Depending on the career path, the end of promotion opportunities is reached relatively quickly for some, while for others you still have the opportunity to move up after decades. The experience levels then reward long-term work with more money. In the officer career, the end is not reached so quickly, as it takes decades, good performance and unconditional dedication to reach the general ranks.

8 Conclusion

Personally, I have found in the officer profession an opportunity to take on responsibility, to enjoy the highest possible training, to pursue a profession that challenges me physically and mentally, is largely in line with my personal attitude and gives me the chance to develop myself throughout. Being a soldier can be both a curse and a blessing. It always depends on whether you actually want to do what you do. My idealistic idea of a soldier and an officer has been disappointed a few times, but I have also had experiences that have reinforced my attitude. I have seen so many things and experienced things that I would never have experienced without the Bundeswehr, both positive and negative. The decision to become a soldier takes a lot out of you. Your time, your energy, sometimes even your private wishes. However, once you have found your calling, being a soldier gives you an incredible amount in return. I'll say it again, being a soldier is in your head. A uniform doesn't make you a soldier, a rank doesn't make you an officer. It's your actions, your attitude and your ability to suffer.