Source : Reuters | AI-generated illustration
BERLIN, November 5, 2026 — Germany’s defence ministry said on Thursday that Army Chief Christian Freuding will become the country’s next chief of defence, taking over as the Bundeswehr’s highest-ranking soldier in February 2027.
Reuters reported the appointment, which was confirmed in a ministry statement. Freuding will succeed General Carsten Breuer, who has been chosen to chair NATO’s Military Committee, the alliance’s top military body.
Defence Minister Boris Pistorius praised Freuding as embodying the values of the Bundeswehr and keeping “a cool head” during major change. Pistorius said Freuding had analysed technical lessons from Russia’s war against Ukraine and translated them into German force development, including the creation of the army’s first dedicated drone regiment.
Freuding, 55, became army chief in October 2025 after earlier leading the ministry’s special staff for Ukraine and its planning and command staff. He previously coordinated German military aid to Kyiv, served as adjutant to then-defence minister Ursula von der Leyen, commanded a panzer training brigade, and deployed on missions in Bosnia and Afghanistan. German outlets including Die Welt and Euronews said he earned a doctorate at a Bundeswehr university and topped his general staff course.
Breuer has been chief of defence since March 2023. He was elected in September to lead the NATO Military Committee and is due to move to Brussels; German media said he will take up that post in 2027, prompting an earlier handover in Berlin than initially expected.
The appointment comes as Germany continues a large rearmament effort after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and as NATO allies pressure Europe to raise readiness. Freuding’s Ukraine portfolio made him one of Pistorius’s closest military advisers on munitions, drones and force modernisation.
No date was given beyond early February 2027 for the formal handover. The ministry’s announcement did not name an immediate successor as army inspector.
Source: Reuters on X, with background from the German defence ministry statement via Reuters, Defense News, Die Welt and Euronews.
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