Hans Speidel

Hans Speidel was a German general and diplomat, who was one of the major military leaders of West Germany during the early Cold War. The first full General in West Germany, he was a principal founder of the Bundeswehr and a major figure in German rearmament, integration into NATO and international negotiations on European and Western defence cooperation in the 1950s. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the NATO ground forces in Central Europe from 1957 to 1963 and then as President of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs from 1964.