Christian Freuding inspires thousands of fans on YouTube with his videos explaining the war in Ukraine.
Now Pistorius has made him one of his closest advisers.
Berlin – From mid-May, General Christian Freuding will head the new planning and command staff, bringing a breath of fresh air to the Bundeswehr in many respects.
He became head of a staff that was abolished in 2011 and is now being reinstated by Defense Minister Pistorius.
He also inspires thousands of fans with his YouTube appearances in explanatory videos about the Ukraine war.
Some videos get more than a million clicks.
As a commentator on Ukraine, Christian Freuding has become a veritable social media star.
In the Bundeswehr's YouTube format "Demanded", the general talks about the developments in the Ukraine war.
General Christian Freuding heads the Defense Ministry's new planning staff
Brigadier General Christian Freuding will now head the new planning and management staff from May, as Boris Pistorius announced at the beginning of April.
As a step in the current transformation of the Ministry of Defense, the Secretary of Defense is establishing a planning and command staff.
The planning staff, as set up under department head Helmut Schmidt in the 1960s, was dissolved by Minister Thomas de Maizière in October 2011 as part of a streamlining of the ministry leadership.
However, it is said that one aspect of Freuding's new position could lead to infighting among officers: the department heads are three-star generals, while Christian Freuding has only one star.
In addition, the officials in the Federal Ministry do not like the fact that the management and planning staff is staffed by a soldier.
But Freuding's experience speaks for itself.
He is currently head of the special staff for Ukraine in the Ministry of Defense and also accompanied Pistorius on his trip to Kiev.
He was previously the commander of Panzer Lehrbrigade 9 in Munster.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), Chairwoman of the Defense Committee, gave great praise: "Even as head of the situation center in Ukraine, Christian Freuding coped with the challenging task in a determined manner and informed about the situation with a pleasant mixture of the necessary clarity and empathy," she said.
Freuding is now in the closest circle of advisors to Defense Minister Pistorius
As Der
Spiegel
reports, Freuding's planning staff is supposed to carry out management's orders while at the same time forwarding suggestions and criticism from within the company upwards as unfiltered as possible.
The non-party planning chief will thus belong to the closest group of advisors to the new SPD minister.
Freuding became a conscript in 1990 and a little later became an officer cadet in the tank reconnaissance team in Ebern, Bavaria.
There he became a battalion commander, worked for the inspector general in the ministry and became adjutant to Minister Ursula von der Leyen.
According to
Spiegel,
Christian Freuding will continue to lead the Ukraine special staff as the new head of planning.
The only question is whether the 51-year-old will still have time for his appearances in the popular YouTube videos.
(Lea Warmedinger)