Harald Kujat

Harald Kujat (born 1 March 1942) is a retired German General of the Luftwaffe. He served as Chief of Staff of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, from 2000 to 2002, and as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 2002 to 2005.

Kujat was born in Mielke, Reichsgau Wartheland (today Poland) to a farmer who died as a soldier in World War II. His mother with her four children fled the advancing Red Army at the end of World War II to Kiel. After passing his Abitur Kujat volunteered for the Luftwaffe in 1959. In 1965 he was promoted to lieutenant and became the staff officer of the German secretary of defense Georg Leber in 1972–75. Kujat passed the general staff training at the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr (Hamburg) in 1975–77 and served as the Staff Officer of Hans Apel in 1977. The same year he took over a department at the Luftwaffenunterstützungsgruppenkommando Nord at Münster and held several positions at the Department of Defense and the German Chancellery in Bonn. In 1985 Kujat became the commanding officer of II. Bataillon, Luftwaffenausbildungsregiment 1 in Appen near Pinneberg.

In 1988 Kujat passed the 72nd course of the NATO Defense College in Rome and was promoted an Oberst in October 1988. In 1989 he became a referent of the German Representative at the Chairman of the Military Committee in Brussels, Branch Chief (Nuclear and Global Arms Control) at the Federal Ministry of Defence in 1990 and Chief of Staff and Deputy German Military Representative to the NATO Military Committee and the Western European Union, Brussels, in 1992–95.

In 1996 Kujat became the Director of the IFOR Co-ordination Centre (ICC), Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Mons, Belgium and in October Deputy Director of the NATO International Military Staff in Brussels.

On 10 November 1998 Kujat, now a Generalleutnant, became the Director Policy and Advisory Staff to Rudolf Scharping, the German Minister of Defence, Berlin and on 1 June 2000 the Chief of Staff of the Federal Forces. In 2002 Kujat became the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee until his retirement on 17 June 2005.

Kujat currently serves as the Chair of the Advisory Council of the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium.

He is married and has three children.

Since July 2016, Kujat is member of the Supervisory Board of the 'Dialogue of Civilizations – DofC' institute which is managed by Natalia Viktorovna Yakunina and her husband Vladimir Yakunin, who, as a member of the Russian leadership´s inner circle and close confidant of Putin, is sanctioned by the US due to his involvement in the situation in Ukraine and placed on Australia’s DFAT consolidated list, described as a ‘close personal and financial associate of Vladimir Putin’.

Kujat is taking a pro-Russian view in German TV talk shows., being considered with misgiving by the German Federal Government.

• Federal Cross of Merit
• Badge of Honour of the Bundeswehr in Gold
• Medal of the Senate of Hamburg (flood of 1962)
• Commander of the Legion of Honour (France)
• NATO Meritorious Service Medal
• Legion of Merit (United States)
• Xirka Ġieħ ir-Repubblika (Malta)
• Commander’s Cross of Merit (Poland)
• Order of the Cross of the Eagle, 1 Class (Estonia)
• Medal “For strengthening of brotherhood of arms” (Russian Federation Ministry of Defence)
• Gold Medal of the Polish Armed Forces
• Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, Military Division
• Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (Belgium)

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