The German Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Bundeswehr, the armed forces of Germany. The German Air Force was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War as the aerial warfare branch of the armed forces of West Germany. After the reunification of West and East Germany in 1990, it integrated parts of the air force of the former German Democratic Republic, which itself had been founded in 1956 as part of the National People's Army. There is no organizational continuity between the current German Air Force and the former Luftwaffe of the Wehrmacht founded in 1935, which was completely disbanded in 1945/46 after World War II. The term Luftwaffe that is used for both the historic and the current German air force is the German-language generic designation of any air force.
This Canadair CL-13 is preserved at the Military History Museum in Berlin.
An Alpha Jet A in 1996
One of 212 Panavia Tornado IDSs delivered to the Luftwaffe
A Luftwaffe MiG-29
The Bundeswehr is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Bundeswehr is divided into a military part and a civil part, the military part consisting of the German Army, the German Navy, the German Air Force, the Joint Support Service, the Joint Medical Service, and the Cyber and Information Domain Service.
Generals Adolf Heusinger and Hans Speidel being sworn into the newly founded Bundeswehr by Theodor Blank on 12 November 1955
A Großer Zapfenstreich at the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn in 2002
The Federal Republic of Germany joined NATO in 1955.
Leopard 2 tanks
