Chief of the Royal Danish Army


The Chief of the Army Command, is the top most authority in the Royal Danish Army. It can trace its history back to the creation of the General Staff, in 1808. The current chief of the army, Major general Hans-Christian Mathiesen, has been temporarily suspended following claims of nepotism. On 31 January 2019, the Judge Advocate Corps announced that they decided to charge Mathiesen for misuse of services and gross dereliction of duty.

History

The General Staff was established, during the English Wars on 20 January 1808, as the General Adjutant and General Quartermaster Staff. Following the dismissal of, the staff was split into two separate staffs. In 1856, the General Staff's Topographical Department was subjugated to the Ministry of Finance. However, all communication still had to go through the Chief of the General Staff. This created unnecessary bureaucracy, leading to the removal of the position of the Chief of the General Staff.
With the outbreak of the Second Schleswig War, command of the army was given to the Supreme General. Following the end of the war, the position of Chief of the General Staff, was re-established. In 1922, the General Staff was changed to the General Command. With the creation of the Defence Staff and Chief of Defence, the General Command was replaced by the Army Command. After the Army Command was subjugated to the Defence Command in 1976, the Army Command changed name to the Army Staff. In 1982, the title of Chief of the Army was changed to become Inspector of the Army. Following the 1988 Defence Commission, it was decided that the Army Staff and the positions of Inspector would be removed and then create the Army Operational Command. Following the Danish Defence Agreement 2013–17, the Army Operational Command was disbanded and reorganised into the Army Staff. As part of the Danish Defence Agreement 2018–23, the Danish name was changed Army Command.

List of chiefs

Chief of the General Staff (1808–1922)

! colspan=7| Position of Chief of the General staff abolished

Chief of the General Command (1922–1950)

Chief of the Army Command (1950–1970)

Chief of the Army Staff (1970–1990)

! colspan=7| Chief of the Army
! colspan=7| Inspector of the Army

Chief of the Army Operational Command (1991–2014)

Chief of the Army Staff (2014–2018)

Chief of the Army Command (2019–present)