MAJOR GENERAL RUPRECHT VON BUTLER was born on April 27, 1967, in
Coburg, Germany. He started his military service in 1986. In the same year, he
began reserve officer training with the 12th Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion
in Ebern, while studying at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. In 1989, Major
General von Butler was re-assigned as platoon leader at the 12th Armoured
Reconnaissance Battalion. In 1991, he went on to study industrial engineering
at the University of the German Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg.
In 1995, he was assigned as information technology officer at the 13th Armoured
Reconnaissance Battalion in Gotha. Following this assignment, he served as
the Company Commander of the 2nd Company, 14th Armoured
Reconnaissance Battalion in Beelitz from 1995 until 1997. From 1997 to 1999,
Major General von Butler was appointed military assistant to the Commanding
General of the 4th Corps in Potsdam. In 1999, he completed his Command and
General Staff Training (42nd Army General Staff Course) at the Bundeswehr
Command and Staff College, Hamburg, and was assigned as ACOS G3 (Plans, Operations and Training) staff officer
at the 1st Air Mechanized Brigade in Fritzlar. In 2002, he served there as Chief of Staff. From 2002 to 2003, Major
General von Butler served as ACOS J3 (Plans and Operations) at the Kabul International Brigade as part of NATO’s
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. He then attended the British General Staff Officers’
Training at the Joint Services Command and Staff College at Watchfield, United Kingdom, from 2003 to 2004. His
next assignments included personnel manager at the Bundeswehr Personnel Office in Cologne (2004–2007) and
Commander of the 13th Reconnaissance Battalion in Gotha (2007–2009), before he re-deployed to Afghanistan as
Chief of Staff for the Provincial Reconstruction Team Feyzabad as part of the ISAF mission.
From 2009 to 2011, Major General von Butler was the Assistant Chief of Branch, Policy Planning Staff, at the office
of the German Minister of Defence. He was subsequently assigned as the Chief of Afghanistan Operations Control
Group at the Bundeswehr Joint Forces Operations Command in Potsdam, where he served until 2013. In the same
year, he was re-assigned to the Federal Ministry of Defence for a year, where he oversaw the individual personnel
management and development of officers in pay grade B3 and above.
In 2014, he was appointed Commander of the 37th Armoured Infantry Brigade in Frankenberg, Saxony, until his
assignment as Chief of the J3/J5 Division (Exercises and Planning) at the Bundeswehr Joint Forces Operations
Command in Potsdam. Major General von Butler then took over as Chief of Division I, Directorate-General for Forces
Policy at the Federal Ministry of Defence, being responsible for forces readiness, space operations and joint forces
planning. In 2021, he was assigned as Commander of the 10th Armoured Division in Veitshöchheim.
Major General Ruprecht von Butler became the Joint Warfare Centre’s 11th Commander on September 11, 2024.
He is married and has five children