Wieker was born in
Delmenhorst and joined the Bundeswehr in 1974 for officer training in the army's artillery branch. He studied
geodesy at the
University of the Bundeswehr Munich and served as an officer in an armored artillery battalion in
Wildeshausen. He passed his General Staff training at the
Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr (
Hamburg) in 1989, followed by the US Army's Command and General Staff Officer Course at
Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas. Upon his return to Germany, he was assigned as the operations officer of an armored brigade in
Augustdorf. Following battalion command with an armored artillery battalion in 1993–96, Wieker was deployed as the operations and training officer for the German Army Contingent
IFOR in
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Upon his return, he was assigned to the
Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany) in Bonn as Military Assistant of the Federal Minister of Defence (1997–1999). In 1999, he led a ministerial task force on the future force structure of the German Army, before taking command of an armored infantry brigade in
Schwerin later that year. From May to December 2001, Wieker deployed to
Kosovo as Commander, Multinational Brigade South and Commander of the 3rd German
KFOR contingent. In 2002, he became Chief of Staff of the Army Office in
Cologne, followed by chief of staff in the Army Staff in 2004. In July 2008, Wieker took command of the
1st GE/NL Corps in
Münster. Since 9 October 2009 Wieker served as Chief of Staff of
ISAF in
Kabul,
Afghanistan. On 18 December 2009 German Minister of Defence
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg announced his intention to appoint Wieker chief of staff (Generalinspekteur) of the Bundeswehr. Two days after his promotion to four-star general on 19 January 2010, Wieker was formally appointed Chief of Staff of the Bundeswehr. Wieker retired on 18 April 2018. Volker Wieker is married to Sabine. They have two children. ==Awards and decorations==