Oberst is a German word. Spelled with a capital O, "Oberst" is a noun and defines the military rank of colonel or group captain. Spelled with a lower case o, or "oberst", it is an adjective, meaning "superior, top, topmost, uppermost, highest, chief, head, first, principal, or supreme". Both usages derive from the superlative of ober(e), "the upper" or "the uppermost".[citation needed]
As a family name, Oberst is common in the southwest of Germany, in the area known as the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). The name is also concentrated in the north-central cantons of Switzerland (Aargau & Zürich). Here the Swiss version of Oberst is spelled Obrist. The name first appeared in the thirteenth century in the German-Swiss border area, and early forms were Zoberist and Oberist. The name most likely refers to the "tribe that lives the highest on the mountain" or "the family that lives the highest in the village".[citation needed]
Translated as "superior" or "supreme", the rank of Oberst can trace its origins to the Middle Ages where the term most likely described the senior knight on a battlefield or the senior captain in a regiment. With the emergence of professional armies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an Oberst became the commander of regiment or battalion-sized formations.[citation needed]
The Danish rank of oberst is based around the German term.[2] Ranked OF-5 within NATO and having the paygrade of M402,[3] it is used in the Royal Danish Army and the Royal Danish Air Force.
In the Swiss Army, the Oberst ranks above the lieutenant colonel ("Oberstleutnant") and below the brigadier general ("Brigadier"). In peacetime, it is the fourth highest officer rank.
The Oberst is the commander of a Kommando (Gren Kdo, Flpl Kdo), the army engineer staff, or an antiaircraft (Flab) cluster. These formations are comparable to regiments. As a staff officer, the Oberst performs various specialized functions in the staffs of the Army, Air Force, and territorial regions. In the brigades, the Oberst (in the general staff - "Oberst i Gst") performs the role of deputy commander and/or chief of staff. In the military justice system, the presidents of the military courts hold the rank of Oberst.
Military Committee Land Standardization Board (13 January 2021). STANAG 2116 (7th ed.). NATO Standardization Agency.
Ministry of Defence (9 January 2017). "Historik". forpers.dk (in Danish). Forsvarsministeriets Personalestyrelse. Archived from the original on 22 February 2019. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
Petersen, Karsten Skjold (2014). Kongens klæder - Hærens uniformer og udrustning i Danmark-Norge (in Danish) (1st ed.). Slovenia: Historika. ISBN9788793229006.