Rolf Wagner became the German deputy director of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in October 2022.

Wagner joined the Marshall Center after retiring from the German Army as a brigadier general with 44 years of service. From 2018 until his retirement in 2022, Wagner served as the director of academic planning and policy at the NATO Defense College in Rome.

Wagner joined the German Army in 1978 as an artillery officer and earned a Master of Science after studying geodesy at the Munich Bundeswehr University.

Throughout his career, he served in a variety of staff, advisory, and command positions including special assistant to the political advisor of Commander of the Stabilization Force (SFOR) in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; deputy political advisor, Headquarters, SFOR; commander, 405th Armored Artillery Battalion; faculty adviser and tactics instructor at the National General Staff Course, Armed Forces Command and Staff College; director of the Army Operations Department, Armed Forces Command and Staff College; assistant branch chief with the Policy and Advisory Staff to the minister of defense in Bonn, Germany; and chief coordinator of the Policy Action Group, Headquarters, International Security Assistance Force.

Additional roles included director of staff, Reinforcement and Forwarding Operations Center in Ulm, Germany; assistant chief of staff for assessments, Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum; assistant chief of staff for operations. After his promotion to brigadier general, he served as deputy chief of staff for support, Headquarters, Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin, Poland.

Wagner attended the General Staff Officer Course at both the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC) in Hamburg and the Command and General Staff College (CGSC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He was subsequently selected as a fellow at the School for Advanced Military Studies, CGSC, where he earned a second Master of Military Art and Science. In 2017, he completed the German Capstone Course at the AFCSC and, in 2018, the General and Flag Officer Course at the NATO Defense College in Rome.