General Ramms was born in Datteln, Westphalia on 21st September 1948. He joined the Bundeswehr on 1st October 1968 as an officer candidate and temporary career volunteer for three years. 1968 to 1971, he had his officer education and training at Aachen and Hannover. In 1971, he started academic studies in Darmstadt and graduated as a Master of Mechanical Engineering (Diplomingenieur) in 1975. From 1975 to 1978, General Ramms was appointed Commander of Maintenance Company 70 in Stade. From there he continued his military service as the G4 maintenance officer, HQs 3rd Armoured Division in Buxtehude until 1980. He attended the General Staff Course at the German Command and Staff Academy in Hamburg for the following two years. From 1982 to 1984, General Ramms served in G3 Operations, 6th Armoured Infantry Division in Neumünster. This was followed by two years as Chief of Staff and G3 in Germany’s Home Defence Brigade 51 in Eutin. From 1986 to 1988, he was Assistant Branch Head of the Arms Control and Disarmament Branch in the Federal Ministry of Defence, Armed Forces Staff III 5. He was Commanding Officer of Maintenance Battalion 120 in Rheine from 1988 to 1990. In 1990, General Ramms returned to the German Ministry of Defence as the Assistant Chief of Branch in Army Staff I 7. Subsequently he was appointed as Assistant Chief of Branch in the office of the State Secretary for Procurement. In this position, he was responsible for both Army and Air Force Armament and Logistics. For the years 1992 to 1994 General Ramms worked in the office of the State Secretary for Procurement as Section Chief of the Armament Section. In 1994, he was appointed as Head of the Central Branch of the Army Staff, German Ministry of Defence. From there, in 1996, General Ramms took command of Logistics Brigade 1 in Lingen/Ems, for a period of two and a half years. 1998 saw General Ramms assume the position Division Head Armed Forces Staff V, Logistics, Infrastructure and Environmental Protection. This was followed by his appointment as Director of Armed Forces Staff, Ministry of Defence, commencing September 2000 from where he was assigned as Commander to the Multinational Corps Northeast Stettin in Poland in February 2004. During his time as Commanding General, the Multinational Corps Northeast was certified as Combat Ready HQ of lower readiness, got the Baltic States, Czech Republic and Slovakia as new members into the Headquarters. General Ramms took up his post as Commander Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum on 26th January 2007. His main effort was the ISAF – Mission as its operational Commander and planning for the defence of Poland and the Baltic States. He finished his duty in the Federal Armed Forces on 30th September 2010.

He is married to Brigitte for 53 years. They have two adult children and four grandsons.