Otto Wagener
Wagener signing the surrender document inRhodes, 8 May 1945
SA-Stabschef
In office 1 October 1929 – 31 December 1930
Leader	Franz Pfeffer von Salomon
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Ernst Röhm
Reichskommissar for the Economy
In office 24 April 1933 – 30 June 1933
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Wilhelm Keppler
Military Governor Italian Dodecanese Islands
In office 20 July 1944 – 8 May 1945
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Additional positions
1933–1938	Reichstag Deputy
Personal details
Born	Otto Wilhelm Heinrich Wagener (1888-04-29)29 April 1888 Durlach,Grand Duchy of Baden,German Empire
Died	9 August 1971(1971-08-09) (aged 83) Chieming,Bavaria,West Germany
Nationality	German
Political party	Nazi Party
Education	Ph.D. (honorary}
Alma mater	University of Würzburg
Civilian awards	Nuremberg Party Day Badge
Military service
Allegiance	German Empire  Nazi Germany
Branch/service	Imperial German Army Freikorps German Army
Years of service	1906–1920 1940–1945
Rank	Hauptmann Generalmajor
Commands	Military Governor of theItalian Dodecanese
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Military awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Otto Wilhelm Heinrich Wagener (29 April 1888 – 9 August 1971) was a German professional military officer andNazi Party official. He was a member of the Naziparamilitary unit, theSturmabteilung, rising to become its effective leader as the first SA-Stabschef from 1929 to 1930. At the start of theNazi regime, he served asAdolf Hitler's chief economic advisor. He survived theRöhm purge of SA leaders in 1934 and returned to military service in theSecond World War, becoming aGeneralmajor and military governor of theItalian Dodecanese islands. Following the war, he wasinterned, put on trial in Italy and sentenced to prison forwar crimes.

A factory owner's son, Wagener was born inDurlach, was educated in the localGymnasium and earned hisAbitur in July 1906. He then entered theImperial German Army as aFahnenjunker (officer cadet) with the 111th (3rd Baden) Infantry Regiment. He was commissioned as aLeutnant in November 1907 and served as a battalionadjutant. He attended thePrussian Staff College between October 1913 and July 1914. On the outbreak of theFirst World War, he was deployed to thefront with Reserve Infantry Regiment 55. He was promoted toOberleutnant (November 1914) andHauptmann (December 1915) serving as a brigade adjutant, a company commander and a battalion commander in Reserve Infantry Regiment 110. Beginning in July 1916, Wagener was assigned to thegeneral staff of Army Group von Stein and of the5th Army. He was awarded theIron Cross, 1st and 2nd class but, in May 1918, he was dismissed from the army following a militarycourt of honor.^[1]

After the war, Wagener became involved in aFreikorps unit operating on the Polish border. He also served inCourland as the chief of the general staff of the German Legion, a component of theFreikorps in the Baltic. He briefly assumed leadership of the Legion between November and December 1919 after its leader,Paul Siewert [de], waskilled in action. After returning to Germany, he began to studyeconomics but became involved with theKapp Putsch and was briefly arrested. He was discharged from theFreikorps at the end of March 1920. In 1920 and 1921, he was the state leader inBaden of theOrganization Escherich, anantisemiticparamilitary group. He worked as the assistant manager, then as the director and a board member at his father's sewing machine factory inKarlsruhe between 1920 and 1924. He continued his education, and was awarded anhonorary doctorate from theUniversity of Würzburg in 1924. He also lectured on economics in business courses at that university and at theTechnische Hochschule Karlsruhe (today, theKarlsruhe Institute of Technology). Between 1924 and 1925, he traveled abroad lecturing on economic policy. Returning to Germany, he became the part-owner of aplywood andwood veneer company inVillingen for the next four years.^[2]

Wagener briefly was a member of theSturmabteilung (SA) in 1923 before it was banned afterAdolf Hitler's failedBeer Hall Putsch. He began to establish contacts with theNazi Party in July 1929. He attended the Fourth Party Congress at aNuremberg Rally in August, and was later awarded theNuremberg Party Day Badge. On 1 October 1929, Wagener formally was accepted into the Party (membership number 159,203) and rejoined the SA, having been recruited by his oldFreikorps comradeFranz Pfeffer von Salomon, then theSupreme SA Leader.^[3] Upon entering the SA, Wagener was appointed as the first SA-Stabschef. Pfeffer was seeking to build up a central staff structure and, as a former general staff officer, Wagener had the right credentials.^[4] Wagener also was able to put his business acumen and contacts to good use for the SA and for himself. He became a limited partner in a cigarette company and benefited financially from their joint business venture.^[5]

Wagener had used his business contacts to persuade a cigarette firm to produce"Sturm" cigarettes for SA men – a "sponsorship" deal benefiting both the firm and SA coffers. Stormtroopers were strongly encouraged to smoke only these cigarettes. A cut from the profit went to the SA …^[3]

When Pfeffer resigned on 29 August 1930 in the wake of theStennes Revolt, Wagener assumed effective operational command of the SA for four months through 31 December 1930, until the assumption of command byErnst Röhm as the new SA-Stabschef in early January 1931.^{[Note 1]} In October 1930, Wagener expressed the expectation that the SA would form the manpower pool for the future national army following the envisioned Nazi takeover of the government. His views reflected the desire of the SA leadership for a high degree of autonomy from the political leadership that would continue to cause friction between the two and which would culminate in theNight of the Long Knives.^[3]

Despite his resignation as SA-Stabschef, Wagener's career continued to advance as he shifted his focus to the realm of economic policy. A member of the Party'sReichsleitung (national leadership) since October 1929, he was appointed the leader of its Economic Policy Department on 1 January 1931. Later that year, he was named editor of a Nazi economic journal,Wirtschaftpolitischen Briefe (Economic Policy Letters). On 18 December 1931, he was among the first group of officers to be promoted to the new rank of SA-Gruppenführer, and he joined Hitler's personal staff as his economic advisor on 4 September 1932.^[6]

By late 1930 or early 1931, Wagener already had made his mark on Nazi economic policy:

Wagener formulated an original set of economic policies based oncorporatist and leadership principles in confidential talks with Hitler and succeeded in recruiting many middle echelon industrial managers and owners of small factories for the NSDAP … [A confidential draft by Wagener] embraced the ideal of the corporatist "company union" (Werksgemeinschaft) and described the employer as the"Führer" within his factory. All disputes over wages and working conditions would be settled within the "family" of the individual company in the National Socialist state of the future. Trade unions would be responsible merely for vocational training.^[7]

After theNazi seizure of power on 30 January 1933, Wagener was appointed to a number of new economic portfolios. On 1 April, he was elevated to the leadership of the Economic Policy Main Office in the national Party leadership and was named the specialist for economic policy in the Party's government liaison staff. On 15 April, he was made aRegierungskommissar (government commissioner) for business management in theReichsverband der Deutschen Industrie [de] (Association of German Industry, RDI). On 24 April, Hitler appointed himReichskommissar for the Economy. Finally, on 1 May, he was madeReichskommissar for the RDI and for all other sectors of the economy except agriculture.^[8]

Wagener became embroiled in disputes with leaders of industry during the process ofGleichschaltung (coordination), even forcibly occupying the RDI headquarters with the intention of shutting it down. Such heavy-handed tactics led to Wagener being replaced asReichskommissar for the Economy byWilhelm Keppler at the end of June 1933. Keppler was a long-term intermediary between the Party and leading industrialists who, unlike Wagener, enjoyed the trust of both sides.^[9] Further internal conflicts led to legal proceedings against Wagener in a case brought before theUSCHLA (Supreme Party Court) and, on 13 July 1933, he was relieved of all his offices. However, at theNovember parliamentary election, Wagener was elected a member of theReichstag from electoral constituency 21 (Koblenz-Trier) and was reelected at theMarch 1936 election.^[10]

Following the Night of the Long Knives at the end of June 1934, when Röhm and much of the SA hierarchy was murdered, Wagener was arrested and detained for a short time, narrowly avoiding execution. He then went into a self-imposed isolation, working in agriculture nearWiesenbad in theOre Mountains region ofSaxony. After a few years, he managed to be successfullyrehabilitated; he was reinstated in the SA at his former rank of SA-Gruppenführer on 1 April 1937, and was assigned to the staff at the SA Supreme Leadership.^[11]

During theSecond World War, Wagener rejoined the military on 1 April 1940 with his former rank ofHauptmann, serving as anorderly officer at the6th Army headquarters. In May, he was transferred to the general staff in theArmy High Command and, in August, he was assigned as the general staff officer of the 332nd Infantry Regiment. He subsequently was promoted toMajor (March 1941) andOberstleutnant (June 1942). During the course of the war, he was awarded theClasp to the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class. In January 1943, promoted toOberst, he was named commander of Security Regiment 177 and, from 12 February 1944 to 6 May 1944, he advanced to become the commander of aSecurity Division.^[12]

Briefly placed into theFührerreserve, Wagener was reassigned on 20 July 1944 as theCommandant of the EasternAegean and the Military Governor of theItalian Dodecanese Islands, headquartered inRhodes, and was promoted toGeneralmajor on 1 December. Under his command, some 1,673 men, women and children – almost the entireJewish population of Rhodes – were deported toAuschwitz where nearly all weremurdered.^[13] Wagener also establishedinternment camps and aconcentration camp atKallithea where Italianprisoners of war were incarcerated. He surrendered his command to British authorities on 8 May 1945, the same day asGermany's unconditional surrender.^[14]

Wagener was kept first in British custody atIsland Farm inBridgend, Wales and was transferred to the custody of Italian authorities on 1 July 1947. He was put on trial by Italy (Rome Territorial Military Tribunal) and was defended by thefascist lawyerArconovaldo Bonaccorsi. On 16 October 1948, he was convicted and sentenced to fifteen years in prison forwar crimes, including the execution of Italian prisoners of war and hostages. It was reported that over 1,300 death warrants were carried out in April and May 1945 alone. Due to the intercession ofGerman ChancellorKonrad Adenauer and AustrianBishopAlois Hudal, his sentence was commuted and he was released from prison on 4 June 1951.^[14]

Returning to Germany, Wagener became the chairman of theSeeckt Society and was involved withnationalist political circles inBavaria.^[14] A committed Nazi, he was totally entranced by Hitler and remained captivated by him. Wagener described him as a "rare personality" and viewed him with a mixture of sycophantic admiration and awestruck fear.^[15] In 1946, while being held by the British, Wagener wrote his memoirs about Hitler and the Nazi Party's early history, entitledHitler aus nächster Nähe. Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929−1932 (Hitler up Close. Notes from a Confidant 1929-1932). It was posthumously published in 1978, and was edited and translated into English in 1985 asHitler: Memoirs of a Confidant.^[16] In a review of the book,The New York Times reviewerHerbert Mitgang described it as a "worshipful memoir of Hitler's ascendency", noted that it was "obviously self-serving" and that Wagener "voices no regrets except about his own stumbling career up the Nazi ladder of success".^[17]

• Das Wirtschaftsprogramm der NSDAP (1932)
• Hitler aus nächster Nähe. Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929−1932 (1978)
• Hitler: Memoirs of a Confidant. (Henry Ashby Turner, Jr, ed.) Yale University Press (1985)

• 1914Iron Cross 2nd Class^[16]
• 1914Iron Cross 1st Class^[16]
• Military Karl-Friedrich Merit Order^[16]
• 1929Nuremberg Party Day Badge, c.1929^[18]
• The Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 with Swords,^[18]
• Honour Chevron of the Old Guard, 1934^[18]
• 1939Clasp to the Iron Cross 2nd Class^[16]
• 1939Clasp to the Iron Cross 1st Class^[16]
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, 5 May 1945^{[19][Note 2]}

• Campbell, Bruce (1998).The SA Generals and the Rise of Nazism. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.ISBN 978-0-813-12047-8.
• Evans, Richard J. (2004).The Coming of the Third Reich. Penguin.ISBN 1-59420-004-1.
• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986].Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas.ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
• Information about Otto Wagener in the Reichstag database
• Kershaw, Ian (1999).Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.ISBN 0-393-04671-0.
• Klee, Ernst (2007).Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Frankfurt-am-Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag. p. 648ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8
• Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreas (2015).Leaders of the Storm Troops. Vol. 1. Solihull, England: Helion & Company.ISBN 978-1-909-98287-1.
• Patch, William L. (1985).The Christian Trade Unions in the Weimar Republic, 1918-1933: The Failure of Corporate Pluralism (illustrated ed.). Yale University Press.ISBN 0-300-03328-1.
• Scherzer, Veit (2007).Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag.ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
• Siemens, Daniel (2017).Stormtroopers: A New History of Hitler's Brownshirts. New Haven: Yale University Press.ISBN 978-0-300-19681-8.

• Literature by and about Otto Wagener in theGerman National Library catalogue
• Review of memoirs atThe New York Times
• Wagerer, Otto in theFiles of the Reich Chancellery, Weimar Republic

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