Paul Wegener | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Gauleiter,Gau Weser-Ems | |
| In office 18 May 1942 – 8 May 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Carl Röver |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Reichsstatthalter, Free State of Oldenburg | |
| In office 18 May 1942 – 8 May 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Carl Röver |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Reichsstatthalter,Bremen | |
| In office 18 May 1942 – 8 May 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Carl Röver |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Leader of Task Force "Wegener," Reichskommissariat Norwegen | |
| In office 1 October 1940 – 15 May 1942 | |
| Preceded by | Position created |
| Succeeded by | Hans-Hendrik Neumann [de] |
| DeputyGauleiter ofGau Kurmark | |
| In office 7 August 1936 – 15 May 1942 | |
| Preceded by | Werner Schmuck [de] |
| Succeeded by | Victor von Podbielski [de] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1908-10-01)1 October 1908 |
| Died | 5 May 1993(1993-05-05) (aged 84) |
| Political party | Nazi Party |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
| Branch/service | |
| Years of service |
|
| Rank | Gefreiter SS-Obergruppenführer |
| Unit | Artillery Regiment 6, 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler |
| Battles/wars | German invasion of Greece |
| Awards | Iron Cross, 2nd class |
Paul Wegener (1 October 1908 – 5 May 1993) was a GermanNazi Party official and politician who served as theGauleiter ofGau Weser-Ems as well as theReichsstatthalter of bothBremen and theFree State of Oldenburg.
Wegener was born inVarel, the son of aphysician. He attendedVolksschule andRealschule in Varel before graduating from theBallenstedtgymnasium in 1926. He then trained in agriculture at the Colonial Training School inWitzenhausen, receiving certification in colonial administration in 1928. He served an apprenticeship in an import/export business inBremen for two years and then was employed until 1931 as a buyer forDaimler Benz, also in Bremen.[1]
Wegener joined the Nazi Party on 1 August 1930 (membership number 286,225) and theSturmabteilung (SA) on 1 February 1931. He became theOrtsgruppenleiter for the Ortsgruppe (Local Group) in Varel on 10 April 1931, and was at the time the youngest person holding such a post. From the autumn of 1931 to 1 January 1932 he served as theadjutant to a battalion leader ofStandarte 19 in Varel. His next assignments through October 1933 were as the SA-Standartenführer of Standarte 19 and then Standarte 75 in Bremen. He was promoted toKreisleiter (District Leader) for Bremen on 11 March 1933, also serving as the propaganda leader there. He also became a Bremen City Councilor and a member of theBremen State Parliament in that year. On 12 November 1933, Wegener was elected to theReichstag for electoral constituency 14,Weser-Ems. Wegener would remain aReichstag Deputy until the end of the Nazi regime.[2]
On 11 July 1934, Wegener made an important career move by becoming the adjutant toReichsleiterMartin Bormann, then the Chief of Staff in the office of theDeputy Führer. Wegener moved to the Party central headquarters at theBrown House inMunich where his efficiency and hard work impressed Bormann. He now began a rapid rise as Bormann’s “golden boy.”Wilhelm Kube was removed asGauleiter ofKurmark after penning an anonymous attack on the wife of Supreme Party Court ChairmanWalter Buch, and he was replaced byEmil Stürtz with Wegener appointed as DeputyGauleiter on 7 August 1936.[3]
In an assessment report dated 20 August 1936, Bormann wrote of Wegener:
“reliable … hard working, absolutely loyal, pronounced leadership type, who is able to win over people … has a good knowledge of the party’s organization and internal conditions … Possesses all prerequisites for high party office.”[4]
At the same time, Wegener was made a Prussian Provincial Councilor forBrandenburg andPosen-West Prussia. In March 1937, he performed military service with the rank ofGefreiter in theLuftwaffe reserves. He was promoted to SA-Brigadeführer on 9 November 1937. On 30 January 1938, he was awarded theGolden Party Badge. At the 10 April 1938Reichstag election, he was reelected as a deputy from constituency 4,Potsdam I.[5]
Wegener switched from the SA to theSchutzstaffel (SS) on 20 April 1940, entering with the rank of SS-Brigadeführer and subsequently obtaining the ranks of SS-Gruppenführer on 9 November 1942 and SS-Obergruppenführer on 1 August 1944.[6] As a member of theWaffen SS, Wegener saw active service with Artillery Regiment 6 of the1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler during theGerman invasion of Greece in April 1941, and was awarded theIron Cross, 2nd class.[7]
On 20 April 1940Josef Terboven, newly appointed asReichskommissar for the occupied Norwegian territories, selected Wegener to serve as his deputy.[8] On 15 July 1940, he was named Regional Commissioner for Northern Norway, based inTrondheim, remaining there through September. From the start, Wegener was hostile to the notion thatVidkun Quisling should take a leading role in the new government, instead favouring the idea that the Nazis should establish their own administrative system inNorway.[9] Eventually when it was decided to include Quisling, Wegener took up his next assignment on 1 October as the leader of a special task force acting as political advisor andliaison officer to the Norwegian administration. Named theEinsatzstab Wegener, it placed pro-Wegener men in each branch of theNasjonal Samling, both to improve its organisation and to ensure complicity with the demands of the governing Nazis.[10] Wegener left Norway in May 1942 for his next assignment, andHans-Hendrik Neumann [de] took over as Terboven's number two.[11]
Carl Röver,Gauleiter ofGau Weser-Ems, died on 15 May 1942 after a stroke, and on 18 May Wegener was named to succeed him. Wegener also replaced Röver asReichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) of the states ofBremen andOldenburg. He thus united under his control the highest party and governmental offices within his jurisdiction. On 16 November 1942, he was appointedReich Defense Commissioner for his Gau. In this capacity, he had jurisdiction overcivil defense and evacuation measures, as well as control over the war economy, includingrationing and suppression ofblack market activities. He served in these positions through the end of the war in Europe.[12]
Soon after his appointment, Wegener produced an internal document, the 267 page "Wegener Memorandum," in which it was said that the Nazi Party should be purged of much of its vast membership and instead be reorganised as an elite group to provide leadership for future generations of Germany. To this end, Wegener proposed a reorganisation of theHitler Youth to bring it under the control of the Party bureaucracy rather than the State. This new Hitler Youth would provide all the future membership of the Nazi Party, with most existing party members absorbed into the SA, which was to be reconstituted as a veterans’ organization.[13] His plan also called for a strengthening of the role of theNazi Party Chancellery and this occurred in the following months as Wegener's old mentor Bormann was given greater power at the expense of the otherReichsleiters of the Party and theReichsministers of the cabinet.[14]
Wegener was proposed by Bormann as a possible replacement forBaldur von Schirach asGauleiter ofVienna in 1943 and 1944 but ultimately was not appointed. However, in August 1944, shortly afterJoseph Goebbels was madePlenipotentiary for Total War, Wegener was made his administrative assistant with the title of "Head of the Executive Committee for the Organization of Total War." This made him one of only two permanent staff members appointed at the national level (the other beingWerner Naumann as head of planning activities).[15] Wegener also was placed on the staff of theReichsführer-SS at this time. In September 1944, he became the leader of the newly createdVolkssturm units in his Gau.[12]
On 23 April 1945, Wegener was given the newly created post of Supreme Reich Civil Defense Commissioner in the Northern Theater, appointed on the recommendation ofGroßadmiralKarl Dönitz. By this time Bremen was already under siege by British army forces, but Wegener broadcast appeals to the populace to continue fighting to the last man, and refused to consider surrender negotiations. Consequently, the British attacked with artillery andRAF bombers. When the city finally surrendered on 27 April, some 760 soldiers and civilians were estimated to have been killed, and it was discovered that Wegener had fled the city towardFlensburg the previous day. On 5 May 1945, Dönitz, who had succeededAdolf Hitler ashead of state, appointed Wegener to his government as Chief of the Civilian Cabinet and Chief of the Presidential Chancellery with the rank ofState Secretary. Wegener was arrested on 23 May 1945 with the rest of theFlensburg government.[16]
Interned atCamp Ashcan and later atFallingbostel, Wegener underwentdenazification proceedings inBielefeld for his leadership role in the Nazi Party and the SS. On 28 November 1949 he was categorized as a “Lesser Offender” and was sentenced to 6 years and 6 months imprisonment with credit fortime served. Further charged in theOldenburg district court in connection with civilian deaths, he was found guilty in June 1950 but received no additional prison time. He was incarcerated atEsterwegen prison and was released in May 1951 due to a plea for clemency submitted byKarl Arnold, theMinister-President ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia. He then was employed inSinzheim and thenWächtersbach as a salesman and contract officer at a timber trading company. In October 1952 Wegener was ordered to stand trial again formanslaughter in the deaths of civilians in the spring of 1945. However, he was acquitted of these charges on 18 June 1953.[17] According toBritish secret service files Wegener was also involved from 1951 to 1953 with an undergroundNeo-Nazi group organised by Werner Naumann and known as theNaumann Circle, which was involved in attempts to infiltrate theFree Democratic Party.[7]
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| People | |
