Werner Willikens (8 February 1893 inVienenburg – 25 October 1961 inWolfenbüttel) was a German politician with theNazi Party who largely served in agricultural administration. He was also a general officer in theSS. His phrase "working towards the Führer", which he used in a 1934 speech, has become a common description of Nazi bureaucracy.
Willikens enrolled in theGerman Imperial Army in 1912 and served inWorld War I as an artillery battery commander.[1]
An early Nazi Party member, he joined in 1925 (membership number 3,355) and served as theOrtsgruppenleiter (Local Group Leader) inGoslar.[2] He was a farmer by profession and organised the first training course for Nazi farmers in 1926.[1] Willikens was a member of theReichstag from electoral constituency 16 (South Hanover-Brunswick), elected as one of the first 12 Nazi deputies in1928 and retaining his seat until the fall of theThird Reich.[3]
In 1930, Willikens was appointed deputy chairman ofAgrarpolitischer Apparat, the Agricultural Affairs Bureau of the NSDAP headed byRichard Walther Darré, and he also chaired theAgrarian League.[4] His appointment to the national executive of theReichslandbund in 1930 was the first time that the highly conservative group - up to that point firmly linked to theGerman National People's Party - had given a position of influence to a Nazi.[5] AfterAdolf Hitler came to power, Willikens was appointed asState Secretary in the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture, Domains and Forests in July 1933, also under Darré. On 31 July 1933,Hermann Göring, the Prussianminister president, appointed him to the recently reconstitutedPrussian State Council.[6] When the Prussian ministry was merged with Darré'sReich Ministry of Food and Agriculture in January 1935, Willikens continued to serve as a State Secretary in the united Reich Ministry.[7] He became a member of theSS in May 1933 (member number 56,180) and eventually reached the rank of SS-Gruppenführer on 30 January 1938.[8]
Ian Kershaw has argued that a speech made by Willikens in 1934, in particular his use of the phrase "working towards the Führer", was important in laying the framework forthe Holocaust. Kershaw argued that the speech recognised the aloofness of Hitler'scharismatic leadership and thus encouraged officials to second-guess Hitler's wishes and act accordingly. Kershaw suggests thatAdolf Eichmann's rise from minor functionary to a leading role in theSS was built on this principle of "working towards the Führer".[9] Indeed, such was Kershaw's use of Willikens' phrase that his tribute book even bore it as a title.[10] The speech itself was made inBerlin on 21 February 1934 to representatives of the regional agriculture ministries.[11]
After the fall of the Nazi regime, Willikens underwentdenazification proceedings, was imprisoned, released and returned to his farm until his death in 1961.
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