 | This articlemay rely excessively on sourcestoo closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from beingverifiable andneutral. Please helpimprove it by replacing them with more appropriatecitations toreliable, independent sources.(June 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Wilhelm Adam | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Born | (1893-03-28)28 March 1893 Eichen,Hesse-Nassau,Kingdom of Prussia,German Empire |
| Died | 24 November 1978(1978-11-24) (aged 85) Dresden,East Germany |
| Allegiance |  German Empire Nazi GermanyNKFD East Germany |
| Service | Army (Wehrmacht) Kasernierte Volkspolizei National People's Army (NVA) |
| Years of service | 1913–1958 |
| Rank | Oberst (Wehrmacht) Generalmajor (NVA) |
| Unit | XXIII Army Corps |
| Known for | Member of theGerman People's Party from 1926 until 1929 |
| Battles / wars | World War I |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross |
| Other work | National Committee for a Free Germany |
Wilhelm Adam (28 March 1893 – 24 November 1978) was an officer in theWehrmacht ofNazi Germany duringWorld War II. Following the German surrender after theBattle of Stalingrad, he became a member of theNational Committee for a Free Germany. Adam later served in theNational People's Army ofEast Germany.
Born in 1893, Adam attended from 1908 to 1913 the teacher training college inSchlüchtern. From October 1913 to January 1919 Adam served in theImperial German Army. He saw action duringWorld War I and reached the rank of Lieutenant. After the war, Adam joined theNazi Party and participated in theBeer Hall Putsch. In the 1930s, he joined theStahlhelm, and later theSturmabteilung.[1] Adam and his wife had two children, a daughter and a son. His son was killed in France in World War II on 16 May 1940.[1]
In 1939 Adam was appointed an adjutant in the XXIII Army Corps, under the Army CommandersWalther von Reichenau and later in 1941,Friedrich Paulus. On 17 December 1942, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.[1]: 144 On 31 January 1943, now a colonel, Adam was captured by the Soviet Army after the surrender atStalingrad, where he was interrogated byNikolay Dyatlenko.[2] While aprisoner of war, he went to the Central Anti-Fascist School atKrasnogorsk and became a member of theNational Committee for a Free Germany. He was also sentenced to deathin absentia by a Nazi German court.
Concerning the war, Adam states, "That the Second World War started by Hitler's Germany was a crime not only against the peoples attacked by us, but also against the German nation, did not occur to us. And because of this, we did not recognize the deeper reasons for the defeat on the Volga, superiority of the socialist state and social system, whose sharp sword was the Soviet army."[1]: 153
In 1948, Adam returned to Germany, specifically to what had become theSoviet occupation zone in Germany. He was among the co-founders of theNational Democratic Party of Germany, an East German political party that acted as an organization for former members of the Nazi Party and the Wehrmacht. From 1948 to 1949 he worked as a consultant for theSaxony state government. From 1950 to 1952 he was Saxony's finance minister and from 1949 to 1963 a member ofEast Germany'sVolkskammer.
In 1952, Adam became acolonel in theKasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP) ("Barracked People's Police"), the forerunner of the East GermanNational People's Army. From 1953 to 1956 he was commander of the Officers' College of the KVP – and later became the National People's Army. In 1958, Adam was sent into retirement. He kept on working, though, for the Working Group of Former Officers. In 1968 he was decorated with theBanner of Labor, and on the occasion of the twenty-eighth anniversary of East Germany's founding on 7 October 1977, he was appointedmajor general, retired in the East German Army.
Adam died on 24 November 1978 in Dresden.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
Media from Commons
