Achim von Willisen
Joachim Wilhelm Freiherr von Willisen , usually called Achim Freiherr von Willisen (born January 31, 1900 in Gut Bärenwalde, West Prussia , † April 5, 1983 in Munich ) was a German forest scientist, reserve officer and confidant of the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 .
Life
family
He was the son of the Prussian Rittmeister Maximilian Freiherr von Willisen (1861–1919) and his wife Olga von Lindern (1874–1962). Joachim von Willisen married Johanna von Johnston (1907-1935) for the first time on May 28, 1931, and Carola Freiin Rüdt von Collenberg (1904-1985) for the second time on October 3, 1958 . From the first marriage there is a son and a daughter.
Before World War II
Willisen studied forest science after completing his school career and graduated in 1923. At the end of the First World War he served as a soldier in the German army . From 1925 he joined the Prussian civil service as a forest assessor. After the “ seizure of power ” by the National Socialists , he was hostile to the Nazi regime , also because his relative Herbert von Bose was the victim of the Röhm putsch . Then he headed a forestry office in the Uckermark. From the beginning of April 1939, Willisen headed the timber industry as head forester in the Reich Ministry of Economics .
In World War II
After the outbreak of World War II, Willisen was drafted into the Wehrmacht and served as a reserve officer in the 9th Potsdam Infantry Regiment in the 23rd Infantry Division . Through Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg he got in touch with the military resistance. Due to multiple wounds, Willisen was released from the Wehrmacht. He then became the personal assistant to the State Secretary in the Reich Forestry Office. At the beginning of July 1943, Willisen was promoted to Oberlandforstmeister and then headed the Landesforstverwaltung in Schwerin . From this time on the contacts with Schulenburg intensified, who was able to win Willisen for the shadow cabinet Beck / Goerdeler as political commissioner for the military district II (Stettin) in the event of a successful coup.
After the failed assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 , Willisen was arrested on July 21, 1944 and interrogated by the Gestapo for weeks in Schwerin . Willisen's name was on a list of potential liaison officers and political representatives that had been confiscated by the Gestapo and was being evaluated. During the interrogation, Willisen could not be proven that he had been informed of the planned attack or that his name was on the list. Then he worked again in the state forest administration in Schwerin until the end of the war and experienced liberation from National Socialism .
After the end of the war
Willisen took over the Reinhausen Forestry Office after the war . In 1964 he retired as head of the Reinhausen Forestry Department.
literature
- Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung - Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Office: Resistance to the Nazi regime in the Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania regions , series on the history of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania No. 12, Schwerin 2007, ISBN 3-89892-399-1 . (pdf; 7.9 MB) .
- Genealogical handbook of the nobility , Vol. 127: Freiherrliche Häuser , Vol. 22. Starke, Limburg an der Lahn 2002.
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Willisen, Achim von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Willisen, Joachim Wilhelm Freiherr von; Willisen, Achim Freiherr von (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German forest scientist and confidante of the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 31, 1900 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gut Bärenwalde, West Prussia |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 5th 1983 |
| Place of death | Munich |