Friedrich Wilhelm von Willisen

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Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Willisen (1876–1933)

Friedrich-Wilhelm Freiherr von Willisen (born February 12, 1876 in Karlsruhe , † January 4, 1933 in Berlin ) was a German lieutenant colonel , as well as a politician and president of the German Association for the Protection of Border and German Abroad. During the Weimar Republic, the "mysterious man" of the Reichswehr, who for many - unlike Schleicher - was the "good genius" of the army, was an important liaison between the Reichswehr and the government.

Life

family

Friedrich-Wilhelm came from the noble von Willisen family . He was a son of the Prussian general of the cavalry and governor of Berlin Karl von Willisen and his wife Julie, born von Köller (1843–1934). His paternal grandfather's brothers were Wilhelm and Friedrich Adolf von Willisen . His maternal grandfather was Matthias von Köller , his uncles were Ernst and Georg von Köller .

Friedrich-Wilhelm married Irmgard Rieß von Scheurnschloß in Berlin in 1905. The marriage resulted in the children Hans-Karl (1906–1966) and Maria-Irmgard, widowed von Bülow (1938–1945), from 1956 married Countess zu Stolberg-Wernigerode (1914–2006).

Career

General Staff Officer

After his education in the Cadet Corps, Willisen joined the 4th Guards Regiment on foot of the Prussian Army on March 22, 1893 as a charged ensign . There he was promoted to second lieutenant on August 18, 1894 . From 1909 to 1918 he was a member of the General Staff in various functions . Immediately before the outbreak of World War I , Willisen, who, like Kurt von Schleicher, Oskar von Hindenburg , Joachim von Stülpnagel , Friedrich Graf von der Schulenburg and Kurt Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord, was a pupil and friend of Wilhelm Groener , became a pupil and friend of Wilhelm Groener with the review of the deployment plans in the west and the drawing up of a new defense plan for the Vosges . His alternative plan was to defend the Vosges ridge with weaker forces in order to be able to use two additional army corps on the Lower Rhine . As Briining von Groener later heard, his proposal to renounce the occupation of Liège should induce the English to be the first to violate Belgian neutrality.

During the First World War, Willisen was initially deployed in the West, later he served under Hans von Seeckt in Transylvania : He planned and carried out the surprise battle against the French and English cavalry divisions on the Belgian-French border in late autumn 1914. He was the real victor of Brzezeny , where he freed the German troops that had advanced from the grip of the Russian armies and brought in 60,000 more prisoners. He planned and was mainly responsible for the victory over the Italians at Caporetto . In 1914 he was promoted to major and in 1916 appointed Chief of the General Staff of the IV Army Corps . Willisen received numerous awards for his achievements during the war. On November 1, 1917, he received the highest Prussian award for bravery, the order Pour le Mérite, and on November 14, 1917, the King of Bavaria received the Knight's Cross of the Military Max Joseph Order .

On his return from the war he was arrested by mutinous troops in Munich and sentenced to death. However, he escaped this fate and was released.

Chief of the Border Guard East

Then he was appointed department head in the Prussian War Ministry on November 10, 1918 , where he was responsible for setting up the Higher Command East Border Guard . From December 17, 1918 to 1920, he was head of the Central Border Guard East (Zegrost) , which was responsible for organizational issues and whose office was located in Bellevue Palace in Berlin . The former General Staff officer played a leading role in the development of the Freikorps and later tried to integrate its members into the Reichswehr. On their behalf, he also maintained contacts with the Black Reichswehr .

Willisen belonged to the generation of younger general staff officers who campaigned for the preservation of the Weimar Republic and against the political extremes of the left and right. He contributed significantly to the failure of the Kapp Putsch by ensuring that the putschists were denied the support of the Reichswehr.

Political activities

On April 1, 1920, he retired from the Reichswehr as a lieutenant colonel, but Willisen remained a "key figure in the Reichswehr" even after his departure. Willisen was co-founder and president of the Association for the Protection of Border and German Abroad as well as a member of the German Gentlemen's Club and Knight of Honor of the Order of St. John . In addition, according to various sources, Willisen is said to have been a supporter or founding member of the June club . To support the political goals of the people's conservatives, Willisen founded the newspaper Politische Wochenschrift in 1924 , which was published from 1925 to 1931 by Hermann Ullmann . From 1928 to 1932 he was 2nd chairman of the People's Conservative Association .

In the summer of 1923 Willisen traveled to Munich for a meeting with Adolf Hitler in order to form a personal opinion about the influential agitator of the NSDAP . His impression was that Hitler had a manic disposition and had no clear idea of ​​the possibilities that further currency developments and French politics could offer him. He believed that the lack of personal courage made Hitler particularly dangerous because at a crucial moment when he saw that his followers were disappointed, he would risk everything. Willisen found that Hitler took money from everyone. He complained about the lack of cooperation between the Reichswehr and the Bavarian State Police, which could get hold of certain documents about Hitler's financial support, on the basis of which Hitler could be charged with high treason.

When the head of the Reichswehr, Colonel General Hans von Seeckt, was urged by the men on his staff - including Kurt von Schleicher - and industrialists like Hugo Stinnes in the fall of the crisis year 1923 to claim the Chancellery and dissolve Parliament, Willisen brought his own War comrade Seeckt to relent by warning him not to endanger the imperial unit by a sandpit game with unknown opponents .

Head of the aviation schools

As the head of the four illegal flying schools , Willsen was actively involved in building up the German air force after the First World War. How far-sighted and responsible Willisen supported the rearmament efforts of the Reichswehr, he demonstrated at the Geneva Disarmament Conference in 1932, when he approved Brüning's application for the abolition of German bombers.

Companion and advisor to Heinrich Brüning

From March 1919 Willisen was the political companion and influential advisor of the later Chancellor Heinrich Brüning, who saw him as his liaison to the Reichswehr. In Willisen's Berlin apartment at Giesebrechtstrasse 15, Brüning, Gottfried Treviranus , Hermann Ullmann, Groener and Schleicher met repeatedly for political consultations. The Brüning cabinet was born on December 26, 1929, when Groener and Schleicher met the central politician Brüning, who was a friend of Willisen, in the apartment of the gray eminence, the former Reichswehr officer, and there they marked out the direction of the first pure Hindenburg cabinet. The decisive political initiatives took place via the Schleicher-Groener-Willisen route up to April 1932. In his memoirs, Briining Willisen names the soul of the resistance against Bolshevism and the collaboration of the younger General Staff officers with Ebert , for whose life he was always worried . There is some evidence that Willisen became a kind of teacher in political strategy and tactics for him and was one of the few whom Briining fully trusted.

Alongside Friedrich Graf von der Schulenburg , Willisen was in discussion in January 1928 as one of Paul von Hindenburg's candidates to succeed the Reichswehr Minister Otto Geßler, who had resigned because of the Lohmann affair . However, both refused to run against Wilhelm Groener, who eventually took over as a candidate for the Reichswehr.

Illness and death

Willisen fell seriously ill at the end of 1931. The doctors diagnosed cancer of the throat. He was already in the sanatorium when a riot broke out in the Reichstag on May 10, 1932 , during a speech by Groener in which he wanted to defend the ban on the SA led by Ernst Röhm . When Kurt von Schleicher, as a representative of the Reichswehr, demanded the resignation of Reichswehr Minister Groener on May 11, 1932, Brüning escaped, according to Treviranus, who took part in the conversation: If only Willisen were healthy. He would keep Bendlerstrasse in check! . Willisen died on January 4, 1933 as a result of his illness. He was buried in the Berlin Invalidenfriedhof . His grave has not been preserved.

Characteristic

  • Among von Loesch's guests, one particularly struck me with his calm but decisive manner. When he spoke, he started with a slight stutter, only to come out with an unusually clear, brief, and precise opinion. The face with the high forehead and the friendly open expression of the eyes as well as the taut figure, which embodied the extreme, cool energy, seemed to be familiar to me. (...) Willisen himself had constructive ideas of his own, but it was more decisive that, after a brief consideration, he could agree with the views of others. Modesty was one of his main features. (...) However, this characteristic allowed others in the Reichswehr Ministry to attribute Willisen's achievements to themselves. Willisen and other like-minded people have destroyed their records and letters on political issues.
  • Willisen was really the man in 1919 and 1923 who saved Ebert and the constitutional life of the country. He was so modest, in spite of extraordinary energy and success in war and in peace time, that his name is hardly ever mentioned publicly, and he refused to take any office, through Ebert presumed him to become Minister of Defense.
  • As long as the fully balanced selfless Willisen did not suffer from the beginnings of his fatal illness, it was always possible to bring Schleicher back on a sensible and clear line. There were decisive moments in 1919-1923, 1931 when the freshness and determination of Willisen's temperament brought Schleicher back on a safe path in half an hour.
  • It must be left to an urgent investigation to prove how crucial a contribution to the preservation of the Reformation center is to a little-known Prussian officer, Lieutenant Colonel von Willisen. Von Willisen left no record and it is difficult to get an overview of his life's work. We can only tell everyone what we have experienced together with them. This little would have to be enough to secure the inextinguishable gratitude of the German people for this extraordinary man, who never did anything for himself but did an infinite amount for Germany. I got to know him when a Foreign Office officer seriously interested in the Southeast sent me to see him. I had apparently been announced and was warmly received by a tall officer with a fresh face and excellent demeanor, who weighed every word and briefly explained to me what he was doing at the moment. He was on the phone and building the Eastern Front. I did not hear a word more than was necessary to give me instructions. It was a few weeks after the collapse. It was about the trip to my homeland on which I was supposed to help the Social Democrat Seliger . (...) Later he told me how often he 'fuzzed' in cabinet meetings with Ebert when it was a matter of winning comrades who were difficult to understand to agree to measures that were absolutely necessary but perhaps not entirely in accordance with socialist doctrine. He was allowed to work for Germany and did it without burdening anyone with responsibility, i.e. in the highest sense responsible out of his own conscience. It stayed like that through all the years I knew him. Without office, without mandate, without honor and true to himself in every act. Wherever it 'burned', he grabbed it; when the catastrophe was averted as best he could, he withdrew and let others work and collect ripe fruit. His next co-workers were similar to him.
  • He had the ability to lead and lead where the help of military discipline and organization was not available. He knew how to generate voluntary following, to awaken personal trust, to bring together opposing forces for a common purpose; he knew how to mediate and balance. The little conflicts and intrigues that are so inevitable and dangerous in German club life and in every kind of voluntary cooperation did not reach as far as he was concerned, and vanished before his objectivity. In the last years of his life, his social gifts in a higher sense also always proved themselves politically. He knew how to bring together the seemingly incompatible and quietly provided some assistance where the inner unity of the nation, the overcoming of personal contradictions and the clarification of irrelevant confused questions were important. From 1923, from the first major crisis in Parliament to the Brüning cabinet, he stood by those responsible in advice and clarification, often questioned because of his loyalty and objectivity, but also because of his steadfast hand and unselfish independence, and time and again of decisive influence.

literature

  • Heinrich Brüning: Memoirs 1918–1934. Dtv, Munich 1972.
  1. 1972, ISBN 3-423-00861-X .
  2. 1972, ISBN 3-423-00860-1 .
  • Heinrich Brüning (Author), Claire Nix (Ed.): Letters and Conversations. German publishing house, Stuttgart 1974.
  1. Letters and Conversations 1934-1945. ISBN 3-421-01612-7 .
    Letters 1946–1960. ISBN 3-421-01681-X .
  • Edmund Glaise-Horstenau (author), Peter Broucek (ed.): A general in the twilight. The memories of Edmund Glaise von Horstenau. Vol. 3, (Publications of the Commission for Modern History of Austria, Vol. 76). Böhlau, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-205-08749-6 , p. 440, note 494
  • Herbert Hömig : Brüning. Chancellor in the crisis of the republic. A Weimar biography. Ferdinand Schöningh , Paderborn 2000, ISBN 3-506-73949-2 .
  • Herbert Hömig: Brüning. Politicians without a mandate. Between the Weimar and Bonn republics. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2005, ISBN 3-506-72938-1 .
  • Johannes Hürter : Wilhelm Groener. Reichswehr Minister at the end of the Weimar Republic (1928–1932). (Contributions to military history; vol. 39). Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-486-55978-8 (plus dissertation, University of Mainz 1992).
  • Jürgen Kilian: "We want to take over the spiritual leadership of the army". The informal group of general staff officers around Joachim von Stülpnagel, Friedrich Wilhelm von Willisen and Kurt von Schleicher, in: Gundula Gahlen, Daniel M. Segesser, Carmen Winkel (ed.): Geheime Netzwerk im Militär 1700–1945, Paderborn 2016, p. 167 -183, ISBN 978-3-50677781-2 .
  • Gottfried Treviranus : The end of Weimar. Heinrich Brüning and his time . Econ, Düsseldorf 1968.
  • Hermann Ullmann (Author), Hans Schmid-Egger (Ed.): Publicist in the turning point of time. Callwey, Munich 1965 (edited from the estate with the assistance of Renate Ullmann).
  • Peer Oliver Volkmann: Heinrich Brüning (1885–1970). Nationalist without a home, a partial biography. (Research and sources on contemporary history, Vol. 52). Droste, Düsseldorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-7700-1903-8 . (also dissertation, University of Augsburg 2004)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Wheeler-Bennett: The Nemesis of Power. The German Army in Politics. 1918-1945. Vol. 1, Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1954, p. 215.
  2. ^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility . Volume 31, Freiherrliche Häuser B III, Starke, Limburg 1963, p. 487.
  3. ^ Herbert Hömig: Brüning. Chancellor in the crisis of the republic. P. 71.
  4. ^ Heinrich Brüning: Memoirs. P. 45f.
  5. ↑ a b Herbert Hömig: Brüning. Chancellor in the crisis of the republic. P. 72.
  6. ↑ From 1920, the Schutzvereinshaus was located at Motzstraße 22 in Berlin. Willisen bought the building as the owner for the German Protection Association. Cf. Erasmus Jonas: Die Volkskonservatives 1928–1933. Development, structure, location and state politics. Goal setting. Droste, Düsseldorf 1965, p. 64, note 9.
  7. ↑ The decision in the Reichswehr Ministry was brought about by Willisen and his friends, especially Hammerstein , who had his own father-in-law, General von Lüttwitz , arrested without further ado. Heinrich Brüning: Memoirs. P. 64.
  8. ^ Herbert Hömig: Brüning. Chancellor in the crisis of the republic. P. 134.
  9. ^ Peer Oliver Volkmann: Heinrich Brüning. P. 55.
  10. ^ Heinrich Brüning: Memoirs. P. 98.
  11. ↑ Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus: The end of Weimar. P. 61.
  12. ^ Herbert Hömig: Brüning. Politicians without a mandate. P. 203.
  13. ^ Heinrich Brüning: Letters and Conversations. Vol. 1, p. 148.
  14. ^ Association of History Teachers in Germany: History in Science and Education. Volume 24, E. Klett, Stuttgart 1973, p. 202 ff.
  15. ↑ tungsten Pytra: The presidential power in the Weimar Republic. In: Marie-Luise Recker (Ed.): Parliamentarism in Europe. Germany, England and France in comparison , Oldenbourg, Munich 2004 (Writings of the Historisches Kolleg. Colloquium 60), p. 88.
  16. ^ A b Heinrich Brüning: Memoirs. P. 46 f.
  17. ^ Gerhard Schulz: Between Democracy and Dictatorship. Constitutional politics and imperial reform in the Weimar Republic. de Gruyter, Göttingen 1987, p. 456.
  18. ^ Heinrich Brüning: Letters and Conversations. Vol. 1, p. 438.
  19. ↑ Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus: The end of Weimar. P. 305.
  20. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin tombs. Haude and Spener, Berlin 2006, s. Reg.
  21. ^ Heinrich Brüning to Manfred Graf von Brünneck-Bellschwitz , letter dated August 19, 1949, Secret State Archives Prussian Cultural Heritage, NL v. Brünneck II, No. 1. Quoted from: Herbert Hömig: Brüning. Chancellor in the Crisis of the Republic , p. 633, note 195. Translation: In 1919 and 1923 Willisen was really the man who saved Ebert and the constitutional life of the country. He was so humble, despite his extraordinary energy and successes in war and peacetime, that his name is hardly ever mentioned in public, and he refused to accept any office despite Ebert's appointment as Secretary of Defense.
  22. ↑ Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus, quoted from: Herbert Hömig: Brüning. Chancellor in the crisis of the republic. P. 306, note 323.
  23. ^ Hermann Ullmann: Publicist in the turn of the ages. P. 93.
  24. ↑ From an obituary. Quoted from: Hermann Ullmann: Publizist in der Zeitenwende , p. 95.
  25. ↑ complete: Vol. 1: KuK General Staff Officer and Historian. 1980, ISBN 3-205-08740-2 ; Vol. 2: Minister in the corporate state and general in the OKW. 1983, ISBN 3-205-08743-7 ; Vol. 3: German Plenipotentiary General in Croatia and witness of the fall of the "Thousand Years' Reich". 1988, ISBN 3-205-08749-6 .
personal data
SURNAME Willisen, Friedrich Wilhelm von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Willisen, Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lieutenant colonel, politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlsruhe
DATE OF DEATH January 4, 1933
Place of death Berlin