Gerhard Wessel

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Gerhard Wessel (born December 24, 1913 in Neumünster ; † July 28, 2002 in Pullach ) was a German professional soldier and from May 1, 1968 to December 31, 1978, President of the Federal Intelligence Service and retired lieutenant general . D.

Life

Until 1939

After graduating from high school, the son of a pastor joined the Artillery Regiment 5 of the Reichswehr in Ulm on October 15, 1932 with the rank of Fahnenjunker . From 1933 to 1934 he was at the infantry school in Dresden and the artillery school Jüterbog . From October 1935 he served for two years in the 41st artillery regiment, and then took on the position of adjutant of the regiment in the 41 and 697 regiments for another two years with the rank of first lieutenant .

Second World War

In the campaign against Poland Wessel was a regimental adjutant, in the French campaign he was an orderly officer of an infantry division.

In 1941 he completed his training as a general staff officer at the War Academy in Berlin . He then became the third general staff officer (Ic) in the I. Army Corps, responsible for the enemy situation and promoted to major . From January 1942 Wessel worked in the Foreign Army East department headed by Reinhard Gehlen in the Army High Command (OKH). From January 1, 1944 he was head of Group I (hostile situation in the Soviet Union ) with the rank of lieutenant colonel . After Gehlen was replaced in March 1945, Gerhard Wessel was entrusted with the management of the "Foreign Armies East" department from April 9 to May 1945.

Gehlen had never appointed Wessel as his deputy, because according to the account of the CIA liaison officer James H. Critchfield , Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Herre was not only in the rank of Wessel but also had more experience with the affairs of the Red Army . On April 4, 1945, Wessel met with Gehlen, Hermann Baun , head of espionage against the Soviet Union in the Abwehr , and his adjutant Graber in Baun's quarters, a spa hotel in Bad Elster . In the so-called "Pact of Bad Elster" they agreed to offer their knowledge of the Soviet Union to the United States after the Second World War .

post war period

After the end of the Second World War , Wessel was recruited by Gehlen to set up an intelligence service operated by American occupation authorities with German personnel in the American zone of occupation (the later so-called Organization Gehlen ). In this organization, Wessel worked as the head of the evaluation and then switched to the Blank Office on October 1, 1952 , a forerunner of the later Federal Ministry of Defense .

On November 1, 1955, he was accepted into the Bundeswehr with the rank of colonel . From January 1956 to September 1957 he was the first head of the newly established Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD). Then Wessel took over the military security subdivision in the command staff of the Bundeswehr (FüB I) and was promoted to brigadier general a year later . From 1959 the renamed sub-department FüB II was also responsible for the service and technical supervision of the MAD. Wessel was a sub-department manager until December 1962.

By December 1963 he took command of Panzer Brigade 2 in Braunschweig , where he was promoted to major general in August 1963 . After this troop command, he switched to the Standing Military Committee of NATO as German representative.

Federal Intelligence Service

As the successor to Gehlen, he led the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) as President from May 1, 1968 . In contrast to Gehlen, who had sealed off the BND from the public, Wessel wanted to put the service in a better light. For this purpose he had a program drawn up so that the BND could concentrate on its actual tasks of gathering information. Wessel was able to stay out of the allegations about the affair of the spy Günter Guillaume because he had not endorsed his position in the Federal Chancellery . In the course of the investigation, however, he was confronted with the fact that it turned out that Gehlen's secret personal papers about politicians had not been completely destroyed despite an instruction. In November 1978 Klaus Kinkel was appointed as successor to Wessel, and on December 31 of the same year Wessel retired.

family

Wessel's daughter Christa was the first wife of the publicist and SPD politician Michael Naumann .

Honors

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Range, Clemens (1990): The Generals and Admirals of the Bundeswehr. Herford.
  2. ↑ “Always on the enemy!” - The Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) 1956–1990 . 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-525-36392-8 , pp. 205 .
  3. ^ Wessel statement on the development of the German organization (PDF; 264 kB). CIA documents, released from 2002 (period May 1942 to the end of 1945)
  4. ↑ Magnus Pahl : Hermann Baun (1897–1951) - Failed chief of espionage . In: Helmut Müller-Enbergs , Armin Wagner (ed.): Spies and news dealers - secret service careers in Germany 1939–1989 . 1st edition. Ch. Links Verlag , Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86153-872-1 , p. 52 .
  5. ↑ Helmut R. Hammerich : "Always on the enemy!" - The Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) 1956–1990 . 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-525-36392-8 , pp. 129 .
personal data
SURNAME Wessel, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German intelligence officer, President of the Federal Intelligence Service (1968–1978)
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Neumunster
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 2002
Place of death Pullach