Hanns Benkert

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Hanns Benkert (* 1899 in Würzburg , † 1948 in Berlin ) was a German engineer. From 1943 to 1945 he was chairman of the Association of German Engineers (VDI).

Live and act

After graduating from high school , Benkert studied mechanical engineering . At Siemens in Berlin, he first became plant manager and then a member of the board. Together with three other men, in 1934 he was one of the first people to be awarded the VDI Ring of Honor. In 1937 Benkert joined the NSDAP , and in 1940 he was appointed Wehrwirtschaftsführer by the Wehrmacht. In July 1943, Benkert was elected chairman of the VDI, after having worked in this position for over a year after the death of Fritz Todt . In September 1943 Benkert became President of the German Standards Committee .

From 1940 onwards, Benkert increasingly advocated the use of forced labor . In the Siemens works in Berlin, Jews were employed in “closed labor operations”, foreign workers and, since 1944, concentration camp prisoners as well.

After the war, Benkert had to face a denazification process , but was not exonerated. The competent court in Berlin-Spandau found, among other things, that Benkert had personally participated in the reporting of a Jewish forced laborer to the Gestapo. He was acquitted in a revision procedure brought about by his widow after his death.

Benkert was considered a proven expert in questions of rationalization .

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erich Kothe : On becoming and working of the VDI . In: VDI-Z. tape 98 , no. 14 , May 11, 1956, pp. 665 .
  2. ^ Karl-Heinz Ludwig: The VDI as an object of party politics 1933 to 1945 . In: Karl-Heinz Ludwig (Ed.): Technology, Engineers and Society - History of the Association of German Engineers 1856–1981 . VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1981, ISBN 3-18-400510-0 , p. 424-425 .
  3. ↑ Helmut Maier : Chemists in the “Third Reich”. The German Chemical Society and the Association of German Chemists in the Nazi regime . Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2015, ISBN 978-3-527-33846-7 , pp. 500 .
  4. ↑ Everyday life for forced labor 1938–1945: Hanns Benkert. Documentation Center Nazi Forced Labor, accessed on June 28, 2020 .
  5. ^ Christian Kehrt : On the technology discourse in the Second World War. The Association of German Engineers 1939–1945 . In: Military History Journal . tape 61 , no. 1 , 2002, p. 55 , doi : 10.1524 / mgzs.2002.61.1.49 .
personal data
SURNAME Benkert, Hanns
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer
DATE OF BIRTH 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH 1948
Place of death Berlin