Hans Nagel (General)

Hans Nagel (born November 27, 1882 in Stade ; † May 20, 1964 ) was a German major general in World War II . He had important military functions. His comprehensive final report on the activities of the Economic Staff East from 1941 to 1943 is an important source for research on war economics.

Life

Nagel was the son of a North German Protestant family of lawyers. He stepped on October 1, 1903 as a one-year volunteer in the Field Artillery Regiment "Orange" (1 Nassauisches) No. 27 of the Prussian army and was promoted on 18 August 1905 patent on 29 January 1904. Lieutenant . He took part in the First World War as a general staff officer. After the war he was Chief of Staff of the Maercker Freikorps and then became involved as a German national activist. In connection with the Kapp Putsch in 1920, as head of the security service in Halle , he prevented the communist uprising in central Germany from spreading to the city of Halle. Until December 1928 he worked as a personal advisor to the President of the Reichslandbund and head of the organization for this agricultural interest group. Then he rose in the German National People's Party (DNVP) up to the executive board member and head of the party headquarters of the DNVP.

After the DNVP disbanded itself in the course of the Gleichschaltung in 1933, Nagel became head of the department in the Wehrmacht in the mid-1930s , one of the leading figures in the military armaments organization, and also worked as a lecturer at the University of Commerce and Social Sciences in Königsberg .

During the Second World War, Nagel first became an armaments inspector in Prague , then in the General Government , and finally in 1940 with the military commander in Belgium and northern France. As early as January 1941, in the run-up to the Barbarossa company , he was commissioned to set up a staff for the training of military economic officers for the upcoming Russian campaign and to help plan guidelines for economic policy in the areas of the USSR to be conquered . The guidelines for the exploitation of agricultural resources presented by the State Secretary for Food, Herbert Backe , were adopted by Nagel. In July 1941, after the start of the German invasion of the USSR, he was appointed "General Advisor for the Economy in the Eastern Operations Area to the Reichsmarschall". In this function he acted as a liaison between the head of the four-year plan authority Hermann Göring and the head of the Defense Economy and Armaments Office, General of the Infantry Georg Thomas .

Nagel, who was not a member of the NSDAP , initially advocated a rigid strategy of exploitation with starvation practice for the occupied eastern territories, in which he himself had contributed conceptually, but after making tours of economic services, he became more and more convinced that political and military reasons should be treated more gently the local population required. In a letter to General Thomas dated October 29, 1941, he adopted the position of head of department of an economic inspectorate, who had informed him:

"Neither with half-starved workers nor with workers not dressed at all or in rags can the production of all kinds of goods of all kinds be maintained, let alone achieve an increase in production under such circumstances."

On June 30, 1942, Nagel spoke out to Defense Economy General Thomas that the non-working civilian population should also be fed “in some form”, since the security forces were too weak to otherwise ensure pacification of the rear area.

After General of the Infantry Otto Stapf succeeded General der Flieger Wilhelm Schubert as Chief of the East Economic Staff in August 1942 , the liaison office to Göring was dissolved. Nagel took over the management of the Don-Donets Economic Inspectorate and developed a new concept of war economic policy, which aimed at greater consideration for the civilian population. After the turning point caused by the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942/1943 , Nagel moved to Army Group Center and in 1944 prepared a comprehensive final report on the activities of this organization from 1941 to 1943 for the chief of the East Economic Staff, General Stapf, which was published in 1991 by the scientific director The source publication edited by the Military History Research Office Rolf-Dieter Müller has been published.

Fonts

• Contribution to the history of the Wirtschafts-Stab Ost (Wi Stab Ost). According to documents from the specialist groups, edited by Major General Hans Nagel. Printed in: Rolf-Dieter Müller (Ed.): The German Economic Policy in the Occupied Soviet Territories 1941–1943. The final report of the East Economic Staff and notes from a member of the Kiev Economic Command. Boldt, Boppard am Rhein, 1991, ISBN 3-7646-1905-8 , pp. 21-585.

literature

• Rolf-Dieter Müller (ed.): German economic policy in the occupied Soviet territories 1941–1943. The final report of the East Economic Staff and notes from a member of the Kiev Economic Command. Harald Boldt, Boppard am Rhein, 1991, ISBN 3-7646-1905-8 , pp. 7-12 (short biography until 1944).
• Wolfgang Keilig : The Generals of the Army 1939–1945. Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg 1983, ISBN 3-7909-0202-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Günter Wegner: Occupation of the German armies 1815-1939. Volume 2: The occupation of the active infantry regiments as well as Jäger and MG battalions, military district commands and training directors from the foundation or list until 1939. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1992, ISBN 3-7648-1782-8 , p. 863.
2. ↑ Wolfgang Keilig: The Generals of the Army 1939-1945. Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg 1983, p. 236.
3. ↑ Rolf-Dieter Müller (ed.): German economic policy in the occupied Soviet territories 1941–1943. The final report of the East Economic Staff and notes from a member of the Kiev Economic Command . Boldt, Boppard am Rhein, 1991, p. 9.
4. ^ Rolf-Dieter Müller (ed.): German economic policy in the occupied Soviet territories 1941–1943 , p. 11 f.