Hasso von Wedel (officer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hasso von Wedel (1938)
Joseph Goebbels on January 28, 1941 in conversation with the chiefs of the propaganda companies of the three branches of the armed forces; far right (in profile) Hasso von Wedel

Hasso Eduard Achaz von Wedel (born November 20, 1898 in Stargard in Pomerania , † January 3, 1961 in Gehrden ) was a German officer , most recently major general and head of the Wehrmacht propaganda.

Life

Von Wedel took part in the First World War, in which he was promoted to lieutenant on November 20, 1915 and was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd and 1st class, until the end of the war .

Later he was transferred to the Reichswehr , where Wedel was used as a company officer in the 4th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment . Here he was promoted to first lieutenant on April 1, 1925 and to captain on February 1, 1932 . As a major (since January 1, 1936), he was transferred to the General Staff in 1937. In 1938 he became press chief of the domestic department in the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW), in April 1939 head of the newly established department for Wehrmacht propaganda in the OKW, which in 1942 was expanded to become the official group for Wehrmacht propaganda in the OKW ( OKW / WPr ); u. a. the German propaganda companies were subordinate to him .

According to research by the Israeli historian Daniel Uziel, who works at the Yad Vashem memorial , von Wedel followed a strictly anti-Semitic course, also with regard to his behavior against “ Jewish mixed race ” in his area of ​​command. After a personnel check against the member of the Propaganda Department, Kurt Zentner , according to the protocol of his adjutant of November 7, 1941:

"The common soldier Dr. Kurt Zentner, who serves in Group IV, is a mixed breed. The commanders of the W [Ehrmacht] Pr [opaganda] do not want a mixed race as an official member of the OKW . It will be returned to its original unit immediately. The commander orders that Zentner's membership of the WPr of the PEA be ended immediately. "

In 1943 he was promoted to major general. After the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht , he was taken prisoner in 1945 and released in 1947.

After the war, von Wedel worked on documentation about the order, structure and use of the department for Wehrmacht propaganda in the OKW, which he made available to the Federal Archives . Wedel's work was essentially based on Kurt Hesse's 1946 and 1947 in the Operational History (German) Section of the war history department of the American armed forces, unpublished account of the Wehrmacht propaganda in World War II. Wedel's documentation served - according to the then director of the Federal Archives Karl G. Bruchmann in his foreword - Erich Murawski as the basis for his study on the Wehrmacht report published in 1962 , the creation of which was one of the main tasks of Wedel's department.

In the Soviet occupation zone , many of his writings were placed on the list of literature to be segregated.

Fonts (selection)

author
  • Shooting technique and tactics of the individual f. MG in 26 combat tasks with solutions . Publishing house "Open Words", Berlin 1928.
  • The shooter. Auxiliary b. fd service instruction d. Recruits d. Rifle Company . R. Schröder, Berlin 1935.
  • The s. M.G. Sagittarius. Auxiliary b. fd Schützen u. Driver e. M.-G.-Comp. R. Schröder, Berlin 1935.
  • The new German Army (= series of photographs; W 1, illustrated book No. 345). German Photo Society, Berlin 1936.
  • The telephone. Auxiliary b. fd service instruction d. Telephone recruits d. News troops and troop news groups . R. Schröder, Berlin 1936.
  • with Otto von Rohr: The gunner. Auxiliary b. fd gunner u. Driver d. light field howitzer battery d. 1. F.-H. 16 ud 1. f.-H. 18 . 2nd revised edition taking into account all new regulations and changes that have occurred in the meantime. R. Schröder, Berlin 1937/38.
  • with Ernst Haidlen: The anti-tank gunner. Auxiliary book for training d. Protect u. Driver d. motorized anti-tank companies. Under consideration. of all new regulations . R. Schröder, Berlin 1938.
  • Defense education and popular education . Hanseatische Verlags Anstalt, Hamburg 1938.
  • The Greater German Army (= series of photographs; W 4, illustrated book No. 420). German Photo Society, Berlin 1938.
  • The Greater German Army (= writings of the School of Politics; 2, no. 25). Junker & Dünnhaupt, Berlin 1939.
  • The 37th Division attacks. A book from the new German army . With pictures by Erich Döbrich . Breitkopf & Härtel , Leipzig and Young Generation, Berlin 1939.
  • Twenty years of the German Wehrmacht . Mittler, Berlin 1939.
  • Greater Germany's Wehrmacht . Industrieverlag Spaeth & Linde , Berlin and Vienna 1940.
  • with Henrich Hansen : The struggle in the west. Space and color photos. High command of the Wehrmacht (= the soldiers of the Führer in the field / Wedel; Bd. 2). Raumbild-Verlag, Munich 1940.
  • City and garrison of Hanover. A guide through the past and present . Bernard & Graefe, Frankfurt am Main 1959.
  • Hermann Teske (Ed.): The Propaganda Troops of the German Wehrmacht (= The Wehrmacht in combat; Vol. 34). Vowinckel , Neckargemünd 1962.
editor
  • The general Adolf Hitler and his marshals . Heling, Leipzig 1941.

literature

  • Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 .
  • Daniel Uziel: The Propaganda Warriors. The Wehrmacht and the Consolidation of the German Home Front . Peter Lang, Oxford a. a. 2008, ISBN 978-3-03911-532-7 .

Web links

Commons : Hasso von Wedel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 648.
  2. ↑ Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn Verlag , Berlin 1924, p. 186.
  3. ^ Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 648; Rainer Rutz: "Signal". A German illustrated abroad as a propaganda instrument in World War II. Klartext, Essen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89861-720-8 , pp. 29–32
  4. ^ Daniel Uziel: The Propaganda Warriors. The Wehrmacht and the Consolidation of the German Home Front , Peter Lang, Oxford u. a. 2008 p. 133.
  5. ^ Daniel Uziel: The propaganda warriors. The Wehrmacht and the consolidation of the German home front . Peter Lang, Oxford a. a. 2008, p. 382f.
  6. ^ Karl G. Bruchmann: Foreword. In: Erich Murawski: The German Wehrmacht Report 1939-1945. A contribution to the study of intellectual warfare. With a documentation of the Wehrmacht reports from July 1st, 1944 to May 9th, 1945 . Boldt, Boppard 1962, SV
  7. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1946-nslit-w.html
  8. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1947-nslit-w.html
  9. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1948-nslit-w.html
personal data
SURNAME Wedel, Hasso von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wedel, Hasso Eduard Achaz von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently major general and head of the Wehrmacht propaganda
DATE OF BIRTH November 20, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Stargard in Pomerania
DATE OF DEATH January 3, 1961
Place of death Gehrden