Horst Willner

Horst Willner (born October 13, 1919 in Dresden ; † July 19, 1999 in Bremen ) was a German lawyer and President of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce .

biography

After graduating from high school in 1938, Willner became a naval officer in the Navy . He served on the sailing training ship Gorch Fock and was in command of the submarine U 3505 as a first lieutenant at sea during World War II .

As a submarine commander, contrary to the regulations for submarines, Willner had brought his wife Ursula (disguised as a sailor) and his three-week-old daughter Barbara, who was hidden in a duffel bag, on board and in housed in his cabin. This preference for relatives was the death penalty in military law . Willner's family should have escaped on the Wilhelm Gustloff , but Horst Willner decided to give back the reserved seats and thus saved his family's life, as the Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk by a Soviet submarine shortly after it left port.

After leaving the port of Danzig, the boat headed west towards Gotenhafen , where Commandant Willner took 110 children and young people, mainly members of the Hitler Youth, on board, also contrary to the regulations. The journey continued via Bornholm, where the supplies on board were replenished, to Lübeck - Travemünde . The refugees disembarked there on April 2, 1945, including Horst Willner's family.

After the war he studied law at the University of Kiel . He received his doctorate on a topic in maritime law as Dr. jur . From 1952 to 1966 he worked for the law firm Dr. Schackow & Partner. He became a partner and represented the law of the sea. In 1967 he became a member of the board of directors of North German Lloyd . He worked here successfully for the expansion of the charter business since 1973. He also established and expanded the Indonesian tobacco trade.

Willner was a member of the plenum of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce from 1975 to 1985 and President of the Chamber of Commerce from 1980 to 1985. He was also chairman and honorary chairman of the German training ship association for almost 30 years .

literature

• Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .