Oskar Wingen

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Oskar Wingen , often Os c ar Wingen, (* 21st February 1889 in Lennep , † probably between 1945 and 1949 ) was a German population theorists , civil servant and diplomat .

Live and act

Youth, Education and Early Career

Wingen was a son of the notary August Wingen and his wife Else, nee Horn. After attending grammar school in Remscheid, which he left with the Abitur in 1908, Wingen studied law and economics at the universities of Lausanne, Marburg, Göttingen and Munich. With the examination date of July 15, 1915, he received his doctorate from the University of Munich with a thesis on population theories. oec. publ. Along with Lujo Brentano , Alfred Grotjahn and others, he was considered one of the most important theorists of population development in the first half of the 20th century. In research, it is usually assigned to the so-called prosperity theorists who assume socio-economic influences on generative behavior.

During the First World War , Wingen worked from October 1, 1915 to December 2, 1917 as an archivist and assistant director at the Institute for World Economy and Maritime Transport in Kiel , then from December 3, 1917 to July 31, 1918 as a research assistant at the Reichsbekleidungsstelle in Berlin .

Career as a civil servant

On August 1, 1918, Wingen entered the civil service. He was initially a scientific unskilled worker in the Reichswirtschaftsamt or (after renaming in February 1919) the Reichswirtschaftsministerium (until March 31, 1919) before he was transferred to the Foreign Office on April 1, 1919 , where he continued to perform the duties of a scientific unskilled worker Archive manager in the foreign trade department (department X).

On June 15, 1921, Wingen, still working as a research assistant, moved to the United Press Department of the Reich Government (Department P of the Foreign Office), where he was to remain active for almost twelve years. As a consultant in the press department, Wingen mainly dealt with economic issues. Due to his position as an expert on economic issues, he also took part in numerous international conferences in the 1920s and 1930s, particularly in connection with the question of reparations. In 1921 he was a member of the negotiating delegation at the Saar and World Economic Conference in London . On October 31, 1928, Wingen was promoted to the government council in the press department.

One episode in which Wingen stood out politically took place in 1923: When during the so-called Ruhrkampf , d. H. After the occupation of the Ruhr area by French troops to force German reparations payments that had not been made in the First World War, the former free corps fighter Albert Leo Schlageter was arrested and shot by them for carrying out attacks on the French occupation troops, Wingen succeeded in persuading the German government to issue an official one To publish an expression of indignation about the execution of Schlageter, which helped to make him a hero and resistance fighter in large parts of the population.

After the press department of the Reich government was incorporated into the newly established Propaganda Ministry, Wingen was employed in this ministry from April 1 to September 30, 1933. On October 1, 1933, he moved to the office of the Vice Chancellor in the Hitler government , Franz von Papen , where he took on the tasks of a consultant for economic issues and, from November, also the tasks of a consultant for Saar affairs, with the exception of press and propaganda. The last-mentioned function arose from Papen's appointment as Saar Plenipotentiary of the Reich Government in November 1933, an office which he held in personal union with his office as Vice Chancellor. As a result of his transfer to the office of Papen, Wingen was promoted to the Upper Government Council on October 6, 1933.

After the demolition of Papen's vice chancellery on June 30th / January 1st. In July 1934, Wingen worked for a few months in the office headed by Hermann Sabath to handle the vice chancellery. At the same time he was in a leading position as a senior government councilor in the newly created office of the Saar plenipotentiary of the Reich Chancellor (or the Reich Commissioner for the reorganization of the Saar area ). This function, which had previously been co-administered by Papen within his vice chancellery, was withdrawn after the same Papen was dissolved and transferred to Josef Bürckel , who managed it within a newly created office in which Wingen worked until March 31, 1935.

After the Saar plenipotentiary's office was officially transferred to the Foreign Office on April 1, 1935 after the Saar vote (vote on the state affiliation of the Saarland) in spring 1935, Wingen was called up again to serve in the AA on April 9, 1935: His Renewed service in the Foreign Office took place on May 2, 1935. There he was assigned to Department W (“Economy”, after renaming on May 15, 1936 “Trade Policy Department” and from spring 1938 “Economic Policy Department”) and on August 13, 1935 Promoted to Legation Council 1st class. In the W department, Wingen worked in Section I (Western Europe) and then in Section II (Western and Southern Europe except Great Britain and Italy) and was responsible for Switzerland. In 1937 he also took over the management of Section I (General Section for Economic and Financial Matters). In this position he was promoted to lecturing councilor on October 5, 1938.

On October 12, 1938, Wingen took over the management of Section X (Reich Office for Foreign Trade) of Department W of the Foreign Office. From March 22, 1939 to the end of July 1939 he worked in Prague, where he headed the dissolution of the economic department of the Czechoslovak Foreign Ministry. He then returned to the AA in Berlin, where he headed Section X until 1944. In addition, he was a member of the administrative board of the Deutsche Verrechnungskasse from April 1, 1938, and a member of the supervisory board of the express service for official and private commercial news GmbH from December 1, 1938.

On November 25, 1944, at the instigation of Joachim von Ribbentrop , he was put on hold in accordance with Section 44 of the Civil Servants Act, and thus practically into early retirement.

End of war

Wingen's whereabouts after the end of the Second World War has not been established with absolute certainty. According to the Berlin registration office, he has been missing since May 9, 1945. The last document received from Wingens is a letter to the Foreign Office dated January 26, 1945, in which he confirmed that he had received a copy of the decree of December 4, 1944 sent to him by post. A letter from his colleague in the Foreign Office Hermann Sabath to Franz von Papen Jr. on November 26, 1948 finally gives reason to believe that he died in captivity after being arrested by the Red Army :

“Unfortunately I cannot report anything positive about Mr. Wingen. Like so many of our colleagues [at the Foreign Office], he was taken to an internment camp by the Russians. He has not been heard from directly since then. I only learned from an official of the Reich Ministry of Finance, who was with him in the camp and who was dismissed due to the coincidence of various fortunate circumstances, that all camp inmates suffered from malnutrition and that their return could no longer be expected. Many had already died. Since Mr. Wingen was in poor health, it is to be feared that he too will not survive this period of hunger. I have already informed your father about this. "

family

On April 1, 1919, Wingen married Luise Shell (born November 5, 1892). The marriage remained childless.

Fonts

  • The population theories of recent years. A contribution to the problem of the decline in the birth rate , Stuttgart 1915. (Dissertation)
  • The international shipping space shortage. Their causes and effects. War economics studies from the Institute for Shipping and World Economy at the University of Kiel , Jena 1916.
  • “Great Britain's shipping traffic”, in: Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv 10 (1917), pp. 108–122 u. 320-340.
  • "The cotton crisis in the United States of America 1914/15", in: Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv , pp. 209–226 u. 287-327.
  • “The Anglo-French Canal Tunnel”, in: Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv 11 (1917), pp. 513-522.
  • "The problem of the patriotic auxiliary service in warring and neutral countries", in: Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv 12 (1918), pp. 415-450.
  • Germany's future position on the world market , slea [Niederramstadt 1921].
  • Five years of reparations policy. A floor plan , Berlin s. l. [1924].
  • World debt and Germany's burden of reparations , Berlin 1927.

literature

  • Johannes Hürter (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871 - 1945. 5. T - Z, supplements. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 5: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-71844-0 , p. 294 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Both spellings are found with similar frequency in the literature. The local Lemma election is based on the spelling of letterheads in the holdings R 53 (Vice Chancellery von Papen) of the Federal Archives, which reflect Wingens' self-spelling.
  2. ↑ Wingen's personal file in the Political Archive of the Foreign Office goes back to spring 1945.
  3. ↑ Thomas Etzemüller: An everlasting downfall. The apocalyptic population discourse in the 20th century. Bielefeld 2007, p. 44.
  4. ↑ Handbook of Demography Vol. 1: Models and Methods. Berlin, 2000 p. 344.
  5. ^ Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of May 9, 1940.
  6. ↑ letter Hermann Sabaths to Franz von Papen Jr. November 26, 1948 In: Estate Sabath, folder 17, Federal Archive in Koblenz.
personal data
SURNAME Wingen, Oskar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wingen, Oscar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German civil servant
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Lennep
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: between 1945 and 1949