Ulrich Wegener

This article deals with the BGS official Ulrich Wegener, for boxing trainer Ulli Wegner see there.

Ulrich Klaus Wegener (born August 22, 1929 in Jüterbog ; † December 28, 2017 in Schweifeld , Windhagen municipality , Rhineland-Palatinate ) was a German police officer of the Federal Border Guard ( Brigadier General , official title: Commander in the Federal Border Guard, Border Guard Command West ). He was the founder and first commander of Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (GSG 9), the anti-terrorism unit of the BGS (today: GSG 9 of the Federal Police ).

Life

At the age of 15, Wegener became a soldier in the Air Force in 1944 and was deployed in the Battle of Berlin , the last major battle of the Second World War in Europe. After the war he was briefly an American prisoner of war . In the early 1950s he distributed leaflets against the GDR government in the Berlin area , was arrested and released from the GDR State Security prison after more than a year . He fled to West Berlin in 1952 and then took entrance exams in West Germany for both the military and the riot police .

His police career began in 1952 with the riot police of the state of Baden-Württemberg as a police sergeant on probation. Due to the lack of opportunities for advancement, Wegener applied for an officer career in the Bundeswehr and the Federal Border Police. After passing the entrance exams, he decided to join the BGS, which he entered in 1958. After attending the officers' school in Lübeck , he was promoted to lieutenant i in 1959 . BGS. Later he was the Hundertschaftsführer of the 15./GSG 2 (15th Hundred of the Grenzschutzgruppe  2) in Coburg (Bavaria), afterwards he served in NATO and later as a liaison officer of the BGS at the Federal Ministry of the Interior , before he was from September 26, 1972 from then Federal Minister of the Interior Hans-Dietrich Genscher ( FDP ) was entrusted as commander with the establishment of Border Guard Group 9. In 1979 he gave up command of the unit and was appointed commander of the Border Guard Command West (commander in the BGS).

The decisive factor for the rapid establishment of GSG 9 was the failure of the regular police units to face the previously unknown threat from Arab terrorists during the hostage-taking at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich . Even the presence of hundreds of the BGS could not change the catastrophic end of the kidnappings.

Wegener was considered one of the world's leading experts on counter-terrorism and was a consultant in the development of numerous special units in other countries, including a. after his retirement in Saudi Arabia . He lived in Windhagen in the Westerwald since the 1980s and gave lectures. He was also a member of the Kötter Group's security advisory board .

Ulrich Wegener was widowed and the father of two daughters. His daughter Simone Stewens is a television journalist and director of the Cologne International Film School . He died in 2017 at the age of 88 and found his final resting place in the Windhagen cemetery.

Calls

As police director in the BGS and commander of the unit, on the night of October 17-18, 1977, Wegener led the deployment of GSG 9 at Mogadishu airport to free the Lufthansa plane “Landshut” hijacked by Palestinian terrorists . According to his own statements in an interview broadcast by ARD, Wegener was involved in the storming of the “Landshut” in a leading position and had at least one terrorist himself (apparently the Lebanese Wabil Harb alias Riza Abbasi) and the terrorist Hind Alameh alias Shanaz Gholoun with shot. The action's code name was Operation Magic Fire . Wegener received the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for the successful completion .

According to his own account, Wegener was involved in Operation Entebbe Israeli forces in Uganda in 1976 as part of the establishment of GSG 9 . In an interview in November 2000, he said: “I am not allowed to say some things because they have not yet been approved. I can only say this much: I was in Entebbe in the interests of the Germans and Israelis, but even before the Israeli blow was carried out. We tried to collect information about the enemy, the terrorists and the possible supporters who were available in Uganda. We were very successful and were able to collect a lot of information. "

In 2006, together with Wilhelm Walther , a former lieutenant colonel in the Wehrmacht , and Reinhard Günzel , the dismissed former commander of the Special Forces Command (KSK), he published the book Geheime Krieger: Drei deutsche Kommandoverbände im Bild in the right-wing Pour le Mérite Verlag of the neo-Nazi publisher Dietmar Munier : KSK, Brandenburger, GSG 9 . “ Brandenburger ” was the name given to members of a German special unit of the Foreign Office / Defense of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War , whose main task was operations behind enemy lines. Wilhelm Walther was a "Brandenburger" and temporarily chief of staff of SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny .

Publications

• “Esprit de Corps!”. The Border Guard Group 9 (GSG 9) . In: Reinhard Günzel u. a .: Secret warriors: Three German command units in the picture . Pour le Mérite Verlag , Selent 2006, ISBN 3-932381-29-7 , pp. 87-125
• Ulrike Zander, Harald Biermann (eds.): GSG 9 - Stronger than terror . Lit Verlag, Münster 2017, ISBN 978-3-643-13762-3 . Reviewed: Christian Hartmann: Last Prussian defends Bonn democracy, FAZ from October 23, 2017.

Honors

• Large Federal Cross of Merit
• Academy of Achievement Gold Plate (USA, 1978)
• Honor for 25 years of party membership, CDU -Ortsverband Windhagen, 2008

literature

• Hans-Jürgen Schmidt: “We wear the federal eagle on our skirt” - Chronicle of the Federal Border Police 1972–1992 . Fiedler-Verlag, Coburg 1994, ISBN 3-923434-21-9 .
• Reinhard Scholzen , Kerstin Froese: GSG 9. Interior views of a special association of the Federal Border Police. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-613-02735-0 .
• “We were left half starved” . In: Zeit Magazin , No. 31/2014; Interview with Herlinde Koelbl
• Ulrich Wegener: GSG 9 - stronger than terror. Edited by Ulrike Zander u. Harald Biermann . LIT Verlag, Münster 2017, ISBN 978-3-643-13762-3 .

Web links

• Carsten Lenz: Put your head down. Portrait in: The Rhinelander. Part 1: Early Years, (August 2009) pp. 18–19 , Part 2: BGS Zeit - Founding of GSG 9, (September 2009) pp. 20–21 , Part 3: Probation, (October 2009), p. 18 -19
• Johanna Schniedergers, Regina Haunhorst: Ulrich Wegener. Tabular curriculum vitae in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
• In dialogue: Ulrich Wegener (video, 34 minutes), TV broadcast on October 13, 2012 on the Phoenix YouTube channel
• 30 years of the GSG 9- unloading for the hero of Mogadishu, SPON from December 14, 2002
• Marc Felix Serrao: The father of the GSG 9 is dead, nzz.ch, accessed January 4, 2018
• Sewell Chan, Melissa Eddy: Ulrich Wegener, German Commando Who Ended 1977 Hijacking, Is Dead , New York Times, January 3, 2018.
• Ulrich K. Wegener in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Deceased Mogadishu hero: Ulrich Wegener was at home in the Westerwald until the end . ( rhein-zeitung.de [accessed on January 7, 2018]).
2. ↑ Ulrich Wegener's obituary notice , FAZ , published and accessed on January 4, 2018
3. ↑ GSG-9 founder Ulrich Wegener died at the age of 88. focus.de, published and accessed on January 3, 2018
4. ^ Daniela Greulich: The hero who didn't want to be - Former GSG-9 boss Ulrich Wegener died . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonner newspaper printer and publishing house H. Neusser GmbH, Bonn January 3, 2018 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed January 4, 2018]).
5. ^ Last Prussian defends Bonn democracy. FAZ of October 23, 2017, accessed on January 7, 2018.
6. ↑ Sewell Chan: Ulrich Wegener, German Commando Who Ended 1977 Hijacking, Is Dead . In: The New York Times , January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018. 
7. ↑ Interview with Wegener in the Neue Presse (Hanover) on November 26, 2008.
8. ↑ Ulrike Zander, Harald Biermann (ed.): GSG 9 - Stronger than terror. Lit Verlag, Münster 2017, ISBN 978-3-643-13762-3 , pp. 143–155, 290.
9. ↑ knerger.de: Ulrich Wegener's grave
10. ^ ARD TV documentary by Stefan Aust and Helmar Büchel The RAF - Flyer for the two-part TV documentary by Stefan Aust. (PDF; 1.2 MB)
11. ↑ FOCUS No. 34 (1993)
12. ↑ In conversation with Holger Lösch, Alpha Forum broadcast on BR-alpha channel , Bayerischer Rundfunk, November 14, 2000.
13. ↑ Elite troops, criminals as role models? Der Spiegel February 26, 2007
14. ↑ May 21, 2007: The Federal Government's response to the minor question from the MPs Ulla Jelpke, Sevim Dagdelen, Heike Hänsel, Inge Höger and the DIE LINKE parliamentary group. - Drucksache 16/5082 The answer was sent on behalf of the Federal Government in a letter from the Federal Ministry of Defense dated May 18, 2007. The printed matter also contains the question text - in smaller font.
15. ^ Obituary Ulrich Wegener - Founder GSG9 ( Memento from January 4, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) by Holger Schmidt, Deutschlandfunk January 3, 2018 (audio 1/2 year online)
16. ↑ Criminals as role models? In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 2007 ( online review).
17. ↑ Golden Plate Recipients 1977–1992. ( Memento from December 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on the Academy of Achievement website, accessed on September 7, 2015
18. ↑ Honor: Ulrich Wegener . In: Der Spiegel . No. 27 , 1978 ( online ).
19. ↑ CDU New Year's Brunch . CDU Windhagen, press release from January 6, 2008; accessed on February 20, 2015
20. ↑ Michaela Schießl: 30 years of GSG 9: Unloading for the hero of Mogadishu . In: Spiegel Online . December 14, 2002 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 18, 2017]).
21. ↑ Marc Felix Serrao: The father of the GSG 9 is dead | NZZ . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . January 3, 2018, ISSN  0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed January 4, 2018]).