Otto Wagener
Otto Wagener | |
|---|---|
Oberste SA-Führer) | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Ernst Röhm |
| Reichskommissar für die Wirtschaft | |
| In office April 1933 – June 1933 | |
| Succeeded by | Wilhelm Keppler |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Otto Wilhelm Heinrich Wagener 29 April 1888 National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  German Empire Nazi Party Nazi Germany |
| Branch/service |  Imperial German Army Sturmabteilung German Army |
| Rank | Generalmajor |
| Battles/wars | World War I World War II |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross |
Otto Wilhelm Heinrich Wagener (29 April 1888 – 9 August 1971) was a German major general and, for a period, Adolf Hitler's economic advisor and confidant.
Life and career
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (March 2021) |
An industrialist's son, Wagener was born in
After the war, Wagener was involved in the planning of an attack against the city of Posen (now
In 1920 he studied economics and managed to broaden his knowledge by traveling abroad. In 1929 Wagener joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) and the Sturmabteilung (SA), having been recruited by his old Freikorps comrade Franz Pfeffer von Salomon.[1] Wagener was able to put his business acumen and contacts to good usage for the Nazi Party, in this case for the SA:
Wagener had used his business contacts to persuade a cigarette firm to produce
"Sturm" cigarettes for SA men – a "sponsorship" deal benefiting both the firm and SA coffers. Stormtroopers were strongly encouraged to smoke only these cigarettes. A cut from the profit went to the SA ....[1]
He functioned as SA
By late 1930 or early 1931 Wagener had made a mark on National Socialist economic policy. As Patch notes (p. 201-02):
Wagener formulated an original set of economic policies based on corporatist and leadership principles in confidential talks with Hitler and succeeded in recruiting many middle echelon industrial managers and owners of small factories for the NSDAP....[A confidential draft by Wagener] embraced the ideal of the corporatist "company union" (Werksgemeinschaft) and described the employer as the "Fuhrer" within his factory. All disputes over wages and working conditions would be settled within the "family" of the individual company in the National Socialist state of the future. Trade unions would be responsible merely for vocational training.
Wagener was replaced in his role as Commissioner for Economic Questions by
In the
In 1946, while being held by the British, Wagener wrote his memoirs about Hitler and the Nazi Party's early history, entitled Hitler aus nächster Nähe. Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929−1932 (known in English as Hitler: Memoirs of a Confidant). His work was not published until seven years after his death, in 1978.[citation needed] His memoirs are used, to some degree, by historians of Nazi Germany.
Otto Wagener died in Chieming in 1971.[citation needed]
Decorations and awards
- 1914 Iron Cross 2nd Class[5]
- 1914 Iron Cross 1st Class[5]
- Military Karl-Friedrich Merit Order[5]
- 1929 Nuremberg Party Day Badge, c.1929[6]
- 1939 Clasp to the Iron Cross 2nd Class[5]
- 1939 Clasp to the Iron Cross 1st Class[5]
- The Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 with Swords, [6]
- Honour Chevron of the Old Guard, 1934[6]
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, 5 May 1945 as Generalmajor and commander of the Division Insel Rhodos[7][Note 2]
Informational notes
- Stennes Revolt.
- ^ The Knight's Cross presentation to Otto Wagener was unlawfully made by the Dönitz Government after 8 May 1945. This can be verified by documented radio communication dated on 21 May 1945. The presentation date was backdated by Walther-Peer Fellgiebel.[8]
References
Citations
Bibliography
- ISBN 1-59420-004-1.
- Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
- ISBN 0-393-04671-0.
- Lambert, Angela (2007). The Lost Life of Eva Braun. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-36654-4.
- Miller, Michael (2015). Leaders Of The Storm Troops Volume 1. England: Helion & Company. ISBN 978-1-909982-87-1.
- Patch, William L. (1985). The Christian Trade Unions in the Weimar Republic, 1918-1933: The Failure of Corporate Pluralism (illustrated ed.). Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03328-1.
- Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
External links
Media related to Otto Wagener at Wikimedia Commons
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