SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES - W

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

WAGENER, OTTO (1888-date of death unknown). SA Chief-of-Staff, 1929-1930. Head of the economic policy department of the NSDAP, 1931-1933. Afterwards, he was relieved of all official functions.

WAGNER. ADOLF (1890-1944). NSDAP member from 1923. Nazi party provincial chief of Munich and Upper Bavaria. Bavarian interior minister after 1933.

WAGNER. OTTO (1841-1918). Viennese architect who went beyond Art Nouveau and propagated a turn away from the decorative style. Greatly disliked by Hitler.

WAGNER, ROBERT (1895-1946). Reichswehr officer who participated in Hitler's Munich putsch. One of Hitler's earliest supporteres, he served as party provincial boss of Baden, 1925-1945. In 1940, he became chief of the civilian administration in Alsace, a position he held until the end of the war. Sentenced to death by a French military court; he was executed at Strasbourg on August 14, 1946.

WAGNER. SIEGFRIED (1869-1930). Son of Richard Wagner, achieved little success as a composer. In 1909, took over artistic direction of the Bayreuth Festivals. Married Winifred Williams (an Englishwoman) in 1915. Siegfried counted many Jews among his friends, and in contrast to his wife, seemed to have a cool relationship wIth Hitler.

WAGNER, WINIFRED (1897-1980). British wife of Richard Wagner's son, Siegfried. One of the first female Nazi party members. She frequently helped Hitler both socially and financially. After the war, she was forbidden to direct the Bayreuth festivals. In a marathon film interview with Hans-Jurgen Syberberg shortly before her death, she unreservedly declared her belief in the "positive sides" of Hitler's personality.

WARBURG FAMILY A rich and powerful family of German, British and American international bankers. Max Warburg, Felix Warburg, Paul Warburg, James Warburg. (Warburgs)

WEBER, CHRISTIAN (1883-1945). Servant in the Munich "Blauer Bock" Hotel at the beginning of the Twenties. Very early NSDAP member. Bookmaker in Daglfing. NSDAP city council member in Munich, 1926-1934. After 1933, president of the German Hunting Museum and president of the Economic League of German Riding Stable Owners. Killed in 1945 by Bavarian insurrectionist against the Nazis.

WEBER, FRIEDRICH (1891-1954) Veterinarian and leader of the Oberland Free Corps in 1923. Sentenced and imprisoned with Hitler after the Munich putsch. He later broke with Hitler and served as a military veterinarian during World War II.

WEISTHOR See WILIGUT.

WEIZMANN, CHAIM (1874-1952) Russian-born Zionist leader who became the first President of Israel in 1949. Weizmann headed the Jewish delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and succeeded in having the mandate for Palestine assigned to Great Britain, where he had settled in 1904. He served as President of the World Zionist Organization from 1920 to 1929 and again from 1935 to 1946. Weizmann lobbied vigorously for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine and opposed all attempts to prevent Jewish immigration to that nation. He died on November 9, 1952. (See Glossary: November 9th)

WERLEIN, JAKOB (1886-1958) Hitler's Mercedes supplier and an early NSDAP member. During the Twenties, Munich representative of Daimler-Benz, later manager. SS regimental commander. Inspector-general of motor transport in 1942.

WIEDEMANN, FRITZ (1891-1970). Hitler's superior battalion executive officer during World War I. Later joined the Nazis and after 1933 became Hitler's military alde and foreign policy advisor. Alienated In l939, became consul-general in San Francisco, later in Tientsin. After the war, became a farmer in Southern Germany.

WILIGUT (WEISTHOR) Little-known but influential pagan mystic who joined the SS in 1933 and quickly became closely associated with Himmler. Austrian by birth, he served as an officer in the Austrian army throughout WWI. See Timebase.

WISE, STEPHEN SAMUEL (1874-1949) Noted Reform Jewish Rabbi and Zionist leader, based in New York. Founder and president of the American Jewish Congress in 1920 and World Jewish Congress in 1936. Rabbi Wise led the effort to alert the American public to the mass murders of Jews, and appealled to the U.S. and Allied governments for action to stop the killings. In December 1942, he led a delegation to President Roosevelt in this regard.

WOLFF, KARL (1900-198?) SS general and Chief of Himmler's personal staff who served as the SS's chief liaison officer with Hitler. Appointed Chief SS and Police Commander of Italy in September 1943. In early 1945 he established contact with Allen Dulles and the O.S.S. through Italian and Swiss intermediaries. His negotiations behind Hitler's back in Zurich led to the early surrender of German forces in Italy. For his services he was not tried at Nuremberg, and appeared as a willing prosecution witness in full military uniform. Later became a highly successful advertising executive in Cologne. Sentenced by a German court to fifteen years imprisonment in 1964, but was released in 1971.

WULFF, WILHELM Astrologer imprisoned by the SS and forced into working for the Ahnenerbe, supposedly "to harness not only natural, but also supernatural forces." This mysterious Ahnenerbe project employed spitiualists, mediums, sensitives, dowsers, students of Tattwa (Indian pendulum theory) , ballistic experts, mathematicians, astronomers and astrologers. After the war, Wulff wrote the popular book "Zodiac and Swastika."

WURST, PROFESSOR Close friend of Frederick Hielscher and Director of the Ahnenerbe when it was absorbed by the SS in 1939. Wurst was an expert on ancient sacred texts and had taught Sanskrit at Munich University. At the time of its absorbtion, the Ahnenerbe had 50 branches. It is said that he SS spent more money on the Ahnenerbe than the U.S. did on developing the atomic bomb (Pauwels)

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

Copyright © 1997 R.H. Perez de Cruet
All Rights reserved.