Armin T. Wegner

Armin T. Wegner

Armin Theophil Wegner (October 16 1886 – May 17 1978) was a German soldier in World War I, a prolific author and a seminal figure in German Expressionism, a human rights activist, and a victim of Nazi persecution. [Fascism and Democracy in the Human Mind: A Bridge Between Mind and Society - Page 426 by Israel W. Charny] He was awarded the Iron Cross for his wartime service to Germany, and has been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for risking his life in combating antisemitism under Nazism.

Stationed in the Ottoman Empire during WWI, Wegner witnessed the Armenian Genocide. He took hundreds of photographs of the events, [ [http://www.exil-archiv.de/html/biografien/wegner.htm Untitled Document ] ] and made strenuous efforts to publicize the events in the hope that the German people would object to the treatment of Armenians, were they to learn the full truth. His efforts included an open letter to Woodrow Wilson, pleading for U.S. intervention on behalf of the Armenians.

In 1933 he authored another impassioned plea, this time to Adolf Hitler on behalf of the Jews of Germany. He suggested that the persecution of the Jews was not just a question of "the fate of our Jewish brothers alone, [but also] the fate of Germany". [ [http://www.exil-archiv.de/grafik/biografien/wegner/brief.pdf] p.240] Noting that he was writing the letter as a proud German who could himself trace his Prussian familial roots back to the time of the Crusades, Wegner asked Hitler what would become of Germany if it continued its persecution of Jews. Answering his own question, Wegner declared, "There is no Fatherland without justice!" ["Doch es gibt kein Vaterland ohne Gerechtigkeit!" [http://www.exil-archiv.de/grafik/biografien/wegner/brief.pdf] p.244]

Life

Education

Wegner was born in the town of Elberfeld, Rhineland (Wuppertal) in Germany. Educated at first in Streigau (modern Strzegom), he later pursued further study in Zurich, Breslau, and Berlin. Upon completing his doctoral studies in law, he began to travel broadly throughout North Africa, Arabia, and Europe. He showed interest in becoming a travel author, and this led to his optimistically joining the armed forces in order to "hold the helm of my life in my own hands. I shall see Baghdad, the Tigris, Mossul, Babylon. I am fully aware of the choice I have made. ... I have become a soldier ... I have put my life at stake for my soul's sake." [http://gariwo.net/eng/armenia/wegner.htm]

World War I

He enrolled as a medic at the outbreak of World War I during the winter of 1914-1915, and was awarded the Iron Cross for assisting wounded under fire. He then served in the German Sanitary Corps under Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, following the military alliance of Germany and the Ottoman Empire. Wegner was part of a German detachment under von der Goltz stationed near the Baghdad Railway in Mesopotamia; here, Wegner witnessed the death marches of Armenians that have come to be known as the Armenian Genocide. ["Starving Armenians": America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and After - Page 120 by Merrill D. Peterson]

Disobeying orders intended to smother news of the massacres, he gathered information on the Genocide – collected documents, annotations, notes, and letters and took hundreds of photographs in the Armenian deportation camps – that later served to evidence the extent of the atrocities to which the Ottoman Armenians were subjected. At the Ottoman Command's request, Wegner was eventually arrested by the Germans and recalled to Germany. While some of his photographs were confiscated and destroyed, he nonetheless succeeded in smuggling out many images of the Armenian persecution. [cite web
url=http://www.armenian-genocide.org/wegnerbio.html
title=Biography of Armin T. Wegner
publisher=Armenian National Institute
accessdate=2006-10-22
]

Wegner protested against the atrocities perpetrated by the Ottoman army against the Armenian people in an open letter submitted to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson at the peace conference of 1919. The letter made a case for the creation of an independent Armenian state. Also in 1919, Wegner published "The Road of No Return" ("Der Weg ohne Heimkehr"), a collection of letters he had written during what he deemed the "martyrdom" (German: "Martyrium") of the Anatolian Armenians. [ [http://www.armin-t-wegner.de/biographie.htm Wegner Biographie ] ]

Weimar period

In Germany after the war, Wegner married author Lola Landau, and became an activist espousing pacifism. He was involved in a German pacifist organization that was later incorporated into War Resisters International. During the Weimar period, Wegner became acquainted with Walter Rathenau, Helmut Gerlach, Johannes Lepsius, and other dissenters and journalists. [http://gariwo.net/eng/armenia/wegner.htm]

In 1921 Wegner testified at the trial of Soghomon Tehlirian, the Ottoman Armenian assassin who had killed Talat Pasha in Berlin. Wegner's role was only to confirm the scope and horror of the Armenian experience during the events that later became known as the Armenian Genocide. Talat Pasha, the former Minister of the Interior of the Ottoman Empire, had been sentenced to death in absentia for orchestrating the Armenian massacres; Tehlirian, though he killed the former Ottoman administrator in front of several eyewitnesses, was found not guilty on the grounds of temporary insanity.

The documents of the sensational trial were collected into a book, "Justicier du génocide armènien: le procès de Tehlirian", for which Wegner authored the preface. In his introduction, Wegner asserts that the Armenian massacres were governmental crimes committed by the Ottoman government, and that the Turkish people themselves "would never have stained themselves with a similar crime". [http://gariwo.net/eng/armenia/wegner.htm] Wegner notes that he witnessed several instances of civil disobedience during the Armenian Genocide, in which Ottoman officials refused to carry out "the orders of extermination". [http://gariwo.net/eng/armenia/wegner.htm]

In 1922 Wegner published "The Scream from Ararat" ("Der Schrei von Ararat"), an appeal for the rights of surviving Armenians. Toward the mid-1920s, Wegner reached the peak of his popularity as a writer and as a co-creator of German Expressionism. Based on his experience during a journey to the Soviet Union in 1927-8, Wegner authored "Five Fingers Over You", the success of which made him a celebrity. The text described the underlying political violence of the Soviet Communist model, foretelling the advent of Stalinism.

Nazi era

In 1933, Wegner denounced the persecution of Jews in Germany in an open letter to Adolf Hitler. Shortly after authoring the letter, Wegner was apprehended by the Gestapo, who imprisoned and tortured him. [http://www1.yadvashem.org/righteous/bycountry/germany/wegner_armin_t.html] He was subsequently interned in the Nazi concentration camps at Oranienburg, Börgermoor and Lichtenburg, among others; upon his release, he fled the country.

In 1939, Wegner and his wife mutually agreed to divorce. He would later suggest, "Germany took every thing from me... even my wife." [http://gariwo.net/eng/armenia/wegner.htm] Wegner fled to Italy, where he assumed an alias to conceal his identity.

Legacy

Wegner was awarded the Highest Order of Merit by the Federal German Government in 1956. His native city of Wuppertal awarded him the prestigious Eduard-Von-der-Heydt prize in 1962. In 1967 he was accorded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. A year later, he was invited to Armenia by the Catholicos of All Armenians, and awarded the Order of Saint Gregory the Illuminator.

He died at the age of 92 in Rome. Some of his ashes were later taken to Armenia to be honored at a posthumous state funeral near the Armenian Genocide Monument's perpetual flame.

Recalled by some as "the only writer in Nazi Germany ever to raise his voice in public against the persecution of the Jews", by the time of Wegner's death in Rome he had been "virtually forgotten" by the German people. [http://www1.yadvashem.org/righteous/bycountry/germany/wegner_armin_t.html] He had never felt at home again in Germany after fleeing in the 1930s, and had lived out the remainder of his days in Italy. The inscription on Wegner's gravestone echoes the dying words attributed to Pope Gregory VII in 1085 [ [http://www1.yadvashem.org/righteous/bycountry/germany/wegner_armin_t.html Germany - Wegner, Armin T ] ] :

cquote|Amavi iustitiam odi iniquitatem
Propterea morior in exsilio

I loved justice and hated iniquity
Therefore I die in exile

References

External links

* [http://www.armenian-genocide.org/photo_wegner.html#photo_collection Armin Wegner's photography depicting the Armenian Genocide]
* [http://www.exil-archiv.de/grafik/biografien/wegner/brief.pdf Brief an Hitler] Armin Wegner's letter to Adolf Hitler, 1933 (German language)
* [http://www.armin-t-wegner.us Armin T. Wegner Society]
* [http://www.armenian-genocide.org/wegnerbio.html Biography of Armin T. Wegner]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10841668 Armin T. Wegner on Find A Grave]
* [http://www1.yadvashem.org/righteous/bycountry/germany/wegner_armin_t.html On May 23, 1967, Yad Vashem decided to recognize Armin Wegner as Righteous Among the Nations]


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  • Armin T. Wegner — Armin Theophil Wegner (* 16. Oktober 1886 in Elberfeld, das heute zu Wuppertal gehört; † 17. Mai 1978 in Rom) war ein deutscher pazifistischer Schriftsteller, Verfasser expressionistischer Lyrik und zahlreicher Reiseberichte. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Armin Theophil Wegner — (* 16. Oktober 1886 in Elberfeld, das heute zu Wuppertal gehört; † 17. Mai 1978 in Rom) war ein deutscher pazifistischer Schriftsteller, Verfasser expressionistischer Lyrik und zahlreicher Reiseberichte. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Armin T. Wegner — Armin Wegner Pour les articles homonymes, voir Wegner. Armin Theophil Wegner (Elberfeld, 16 octobre 1886 ; Rome, 17 mai 1978) est un infirmier militaire allemand, écrivain, photographe et militant des droits de l homme… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Armin Theophil Wegner — Armin Wegner Pour les articles homonymes, voir Wegner. Armin Theophil Wegner (Elberfeld, 16 octobre 1886 ; Rome, 17 mai 1978) est un infirmier militaire allemand, écrivain, photographe et militant des droits de l homme… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Wegner — ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Armin Wegner (1840–1917), deutscher Architekt Armin T. Wegner (1886–1978), deutscher Schriftsteller Axel Wegner (* 1963), deutscher Sportschütze Benjamin Wegner (1795–1864), norwegischer Industrieller… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Armin — ist ein männlicher Vorname aus dem Germanischen. Der Namenstag ist der 2. Juni. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Herkunft und Bedeutung des Namens 2 Bekannte Namensträger 3 Als Nachname 4 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Wegner — is a surname, and may refer to:* Armin T. Wegner, soldier, writer, and political activist. * Daniel Wegner, experimental psychologist. * Hans Wegner, furniture designer. * Jacob Benjamin Wegner, Prussian Norwegian industrialist. * Kurt Wegner,… …   Wikipedia

  • Armin Wegner — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Wegner. Armin Theophil Wegner (Elberfeld, 16 octobre 1886 ; Rome, 17 mai 1978) est un infirmier militaire allemand, écrivain, photographe et militant des droits de l homme qui a pris… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Armin — Infobox Given Name Revised name = Armin imagesize= caption= pronunciation= gender = meaning = region = origin = related names = footnotes = : For the 2007 film, see Armin (film) Armin is a given name or surname, and may be: *a German given name,… …   Wikipedia

  • Wegner — Wegner,   1) Armin Theophil, Pseudonym Johannes Sẹlbdritt, Schriftsteller, * Elberfeld (heute zu Wuppertal) 16. 10. 1886, ✝ Rom 17. 5. 1978; studierte Jura; im Ersten Weltkrieg Sanitäter in Polen und Bagdad, wo er die Vertreibung der Armenier… …   Universal-Lexikon

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