Armin T. Wegner
Encyclopedia
Armin Theophil Wegner was a German
soldier and medic in World War I
, a prolific author and a seminal figure in German Expressionism
, a human rights activist, and a victim of Nazi
persecution. Stationed in the Ottoman Empire
during World War I
, Wegner was a witness to the Armenian Genocide
and the photographs he took documenting the plight of the Armenians today "comprises the core of witness images of the Genocide."
In the years following the end of World War I, Wegner also voiced his opposition, at great risk to his own life, against the anti-semitic policies of the Nazis. In 1933, he authored an impassioned plea 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." 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!" For his efforts, he has been recognized by Yad Vashem
as Righteous Among the Nations
.
(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."
for assisting wounded under fire. With the rank of second lieutenant
, 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
.
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 in Deir ez-Zor, Syria
, 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 by hiding the negatives in his belt.
Wegner protested against the atrocities perpetrated by the Ottoman government against the Armenian people in an open letter, published in the Berliner Tageblatt
, submitted to American 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 Der Weg ohne Heimkehr (The Road of No Return), a collection of letters he had written during what he deemed the "martyrdom" (German: "Martyrium") of the Anatolia
n Armenians.
. 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 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 Der Schrei von Ararat (The Scream from 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
. In 1927-8, he and his wife traveled to the Soviet Union
and also visited the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia, where he met with several Armenians he had befriended in Berlin in 1918-1920. Based on his journey, 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
.
, who imprisoned and tortured him. He was subsequently interned in the Nazi concentration camps
at Oranienburg, Börgermoor and Lichtenburg, among others; upon his release, he fled to Rome
, where he assumed the alias Percy Eckstein to conceal his identity. 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
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.
A documentary film depicting Wegner's personal account of the Armenian Genocide through his own photographs called "Destination Nowhere: The Witness" and produced by Dr. J. Michael Hagopian premiered in Fresno on 25 April 2000. Prior to the release of the documentary he was honored at the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan for championing the plight of Armenians throughout his life.
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. 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.
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
soldier and medic in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, a prolific author and a seminal figure in German Expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
, a human rights activist, and a victim of Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
persecution. Stationed in the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Wegner was a witness to the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
and the photographs he took documenting the plight of the Armenians today "comprises the core of witness images of the Genocide."
In the years following the end of World War I, Wegner also voiced his opposition, at great risk to his own life, against the anti-semitic policies of the Nazis. In 1933, he authored an impassioned plea to Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
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." 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
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
, 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!" For his efforts, he has been recognized by Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
as Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
.
Education
Wegner was born in the town of Elberfeld, RhinelandRhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
(Wuppertal
Wuppertal
Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the Wupper river valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf and south of the Ruhr area. With a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land...
) in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Educated at first in Streigau (modern Strzegom
Strzegom
Strzegom is a town in Świdnica County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district called Gmina Strzegom. It lies approximately north-west of Świdnica, and west of the regional capital Wrocław...
), he later pursued further study in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Breslau, and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. Upon completing his doctoral studies in law, he began to travel broadly throughout North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
, Arabia, and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. 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."
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 CrossIron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
for assisting wounded under fire. With the rank of second lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
, he then served in the German Sanitary Corps under Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz
Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz
Wilhelm Leopold Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz also known as Goltz Pasha, was a Prussian Field Marshal and military writer.-Military career:...
, following the military alliance of Germany and the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. Wegner was part of a German detachment under von der Goltz stationed near the Baghdad Railway
Baghdad Railway
The Baghdad Railway , was built from 1903 to 1940 to connect Berlin with the Ottoman Empire city of Baghdad with a line through modern-day Turkey, Syria, and Iraq....
in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
; here, Wegner witnessed the death marches of Armenians that have come to be known as the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
.
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 in Deir ez-Zor, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, 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 by hiding the negatives in his belt.
Wegner protested against the atrocities perpetrated by the Ottoman government against the Armenian people in an open letter, published in the Berliner Tageblatt
Berliner Tageblatt
The Berliner Tageblatt or BT was a German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872-1939. Along with the Frankfurter Zeitung, it became one of the most important liberal German newspapers of its time.-History:...
, submitted to American President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
at the peace conference of 1919. The letter made a case for the creation of an independent Armenian state. Also in 1919, Wegner published Der Weg ohne Heimkehr (The Road of No Return), a collection of letters he had written during what he deemed the "martyrdom" (German: "Martyrium") of the Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
n Armenians.
Weimar period
In Germany after the war, Wegner married author Lola Landau, and became an activist espousing pacifismPacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
. 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
Johannes Lepsius
Johannes Lepsius was a German Protestant missionary, Orientalist, and humanist with a special interest in trying to prevent the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. He initially studied mathematics and philosophy in Munich and a PhD in 1180 with an already award-winning work...
, and other dissenters and journalists.http://gariwo.net/eng/armenia/wegner.htm
In 1921 Wegner testified at the trial of Soghomon Tehlirian
Soghomon Tehlirian
Soghomon Tehlirian was a native of Yerznka, an Armenian Evangelical survivor...
, the Ottoman Armenian who had killed Talat Pasha in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. 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
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
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 Der Schrei von Ararat (The Scream from Ararat
Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat is a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in Turkey. It has two peaks: Greater Ararat and Lesser Ararat .The Ararat massif is about in diameter...
), 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
German Expressionism
German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...
. In 1927-8, he and his wife traveled to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and also visited the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia, where he met with several Armenians he had befriended in Berlin in 1918-1920. Based on his journey, 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
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
.
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 GestapoGestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
, who imprisoned and tortured him. He was subsequently interned in the Nazi concentration camps
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
at Oranienburg, Börgermoor and Lichtenburg, among others; upon his release, he fled to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, where he assumed the alias Percy Eckstein to conceal his identity. 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
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 NationsRighteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
by Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
. A year later, he was invited to Armenia by the Catholicos
Catholicos
Catholicos, plural Catholicoi, is a title used for the head of certain churches in some Eastern Christian traditions. The title implies autocephaly and in some cases is borne by the designated head of an autonomous church, in which case the holder might have other titles such as Patriarch...
of All Armenians and awarded the Order of Saint Gregory the Illuminator.
He died at the age of 92 in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. Some of his ashes were later taken to Armenia to be honored at a posthumous state funeral near the Armenian Genocide Monument
Tsitsernakaberd
Tsitsernakaberd is a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Armenian Genocide; it is located on a hill overlooking Yerevan, Armenia. Every year on April 24, hundreds of thousands of Armenians gather here to remember the victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide that took place in the Ottoman Empire...
's perpetual flame.
A documentary film depicting Wegner's personal account of the Armenian Genocide through his own photographs called "Destination Nowhere: The Witness" and produced by Dr. J. Michael Hagopian premiered in Fresno on 25 April 2000. Prior to the release of the documentary he was honored at the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan for championing the plight of Armenians throughout his life.
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. 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
Pope Gregory VII
Pope St. Gregory VII , born Hildebrand of Sovana , was Pope from April 22, 1073, until his death. One of the great reforming popes, he is perhaps best known for the part he played in the Investiture Controversy, his dispute with Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor affirming the primacy of the papal...
in 1085.
Further reading
- Armin T. Wegner and the Armenians in Anatolia, 1915. Milan: Guerini e Associati, 1996.
External links
- "Armin T. Wegner." Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide.
- Armin Wegner's photography depicting the Armenian Genocide Brief an Hitler Armin Wegner's letter to Adolf Hitler, 1933.
- Armin T. Wegner Society
- Biography of Armin T. Wegner
- Armin T. Wegner on Find A Grave
- On May 23, 1967, Yad Vashem decided to recognize Armin Wegner as Righteous Among the Nations