Paul Wegener

Paul Wegener (1 October 1908 – 5 May 1993) was a German Nazi Party official and politician who served as the Gauleiter of Gau Weser-Ems as well as the Reichsstatthalter of both Bremen and the Free State of Oldenburg. Early life Wegener was born in Varel, the son of a physician. He attended volksschule and realschule in Varel before graduating from the Ballenstedt gymnasium in 1926. He then trained in agriculture at the Colonial Training School in Witzenhausen, receiving certification in colonial administration in 1928. He served an apprenticeship in an import/export business in Bremen for two years and then was employed until 1931 as a buyer for Daimler Benz, also in Bremen. Nazi Party functionary Wegener joined the Nazi Party on 1 August 1930 (membership number 286,225) and the Sturmabteilung (SA) on 1 February 1931. He became the Ortsgruppenleiter for the Ortsgruppe (Local Group) in Varel on 10 April 1931, and was at the time the youngest person holding such a post. From the autumn of 1931 to 1 January 1932 he served as the adjutant to a battalion leader of Standarte 19 in Varel. His next assignments through October 1933 were as the SA-Standartenführer of Standarte 19 and then Standarte 75 in Bremen. He was promoted to Kreisleiter (District Leader) for Bremen on 11 March 1933, also serving as the propaganda leader there. He also became a Bremen City Councilor and a member of the Bremen State Parliament in that year. On 12 November 1933, Wegener was elected to the Reichstag for electoral constituency 14, Weser-Ems. Wegener would remain a Reichstag Deputy until the end of the Nazi regime.