Bernhard Wehner (15 December 1909 – 31 December 1995) was a German criminal inspector, ''

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe d ...

'' (SS) officer, and journalist. During the postwar period, he was a criminologist and writer for the news magazine ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

''.

Biography

After graduating with a law degree, he joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

in 1931 and the SS in 1940.Hett, Benjamin Carter (2014). ''Burning the Reichstag'', p. 250. In 1942, he was promoted to the rank of SS-''

Hauptsturmführer __NOTOC__ (, ; short: ''Hstuf'') was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organizations such as the SS, NSKK and the NSFK. The rank of ''Hauptsturmführer'' was a mid-level commander and had equivalent seniority to a ...

'' (captain). Wehner worked under

Arthur Nebe Arthur Nebe (; 13 November 1894 – 21 March 1945) was a German Schutzstaffel, SS functionary who was key in the security and police apparatus of Nazi Germany and from 1941, a major perpetrator of the Holocaust. Nebe rose through the ranks of ...

, chief of the

Kripo ''Kriminalpolizei'' (, "criminal police") is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany, the Kripo was the criminal polic ...

, which after 27 September 1939 was Department V of the

RSHA The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and ''Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Nazi ...

. Department V was also known as the ''Reichskriminalpolizeiamt'' (Reich Criminal Police Department or RKPA). In 1942, Wehner led sub-department BI a2 within RSHA Department V (RKPA), to combat capital crimes. That same year, he published a book as to the alleged "criminal investigation results" of thousands of "Polish atrocities" against "ethnic Germans"; stating that Poland was responsible for the September 1939 German invasion and occupation of the country. He also took part in the investigation of the death of

Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...

in 1942. After the assassination attempt against

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

on 20 July 1944, Wehner was flown with three other Berlin criminologists to the

Wolf's Lair The ''Wolf's Lair'' (german: Wolfsschanze; pl, Wilczy Szaniec) served as Adolf Hitler's first Eastern Front military headquarters in World War II. The headquarters was located in the Masurian woods, near the small village of Görlitz in Ostp ...

. Together with Albert Widmann and Horst Kopkow, he reconstructed the events. He reported the conclusions of the investigation to Hitler. Wehner later organized the search for Arthur Nebe, who was wanted as a co-conspirator. After the war ended in 1945, Wehner was interned. After he was released in early April 1946, he worked for a time as a driver at the British military authorities in Bad Harzburg. Wehner went on to work as a criminologist and writer for ''Der Spiegel'' news magazine. He tried to diminish the crimes of the criminal police and its relationship with the ''

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...

'' (SD) and

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

during the Nazi era. According to author Benjamin Carter Hett, Wehner and Walter Zirpins were the "two most important post-war promoters of a sanitized version of the history of the German criminal police" in the 1950s. In 1954, Wehner became head of the criminal police department in Düsseldorf and remained there until 1970. He also served as editor and writer of the professional journal, "Criminology".Bernhard Wehner: ''Dem Täter auf der Spur. Die Geschichte der deutschen Kriminalpolizei.'' Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1983, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wehner, Bernhard 1909 births 1995 deaths Reich Security Main Office personnel 20th-century German writers SS-Hauptsturmführer 20th-century German male writers Der Spiegel people