Wolfgang Foerster (born 4 August 1875 in Breslau; died 14 October 1963 in

Icking Icking is a municipality in the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen in Bavaria in Germany. People * Anita Augspurg, lived in Icking from 1916 until she fled the Nazis * Dieter Borsche, actor, lived in Icking in the beginning of the '60s. * Bern ...

) was a German officer and military historian. His biography of General

Ludwig Beck Ludwig August Theodor Beck (; 29 June 1880 – 20 July 1944) was a German general and Chief of the German General Staff during the early years of the Nazi regime in Germany before World War II. Although Beck never became a member of the Na ...

provided important source material for

William Shirer William Lawrence Shirer (; February 23, 1904 – December 28, 1993) was an American journalist and war correspondent. He wrote ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', a history of Nazi Germany that has been read by many and cited in scholarly w ...

’s seminal book, “

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany'' is a book by American journalist William L. Shirer in which the author chronicles the rise and fall of Nazi Germany from the birth of Adolf Hitler in 1889 to the end of World W ...

”.

Life

Wolfgang Foerster, the younger brother of Otfried Foerster, left school in 1894 and joined the Prussian army as an officer cadet (

Fahnenjunker ''Fahnenjunker'' (short Fhj or FJ, en, officer cadet; ) is a military rank of the Bundeswehr and of some former German armed forces. In earlier German armed forces it was also the collective name for many officer aspirant ranks. It was establi ...

). He went on to pursue a career in the army general staff. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Foerster served in the general staff of the 5th Army Corps and later became head of the general staff of the 66th Generalkommando.''Ehren-Rangliste des ehemaligen Deutschen Heeres n German', Hrsg.: Deutscher Offizier-Bund, E. S. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1926, S. 44 In 1920 he was discharged from military service with the rank of

Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

(

Oberstleutnant () is a senior field officer rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Lieutenant colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway. The Swedi ...

). He moved directly into the role of senior archivist at the Reichsarchiv. There, in 1931, Foerster became director of the history department and, then, in 1937, director of the Research Institute for Army and War History ( Forschungsanstalt für Heeres- und Kriegsgeschichte), renamed the War History Research Institute ( Kriegsgeschichtliche Forschungsanstalt des Heeres) later that year. Finally, in 1944, he was awarded the title of professor; a position he held until his retirement the following year. He died on October 14, 1963, at the age of 88, in Icking.

Writing

Following the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Foerster wrote a biography on the life of General

, who had been executed in 1944 for his involvement in the 20 July Plot. The book was a source for William Shirer’s book “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”, and was especially important in explaining the events leading up the dismissal of General

Werner von Blomberg Werner Eduard Fritz von Blomberg (2 September 1878 – 13 March 1946) was a German General Staff officer and the first Minister of War in Adolf Hitler's government. After serving on the Western Front in World War I, Blomberg was appointed chi ...

, the Minister of War ( Reichskriegsminister) and head of the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

, in early 1938.

References

* ''Der deutsche Zusammenbruch 1918''. Verlag Eisenschmidt, Berlin 1925. * ''Der Feldherr Ludendorff im Unglück. Eine Studie über seine seelische Haltung in der Endphase des ersten Weltkrieges''. Limes-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1952. * ''Generaloberst

. Sein Kampf gegen den Krieg; aus nachgelassenen Papieren des Generalstabschefs''. Isar-Verlag, München 1953 (früherer Titel ''Ein General kämpft gegen den Krieg''). * '' Graf Schlieffen und der Weltkrieg''. Verlag Mittler, Berlin 1921 (3 Bde.) # ''Die deutsche Westoffensive 1914 bis zur Marneschlacht''. 1921. # ''Die Ostoffensive 1915 in Galizien und in Rußland''. 1921. # ''

Verdun Verdun (, , , ; official name before 1970 ''Verdun-sur-Meuse'') is a large city in the Meuse department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department. Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital ...

1916''. 1921. * ''

Moltke The House of Moltke is the name of an old German noble family. The family was originally from Mecklenburg, but apart from Germany, some of the family branches also resided throughout Scandinavia. Members of the family have been noted as pigfarme ...

. Persönlichkeit und Werk''. Limpert Verlag, Berlin 1941. * ''Prinz Friedrich Karl von Preußen. Denkwürdigkeiten aus seinem Leben''. DVA, Stuttgart 1910/11 (2.Bde.). * Als Herausgeber: ''Kämpfer an vergessenen Fronten. Feldzugsbriefe, Kriegstagebücher und Berichte. Kolonialkrieg, Seekrieg, Luftkrieg, Spionage'', Berlin (Deutsche Buchvertriebsstelle. Abteilung für Veröffentlichungen aus amtlichen Archiven) 1931.

Literature

* * *

Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foerster, Wolfgang Prussian Army personnel German Army personnel of World War I German military historians 1875 births 1963 deaths Military personnel from Wrocław 20th-century German writers 20th-century German historians 20th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers Writers from Wrocław