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Ulrich Wegener

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Ulrich Wegener
Born(1929-08-22)22 August 1929
Jüterbog, Weimar Republic
Died28 December 2017(2017-12-28) (aged 88)
Windhagen, Germany
Allegiance West Germany
Service/branchBereitschaftspolizei (Rapid Response Riot Police)
Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Guard)
Years of service1952–1989 (State Police until 1958 and Federal Border Guard until 1989)
RankBrigadier General
CommandsBundesgrenzschutz
Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (GSG 9)
Grenzschutzgruppe 2 (15th Company/GSG 2)
Battles/warsBattle of Berlin
Operation Entebbe
Lufthansa Flight 181 (Operation Magic Fire)[1]
AwardsCommander's Cross of the Federal Cross of Merit

Ulrich Klaus "Ricky" Wegener (22 August 1929 – 28 December 2017) was a German police officer of the Federal Border Guard (holding the rank of Brigadier General and the official title of Commander of the Federal Border Guard, Border Guard Command West).[2] He was also the commander and founding member of the federal counter-terrorism force GSG 9 (Grenzschutzgruppe 9).[2][3][4]

Early life

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Wegener was born in Jüterbog, Brandenburg, Weimar Germany.[3] He was the son of an army officer and came from a family steeped in Prussian military tradition.[3][5] In late 1944, at the age of 15, as a member of the Hitler Youth,[3] he was briefly conscripted into the Battle of Berlin, the last major battle of the Second World War in Europe against the advancing Red Army.[5] After the war, he was briefly held in an American POW camp but returned to his hometown to continue his schooling.[5] In 1949, Wegener's home state of Brandenburg fell within the borders of communist East Germany (German Democratic Republic), where he began his studies in economics.[2][3] In the early 1950s, as a member of a student anti-communist group, he distributed dissident leaflets against the GDR government in the Soviet-occupied sector of East Berlin.[2][3] He was subsequently arrested and released from the GDR State Security (Stasi) prison after more than a year.[2][6] In 1952, Wegener fled to West Berlin before taking entrance exams in West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) for both an officer's career in the West German rapid response riot police (Bereitschaftspolizei) and the newly formed Federal Defence Forces (Bundeswehr).[2][3]

Career

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Wegener's police career began in 1952 with the rapid response riot police (Bereitschaftspolizei) of the state of Baden-Württemberg,[3] where he served as a police sergeant (Polizeiwachtmeister) on probation. Due to a lack of opportunities for advancement, Wegener applied for a career as an officer in the Bundeswehr and the Federal Border Guard (BGS, Bundesgrenzschutz). After passing the entrance exams, he decided to join the BGS in 1958.[3] Following his attendance at officer school in Lübeck, he was promoted to lieutenant (Leutnant) in the BGS in 1959.[2] He later became a company commander of the 15th/GSG 2 (15th company of the Border Guard Group 2) in Coburg, Bavaria. From 1970 to 1972, Wegener was the liaison officer for the BGS at the Federal Ministry of the Interior.[2][3] In 1972, he studied at the NATO Defense College in Rome, Italy.[3][2] Wegener was the first Federal Border Guard (Bundesgrenzschutz) officer to participate in this high-level training.[3]

Creation of GSG 9 following the Munich massacre

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Wegener was the Federal Border Guard (BGS, Bundesgrenzschutz) liaison officer at the Federal Ministry of the Interior during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.[3][2] Wegener witnessed the failure of the regular Bavarian State Police in the face of an unprecedented threat from Palestinian terrorists during the hostage-taking of the Israeli Olympic team, a type of threat previously unknown in Germany.[2][4] Even the presence of several hundred units of the Federal Border Guard (BGS) would not have changed the catastrophic outcome of the kidnappings. After the disaster, on 26 September 1972, Wegener was entrusted by the then Federal Minister of Interior, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, with the rapid formation of the counter-terrorism tactical unit Border Guard Group 9 (GSG 9, Grenzschutzgruppe 9) as its commander.[2][3][4]

The name GSG 9 is derived from the structure of the Federal Border Guard (BGS, Bundesgrenzschutz), which, at the time of the unit's founding, consisted of four border guard commands with a total of eight border guard groups (GSG 1 to 7 and Sea). Since the GSG 9 was not integrated into any of the existing structures, it was designated Border Guard Group 9 (Grenzschutzgruppe 9, GSG 9).

Counter-terrorism units were still a relatively unheard-of form of combating terrorism, with the only truly established groups at the time being Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) and Israel's Sayeret Matkal.[4] To this end, Wegener trained with both groups, assimilating many of their methods into the doctrine he would establish for the GSG 9.[7]

Wegener's time with the British SAS is well documented, but his training with the Israeli Sayeret Matkal (and alleged participation in the rescue of the Israeli hostages during Operation Entebbe in Uganda in 1976) is less publicized.[1][8]

In an interview in November 2000, he said: "There are some things I am not allowed to say yet because they have not been released. I can only say this much: I was in Entebbe in the interests of the Germans and Israelis, but also before the Israeli attack was carried out. We tried to gather information about the enemy, the terrorists, as well as about the possible supporters who were present in Uganda. We were very successful and were able to gather a great deal of information."

Storming of hijacked Lufthansa Flight 181 in Mogadishu

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Main article: Lufthansa Flight 181

Wegener was the GSG 9 commander during the liberation of the hostages taken by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on the Boeing 737 Landshut, operated by Lufthansa as flight 181, in Mogadishu, Somalia, on the night of October 17–18, 1977.[2] Leading one group, Wegener blew open the front door of the aircraft as the German GSG 9 commandos stormed the plane. Two terrorists were killed, one was fatally wounded, and the fourth was captured alive. Having both planned and led the successful operation to liberate the hostages of the Lufthansa 181 hijacking, Wegener was awarded the German Commander's Cross of the Federal Cross of Merit (Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz).[3][9]

Commander of the Federal Border Guard

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In 1979, Wegener relinquished command of the GSG 9 unit he had formed and was appointed Permanent Representative of the Inspectorate of the Federal Border Guard in the Federal Ministry of the Interior.[3] In 1981, he was appointed Brigadier General, taking command of the Federal Border Guard's Border Guard Command West until his retirement in 1989.[2][3]

Later life

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Wegener was considered one of the world's leading sought-after experts on counter-terrorism and advised on the establishment of numerous special units in other countries, including head of the German Advisory Group at the Royal Saudi Special Security Forces (SSF).[3][5] After his retirement, he continued to be a counterterrorism expert and international security advisor.[3] From the 1980s onwards, he lived in Windhagen in the Westerwald, gave lectures, and became a member of the political party Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). Wegener was also a member of the Security Committee of the Kötter Unternehmensgruppe (Kötter Group).[10]

Wegener was widowed to Magda and is survived by his daughters, Simone and Susanne. His daughter, Simone Stewens, is a television journalist and was the director of the International Film School Cologne.[5] Aged 88, Wegener died on 28 December 2017.[2][11][12]

Publications

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  • "Esprit de Corps!". Die Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (GSG 9) ("Esprit de Corps!" The Border Guard Group 9 (GSG 9)), in German. In: Reinhard Günzel Et al.: Geheime Krieger: Drei deutsche Kommandoverbände im Bild: KSK, Brandenburger, GSG 9 (Secret Warriors: Three German commando units in pictures: KSK, Brandenburgers, GSG 9), in German. Publisher: Pour le Mérite Verlag, Selent, 2006, ISBN 9783932381294, p. 87–125.
  • GSG 9 – Stärker als der Terror (GSG 9 – Stronger than Terror), in German. Edited by: Ulrike Zander, Harald Biermann, Publisher: Lit Verlag, Münster, 2017, ISBN 9783643137623.

Honours

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References

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  1. ^ a b Lanning, Michael Lee (2002). Blood Warriors: American Military Elites. New York: Random House. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-553-75647-0.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Kellerhoff, Sven Felix (29 September 2023). "Ulrich Wegener, Er schuf die GSG-9, die in Mogadischu die entführte "Landshut" befreite" [Ulrich Wegener, He created the GSG-9, which liberated the hijacked "Landshut" in Mogadishu] (in German). Berlin: Welt, Axel Springer Deutschland. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "Biografia: Ulrich Wegener 1929 - 2017" [Biography: Ulrich Wegener 1929 - 2017] (in German). Berlin: Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. 3 January 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d Berger Hobson, Ronit; Pedahzur, Ami (2022). "The Munich massacre and the proliferation of counterterrorism special operation forces". Israel Affairs. 28 (4). Milton Park: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group: 625–634. doi:10.1080/13537121.2022.2088134. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e Chan, Sewell; Eddy, Melissa (3 January 2018). "Ulrich Wegener, German Commando Who Ended 1977 Hijacking, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  6. ^ Interview with Wegener in Neue Presse, Hanover, on 26 November 2008
  7. ^ Sünkler, Sören (2006). "Die heimlichen Helden vom Rhein" (PDF). Caliber (in German). No. 7–8. pp. 16–22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 March 2007.
  8. ^ "Ulrich Wegener: the hero of Mogadishu hijacking dies". Sydney Morning Herald. 7 January 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  9. ^ "BAD KLEINEN: "Terrorist starb, na und?" - FOCUS Online". Focus.de (in German). Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  10. ^ "Die professionelle Symbiose aus Erfahrung und Know-how". Kötter Services (in German). Archived from the original on 26 November 2006. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  11. ^ Tiede, Peter (3 January 2018). "Der Held der 'Operation Feuerzauber'". Bild (in German). Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  12. ^ "GSG-9-Legende Ulrich Wegener ist tot". Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). dpa. 3 January 2018. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  13. ^ "Ulrich Wegner (left) is awarded the Federal Cross of Merit at the Chancellory in Bonn, West Germany, Oct. 20, 1977, by Hans-Juergen Wischnewski, minister of state in the chancellory". Chicago Sun Times.
  14. ^ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
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