[1] After military service in the Bundeswehr, Wegner studied history, philosophy and political science at the Universities of Tübingen, Vienna and Hamburg.
He earned his PhD in 1980 at the University of Hamburg, completing his dissertation under Klaus-Jürgen Müller (historian) [de] at the History Department.
Since 1997, Wegner is a professor of Modern History of Western Europe at the Helmut Schmidt University of the Bundeswehr (Federal Armed Forces) in Hamburg.
He is also one of the authors of the seminal work Germany and the Second World War from the Military History Research Office (MGFA) contributing to several volumes of the series.
[1] Wegner was the editor of the 1998 collection of essays that appeared in English as From Peace to War: Germany, Soviet Russia, and the World, 1939–1941 published by Berghahn Books.