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.

[2] On 11 July 1934, Wegener made an important career move by becoming the adjutant to Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, then the Chief of Staff in the office of the Deputy Führer.

[3] In an assessment report dated 20 August 1936, Bormann wrote of Wegener: “reliable … hard working, absolutely loyal, pronounced leadership type, who is able to win over people … has a good knowledge of the party’s organization and internal conditions … Possesses all prerequisites for high party office.”[4]At the same time, Wegener was made a Prussian Provincial Councilor for Brandenburg and Posen-West Prussia.

From the start, Wegener was hostile to the notion that Vidkun Quisling should take a leading role in the new government, instead favouring the idea that the Nazis should establish their own administrative system in Norway.

[9] Eventually when it was decided to include Quisling, Wegener took up his next assignment on 1 October as the leader of a special task force acting as political advisor and liaison officer to the Norwegian administration.

Named the Einsatzstab Wegener, it placed pro-Wegener men in each branch of the Nasjonal Samling, both to improve its organisation and to ensure complicity with the demands of the governing Nazis.

In this capacity, he had jurisdiction over civil defense and evacuation measures, as well as control over the war economy, including rationing and suppression of black market activities.

[12] On 23 April 1945, Wegener was given the newly created post of Supreme Reich Civil Defense Commissioner in the Northern Theater, appointed on the recommendation of Großadmiral Karl Dönitz.

By this time Bremen was already under siege by British army forces, but Wegener broadcast appeals to the populace to continue fighting to the last man, and refused to consider surrender negotiations.

[16] Interned at Camp Ashcan and later at Fallingbostel, Wegener underwent denazification proceedings in Bielefeld for his leadership role in the Nazi Party and the SS.

Further charged in the Oldenburg district court in connection with civilian deaths, he was found guilty in June 1950 but received no additional prison time.