Army Ordnance Office (Heereswaffenamt)

The Army Ordnance Office (HWA, Heereswaffenampt) was a military authority in Berlin, the central office for the technical development and production of weapons, ammunition, and equipment for the German Army (armaments research). The agency employed approximately 5,000 officials and officers.

The former Military Technical Academy , the Cranzbau (1904/05) on Hertzallee on the former site of the HWA
Former HWA headquarters, Jebensstraße/ Hertzallee , Berlin

Courtyard of the former Army Ordnance Office
Court monument, St. Barbara with hand grenade in her left hand

The organization’s predecessors were the Quartermaster Service , the rear services , and the Rifle Examination Commission and the Artillery Examination Commission . After the First World War , the aforementioned examination commissions were dissolved, and on November 8, 1919, the Weapons Office ( Inspection for Weapons and Equipment ) was established in the Reich Defense Ministry under Colonel (later Lieutenant General ) Wurtzbacher. The agency was renamed the Army Weapons Office (HWA) on May 5, 1922.

In peacetime it was directly subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army , but since the beginning of the Second World War on 1 September 1939 it was subordinate to the Chief of Army Armaments and Commander of the Reserve Army, Friedrich Fromm .

The HWA’s headquarters were located in Berlin at Hardenbergstrasse 29 (location). The building was destroyed during the air raids on Berlin and later demolished. The Jebensstrasse/ Hertzallee building complex was also used by the HWA. In the courtyard of Jebensstrasse 1 (location) is a statue of Saint Barbara (patron saint of artillerymen), which was created by Otto Schulz in 1930 as a memorial to the fallen of the Artillery Examination Commission .

Weapons, equipment and equipment were tested at the Army Research Centers in Kummersdorf and Peenemünde as well as at other locations.

The Army Ordnance Office worked closely with the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWG) during the clandestine rearmament before 1933, as well as during the Nazi era and the Second World War. The KWG played a central role in securing military-related research. Conversely, the Army Ordnance Office’s mandates often ensured the viability of the KWG’s institutes. Attempts by the Ordnance Office to assert military primacy within the KWG failed, but the KWG’s “laboratory warriors” repeatedly asserted themselves. ^[ 1 ]

When developing a rifle scope in 1938, the HWA wanted one with four-fold magnification. However, due to pressure from industry and “very high” party officials, a technically excellent but militarily unusable rifle scope with one and a half-fold magnification was developed and introduced. During the war, the demand for a rifle scope with four-fold magnification arose, and it was introduced around 1942. ^[ 2 ]

On 30 April 1942, an “Industrial Council of the OKH” was formed to advise the Army Ordnance Office. Its members were: Walter Rohland as executive chairman, Albert Vögler , Edmund Geilenberg , Wilhelm Zangen , Erich Müller , Ferdinand Porsche , Arthur Tix , Director Karl Lange, Erich Matthias ( WASAG ), General Director Paul Müller ( Dynamit Nobel AG ), General Director Wolff. ^[ 3 ]

In the second half of the war, the leadership of weapons development was shifted to the committees and commissions of industry . According to Erich Schneider , in addition to political reasons, the desire of certain industrial circles for so-called self-responsibility played a significant role, after the efforts of the then head of the HWA, Karl Becker , to combine the weapons offices of the three Wehrmacht branches were thwarted by intrigue. ^[ 4 ]

Structure as of January 3, 1939

Wa A – Army Weapons Office ^[ 5 ]^[ 6 ]

Wa Z – Central Office Group ^[ 6 ]
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- Wa Z 1 – Organization
- Wa Z 2 – Finalization and contract
- Wa Z 3 – Representatives acting under the instructions of the Managing Director
- Wa Z 4 – classified
- Wa Z 5 – Library
- Wa Z 6 – Commandant’s Office
Wa Abn – Army Acceptance Department ^[ 6 ]
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- Wa Abn Z – technical and statistical department, personnel and budget
- Wa Abn 1 – Acceptance of weapons and equipment
- Wa Abn 2 – Acceptance of ammunition
- Wa Abn 3 – Acceptance of motor vehicle
- Wa Abn 4 – Acceptance of teaching and machine equipment
Wa F – Research Department ^[ 6 ]
Wa Prüf – Office Group for Development and Testing ^[ 6 ]
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- Wa Prüf 1 – Ballistic and Ammunition Department
- Wa Prüf 2 – Infantry Division
- Wa Prüf 4 – Artillery Department
- Wa Prüf 5 – Pioneer and Fortress Pioneer Division (Pioneer Testing Station Sperenberg )
- Wa Prüf 6 – Motor Vehicle and Motorization Department
- Wa Prüf 7 – News Department
- Wa Prüf 8 – Department of Optics, Metrology and Army Weather Service ( Kummersdorf and Bad Saarow )
- Wa Prüf 9 – Gas Protection Department (Gas Protection Laboratory Spandau and Test Group Munster Nord)
- Wa Prüf 11 – Department for Special Equipment
- Wa Prüf 12 – Department for test sites (test sites Kummersdorf, Hillersleben , Peenemünde , Rügenwalde and Munster Nord )
- Wa Prüf Fest. – Department for Fortifications
Wa I Rü (WuG) – Office Group for Industrial Armaments (Weapons and Equipment) ^[ 6 ]
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- Wa I Rü (WuG) 1 – general army equipment ^[ 6 ]
- Wa I Rü (WuG) 2 – Weapons
- Wa I Rü (WuG) 5 – pioneer device
- Wa I Rü (WuG) 6 – Motor vehicle
- Wa I Rü (WuG) 7 – Communications device
Wa I Rü (Mun) – Office Group for Industrial Armaments (Ammunition) ^[ 6 ]
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- Wa I Rü (Mun) 1 – Projectiles
- Wa I Rü (Mun) 2 – Mines, detonators, shells
- Wa I Rü (Mun) 3 – chemical ammunition
- Wa I Rü (Mun) 4 – infantry ammunition up to 2 cm
- Wa I Rü (Mun) 5 – packing vessels
Wa Vs – Regulations Department ^[ 6 ]

Furthermore, the following were affiliated: ^[ 5 ]

L Flak – Office Group for Flak Development, subordinate to the Reich Air Ministry
Ztschr – Wehrmacht Magazine Department, subordinate to the High Command of the Wehrmacht

The Army Ordnance Office was reorganized several times during the war. On July 1, 1944, it consisted of the staff with the research department and six departmental groups:

Wa Z – Central Office Group (Organization and Planning)
Wa Prüf – Office Group for Development and Testing
Wa Chef Ing – Chief Engineer Office Group
Wa I Rü (WuG) – Office Group for Weapons and Equipment
Wa I Rü (Mun) – Office Group for Ammunition
Wa Abn – Official Group for Acceptance

Tasks

As the Wehrmacht rearmed, the importance of the Army Ordnance Office continued to grow. Its core tasks included: ^[ 7 ]

The use of science and research for the planning of weapons, equipment and ammunition of all kinds
Development of all types of ground-based weapons, military equipment and ammunition
Procurement of weapons and ammunition for the army, partly also for the navy and air force
Preparation of procurement documents for weapons, ammunition and military equipment
technical monitoring of the production of weapons, ammunition and military equipment, introduction of new production processes, creation of new capacities
Representation of the Army in all patent and design protection matters concerning weapons, ammunition and equipment
Standardization of weapons, ammunition and military equipment
Preparation and maintenance of all technical regulations and production documents for weapons, ammunition and military equipment, including firing orders, as well as the weapons-related part of the training regulations
Determination of the shooting principles for the various weapons and their recording in shooting tables and other aids and regulations for shooting, processing of the weather service
Participation in all tactical and shooting-related questions
Acceptance of weapons, ammunition and military equipment
Monitoring the technical training of officers
Determination of requirements, recognition and allocation of contingent and managed raw materials for the Army High Command, resolution of supply difficulties with raw materials
Calculation of multi-economic figures using the most modern organizational machines (punch cards) for the Army High Command
Orders and orders to the multi-economic branch offices
Support of officials and technical staff belonging to Wa A and its branches
Recording and cataloging of captured weapons in the identification sheets of foreign equipment

Head of the Army Ordnance Office

name	from	until
Lieutenant General Ludwig Wurtzbacher (1870–1926) ^[ 8 ]	June 1, 1920	March 1, 1925
Major General Erich von Botzheim (1871–1958)	March 2, 1925	February 28, 1926
Lieutenant General Max Ludwig (1871–1961)	March 1, 1926	May 30, 1929
Lieutenant General Alfred von Vollard-Bockelberg (1874–1945)	June 1, 1929	November 30, 1933
Lieutenant General Kurt Liese (1882–1945)	December 1, 1933	February 28, 1938
General of the Artillery Karl Becker (1879–1940) ^[ 9 ]	March 1, 1938	April 8, 1940
General of Artillery Emil Leeb (1881–1969)	April 16, 1940	February 1, 1945
General of the Infantry Walter Buhle (1894–1959)	February 1, 1945	May 8, 1945

Situation in 1945

The expansion of the Army Ordnance Office into the Wehrmacht Ordnance Office, ordered by the Chief of Army Armaments, General of the Infantry Walter Buhle, on January 15, 1945, was limited to initial stages due to the worsening situation at the front. In mid-April 1945, the majority of the Army Ordnance Office, including its chief, was relocated to southern Bavaria and finally dissolved by order of April 27, 1945.

A famous development of the HWA was the railway gun ” Dora .” Before the establishment of the research facility in Peenemünde, initial research into rocket technology was conducted here.

literature

Peter Zimmermann: Technology for Armaments and War. 4. Military Technology and Military Science between the World Wars. (Reports from the Institute of Mechanics 89, 1.) Neubiberg 1989.
Helmut Maier: Research as a Weapon. Armaments Research in the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Metal Research 1900–1945/48. 2 volumes. Wallstein, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0109-2 .
Günter Nagel: Science for War. The Secret Works of the Research Department of the Army Ordnance Office, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 3-515-10173-X .
Rüdiger vom Bruch , Brigitte Kaderas (eds.): Science and Science Policy. Steiner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-515-08111-9 .
Michael Heidler: German production markings up to 1945 , Visier-Edition, VS-Medien GmbH, Bad Ems, ISBN 3-9811018-7-1 .
Hans-Henning Podzun: The German Army 1939. Structure, locations and list of all officers on January 3, 1939 , Publisher Podzun, Bad Nauheim 1953.
Army Ordnance Office: D. 30, Memo for Members of the Army Ordnance Office . Central Printing Office, Berlin 1941.

Individual references

Burghard Ciesla : The Army Ordnance Office and the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the “Third Reich.” Military Research Relations between 1918 and 1945. In: Helmut Maier (ed.): Joint Research, Plenipotentiaries, and Knowledge Transfer. The Role of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the System of War-Relevant Research under National Socialism . Göttingen 2007, pp. 75 f.
Emil Leeb : From the Armaments of the Third Reich (The Army Ordnance Office 1938-1945) . Supplement 4 of the Wehrtechnische Monatshefte (Wehrtechnische Monthly Magazine), published by the Working Group for Defense Technology . Berlin 1958, p. 35.
Dietrich Eichholtz : History of the German War Economy . Berlin 1985, Volume 2, p. 71.
Erich Schneider : Weapons Development. Experiences in the German Army Ordnance Office . In: Wehrwissenschaftliche Rundschau 1953, Issue 1, p. 34.
D. 30, Memo for members of the Army Ordnance Office . p. 5 .
D. 30, Memo for members of the Army Ordnance Office . p. 21 .
D. 30, Memo for members of the Army Ordnance Office . p. 6 .
Helmut Maier: Research as a Weapon. P. 267 (see literature).
Burkhard Cielsa: Karl Becker. In: Science and Science Policy. P. 263 (see literature).

Army Ordnance Office