Waffenamt

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Former Heereswaffenamt, Jebensstrasse corner Hertz Avenue, Berlin Heereswaffenamt 2014.jpg
Former Heereswaffenamt, Jebensstraße corner Hertz Avenue, Berlin
Former Army Ordnance Department (courtyard), Jebensstrasse corner Hertz Avenue Heereswaffenamt hof 2014.jpg
Former Army Ordnance Department (courtyard), Jebensstraße corner Hertz Avenue

Waffenamt (WaA) was the German Army Weapons Agency. It was the centre for research and development of the Weimar Republic and later the Third Reich for weapons, ammunition and army equipment to the German Reichswehr and then Wehrmacht. It was founded 8 November 1919 as Reichwaffenamt (RWA), and 5 May 1922 the name was changed to Heereswaffenamt (HWA).

The task of overseeing Germany's gigantic pre-World War II rearmament program was given to the Heeresabnahmestelle (the Army Acceptance Organization, commonly referred to as the Abnahme), a subsidiary of the Heereswaffenamt.

By 1940 the Abnahme consisted of 25,000 personnel in five departments in 16 inspection areas, augmented by specially selected plant personnel who were assigned to assist the Waffenamt inspectors in each manufacturing facility. Later, in the middle of 1944, approximately 8,000 of these Abnahme inspectors were "freed for service at the front".

The Heeres-Abnahmewesen was responsible for the testing and acceptance of all weapons, equipment and ammunition before delivery to the Wehrmacht. Inspections were carried out according to detailed guidelines called "Technische Lieferbedingungen" (TLs) prepared by the various Waffenprüfämter (WaPrüf) departments

When the rearmament program began, Waffenamt inspection departments were established in each factory and armourers were encouraged to apply for positions there. In preparation for their new duties they were given a four-week course at the Heereswaffenmeisterschule (Army Armourers School). The course ended with a test for Technical Inspector which raised the rank of each successful applicant to that of Oberleutnant (First Lieutenant). At the beginning of 1935, all inspection officials in the newly created program started on an equal footing as Technical Inspectors, but by the start of the war in 1939 nearly all of them had been promoted to Technical Inspector First Class with a rank of Hauptmann (Captain).

Waffenamt code (WaA) is the German inspection proof mark and can be found on firearms and equipment.

An example of a Waffenamt stamp. Waffenamt.jpg
An example of a Waffenamt stamp.

Chiefs of the Waffenamt

No.PortraitNameTook officeLeft officeTime in office
1
No image.png
Wurtzbacher, LudwigGeneralleutnant
Ludwig Wurtzbacher  [ de ]
(1870–1926)
1 June 19201 March 19254 years, 273 days
2
No image.png
Botzheim, ErichGeneralmajor
Erich von Botzheim  [ de ]
(1871–1961)
1 March 192528 February 1926364 days
3
Max Ludwig, General der Artillerie.JPG
Botzheim, ErichGeneralleutnant
Max Ludwig
(1871–1961)
1 March 192630 May 19293 years, 90 days
4
MajorAlfredVonVollardBockelberg.jpg
Botzheim, ErichGeneralleutnant
Alfred von Vollard-Bockelberg  [ de ]
(1874–1945)
1 June 192930 November 19334 years, 182 days
5
No image.png
Liese, KurtGeneralleutnant
Kurt Liese  [ de ]
(1882–1945)
1 December 193328 February 19384 years, 89 days
6
General Karl Becker.jpg
Becker, KarlGeneral der Artillerie
Karl Heinrich Emil Becker
(1879–1940)
1 March 19388 April 1940 2 years, 38 days
7
Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1978-Anh.024-02, Peenemunde, Leeb, Todt, Lubke, Dornberger (cropped).jpg
Leeb, EmilGeneral der Artillerie
Emil Leeb
(1881–1969)
16 April 19401 February 19454 years, 291 days
8
Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1978-127-21, Walter Buhle.jpg
Leeb, EmilGeneral der Infanterie
Walther Buhle
(1894–1959)
1 February 19458 May 194596 days

Related Research Articles

<i>Oberkommando des Heeres</i> Army High Command of the Wehrmacht

The Oberkommando des Heeres was the high command of the Army of Nazi Germany. It was founded in 1935 as part of Adolf Hitler's rearmament of Germany. OKH was de facto the most important unit within the German war planning until the defeat at Moscow in December 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bomb disposal</span> Activity to dispose of and render safe explosive munitions and other materials

Bomb disposal is an explosives engineering profession using the process by which hazardous explosive devices are disabled or otherwise rendered safe. Bomb disposal is an all-encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated functions in the military fields of explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and improvised explosive device disposal (IEDD), and the public safety roles of public safety bomb disposal (PSBD) and the bomb squad.

<i>Bundeswehr</i> Combined military forces of Germany

The Bundeswehr is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Bundeswehr is divided into a military part and a civil part, the military part consisting of the German Army, the German Navy, the German Air Force, the Joint Support Service, the Joint Medical Service, and the Cyber and Information Domain Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Dornberger</span> German Army artillery officer

Major-General Dr. Walter Robert Dornberger was a German Army artillery officer whose career spanned World War I and World War II. He was a leader of Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket programme and other projects at the Peenemünde Army Research Centre. After the war, the US Nazi scientist recruitment programme Operation Paperclip saw him move to the US, largely avoiding punishment for involvement in war crimes, to work for some decades in high positions in aerospace, including for Bell Aircraft and Boeing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German Army</span> Land warfare branch of Germanys military

The German Army is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German Bundeswehr together with the Marine and the Luftwaffe. As of 2024, the German Army had a strength of 63,047 soldiers.

Historically, an armourer is a person who makes personal armour, especially plate armour. Historically armourers were often men, but women could also undertake the occupation: for example Alice la Haubergere worked as an armourer in Cheapside in the early 1300s and in 1348 Eustachia l’Armurer was training her husband's daughter, likely in the field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Army Ordnance Corps</span> Former corps of the British Army (1918 – 1993)

The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equipment, ammunition and clothing and certain minor functions such as laundry, mobile baths and photography. The RAOC was also responsible for a major element of the repair of Army equipment. In 1942 the latter function was transferred to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) and the vehicle storage and spares responsibilities of the Royal Army Service Corps were in turn passed over to the RAOC. The RAOC retained repair responsibilities for ammunition, clothing and certain ranges of general stores. In 1964 the McLeod Reorganisation of Army Logistics resulted in the RAOC absorbing petroleum, rations and accommodation stores functions from the Royal Army Service Corps as well as the Army Fire Service, barrack services, sponsorship of NAAFI (EFI) and the management of staff clerks from the same Corps. On 5 April 1993, the RAOC was one of the corps that amalgamated to form The Royal Logistic Corps (RLC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Army Ordnance Corps</span> U.S. Army branch charged with the supply of weapons and ammunition

The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia. The broad mission of the Ordnance Corps is to supply Army combat units with weapons and ammunition, including at times their procurement and maintenance. Along with the Quartermaster Corps and Transportation Corps, it forms a critical component of the U.S. Army logistics system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Australian Army Ordnance Corps</span> Military unit

The Royal Australian Army Ordnance Corps (RAAOC) is the Corps within the Australian Army concerned with supply and administration, as well as the demolition and disposal of explosives and salvage of battle-damaged equipment. The Corps contains clerks, operator supplies, petroleum operators, parachute riggers and ammunition technicians. Members of the Corps are nicknamed Roaches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kongsberg Colt</span> Semi-automatic pistol

The Kongsberg Colt is a nickname used for Colt M1911 pistols produced under license by the Norwegian factory Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk.

<i>Feldgendarmerie</i> German military police

The Feldgendarmerie were a type of military police units of the armies of the Kingdom of Saxony, the German Empire and Nazi Germany until the conclusion of World War II in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">7.5 cm Pak 97/38</span> Anti-tank gun

The Pak 97/38 was a German anti-tank gun used by the Wehrmacht in World War II. The gun was a combination of the barrel from the French Canon de 75 modèle 1897 fitted with a Swiss Solothurn muzzle brake and mounted on the carriage of the German 5 cm Pak 38 and could fire captured French and Polish ammunition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berlin-Lübecker Maschinenfabrik</span> German firearm manufacturer, 1936–1945

Berlin-Lübecker Maschinenfabrik (BLM) was a manufacturer of handguns, infantry rifles, ammunition up to 2 cm, flareguns and precision military equipment in Germany from 1936 to 1945. The company, based in Lübeck, Germany, was one of a number of metal-related businesses owned by Bernhard Berghaus, a German industrialist and member of the Nazi party who played an important role in the rearmament of Germany during the Third Reich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German Army (1935–1945)</span> 1935–1945 land warfare branch of the German military

The German Army was the land forces component of the Wehrmacht, the regular armed forces of Nazi Germany, from 1935 until it effectively ceased to exist in 1945 and then was formally dissolved in August 1946. During World War II, a total of about 13.6 million soldiers served in the German Army. Army personnel were made up of volunteers and conscripts.

General of the Artillery was a historical military rank in some German and Austro-Hungarian armies, specifically in artillery. It was commonly used in the 16th and 17th centuries, and survived until the beginning of the 20th century in some European countries. In the army of the Habsburg Empire, the rank of Feldzeugmeister was equivalent with lieutenant general.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polish Air Force University</span> University for the Polish Air Force

The Polish Air Force Academy is located in Dęblin, eastern Poland. Established in 1927 during the interwar period, the Polish Air Force University is an accredited university for the undergraduate education of officers for the Polish Air Force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Heinrich Emil Becker</span> German general (1879-1940)

Karl Heinrich Emil Becker was a German weapons engineer and artillery general. He advocated and implemented close ties of the military to science for purposes of advanced weapons development. He was the head of the Army Ordnance Office, Senator of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, first president of the Reich Research Council, the first general officer to be a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, as well as being a professor at both the University of Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seitengewehr 42</span> WWII German knife and bayonet

The Seitengewehr 42, also called the Infanteriemesser 42 or Kampfmesser 42, was a bayonet and multi-purpose knife used by the Wehrmacht.

The German designations of foreign firearms in World War II is a list of known foreign firearms and equipment compiled by the German armed forces before World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">People's Commissariat of Defense of the Soviet Union</span> Highest military department of U.S.S.R. from 1934 to 1946.

The People's Commissariat of Defence of the Soviet Union was the highest military department of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946.

References