WEGNER ARMIN Theophil (1886-1978) was a German writer and poet. In 1915-16 as an officer of the Medical Service in the army of General  Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, he was in Mesopotamia, at the same time he was a war correspondent for several German newspapers. During his stay in Turkey, Wegner witnessed the crimes of the Young Turks’ government. Unlike many other German soldiers, who were indifferent to the massacre and sufferings of the Armenians, Wegner tried to draw the attention of the German public to those atrocities, but in vain. 

In 1919, he delivered lectures in many cities of Germany, telling about the sufferings of the Armenians deported to deserts and showing dispositives. In the same year, Wegner wrote his famous "Open Letter to US President Woodrow Wilson", seeking punishment for the perpetrators of the Genocide. He raised the issue of providing moral and material support to the survivors, demanded to return Christian faith to thousands of Armenian women and children who were forcibly converted to Islam, to ensure the right of their return and compensation for the lost property.

On June 2-3, 1921 Wegner defended the national avenger, murderer of Talaat, S. Tehlirian during the trial. Wegner also wrote the preface to the verbatim record of the trial, which was published in Berlin (1921) entitled "The Trial of Talaat Pasha." He wrote the article “The Scream from Ararat” regarding the massacres in Izmir in 1922. In subsequent years Wegner continued to struggle for justice. 

He wrote a number of historical reviews and short stories on the tragic fate of the Western Armenians (“Road without Return”, “Armeniada”, “To the Armenian Mother”, etc.). After Hitler's coming into power, Wegner was engaged in anti-fascist activities, was against the persecution of Jews, wrote an open letter to Hitler for which he was persecuted. Escaping from prison and miraculously surviving, Wegner settled in England, and after the WWI - in Italy. Wegner visited Armenia in 1927 and 1968.

R. Sahakyan

Source- Encyclopedia “The Armenian Question”, Yerevan, 1996.

 
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