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{{Short description|German officer and industrialist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox military person
| name = Walther Wenck
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1900|9|18}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1982|5|1|1900|9|18}}
| birth_place = [[Lutherstadt Wittenberg]], [[Province of Saxony]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[German Empire]]
| death_place = near [[Ried im Innkreis]], [[Ried im Innkreis District|Bezirk Ried im Innkreis]], [[Upper Austria]], [[Austria]]
| image = Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-237-1051-15A, Walter Wenck.jpg
| caption = Wenck in 1943
| nickname = Boy General
| allegiance = {{flag|Weimar Republic}} (
| branch = {{army|Weimar Republic}}<br />{{army|Nazi Germany}}
| serviceyears = 1920–45
| rank = [[File:General (Wehrmacht) 1.svg|40px]] [[General der Panzertruppe]]
| commands = [[12th Army (Wehrmacht)|12th Army]]
| unit =
| battles = [[World War I]] (noncombat)<br />[[World War II]]
| awards = [[Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross]]
| laterwork = Arms Manufacturing
}} '''Walther Wenck''' ({{IPA
Historians consider Wenck a capable commander and a brilliant improviser, although incapable of the impossible task he was given of saving Berlin in 1945.{{sfn|Mitcham|Mueller|2012|p=167}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Mcateer|first1=Sean M.|title=500 Days: The War in Eastern Europe, 1944-1945|date=2009|publisher=Dorrance Publishing|isbn=9781434961594|page=338|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bg8drRyDGhEC&pg=PA338}}</ref>{{sfn|O'Reilly|Dugard|2014|p=248}} His efforts and achievements have been captured by the Swedish power metal band [[Sabaton (band)|Sabaton]] in the song "Hearts of Iron".<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvP-qhjfvsc&pp=ygUWSGVhcnRzIG9mIElyb24gc2FiYXRvbg== |title=SABATON - Hearts Of Iron (Official Lyric Video) |date=2022-02-28 |last=Sabaton |access-date=2024-09-06 |via=YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZcKKvKUPqk&pp=ygUWSGVhcnRzIG9mIElyb24gc2FiYXRvbg== |title=Hearts of Iron – The Battle of Berlin – Sabaton History 017 [Official] |date=2019-05-30 |last=Sabaton History |access-date=2024-09-06 |via=YouTube}}</ref>
==Early life==
The third son of officer Maximilian Wenck, Walther was born in Wittenberg, Germany in 1900. In 1911 he joined the [[Naumburg]] [[Cadet Corps]] of the [[Prussian Army]]. From the spring of 1918 he went to the secondary military school in [[Groß-Lichterfelde|Gross-Lichterfeld]].
==Career==
From 1942 to 1943, he was chief of staff of "Army Detachment Hollidt", named after [[Karl-Adolf Hollidt]], which was subordinated to the [[Romanian Third Army|Third Romanian Army]]. In 1943, he was [[Chief of Staff]] of the ill-fated [[6th Army (Wehrmacht)|
On about 22 July 1944, Wenck was appointed Chief of Operations at [[Oberkommando des Heeres|OKH]], the High Command of the German Army, by [[Heinz Guderian]], who had just been appointed as OKH Chief of Staff by Hitler.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Guderian|first1=Heinz|title=Panzer Leader|date=1974|publisher=Futura Publications|page=343}}</ref> He was soon advanced to Chief of Command Staff (Chief of the
On 13 February 1945, after a long argument, Guderian persuaded Hitler to make Wenck chief of staff of [[Army Group Vistula]] (with the power to launch an attack) under Himmler.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tully|first1=Andrew|title=Berlin: The Story of a Battle|date=1963|publisher=eNet Press|isbn=9781618867285|pages=67–68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xz90AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA67}}</ref> Wenck's attack was initially successful, but Hitler requested him to attend daily Führer's briefings which forced him to make a daily round trip of {{convert|200
On 10 April 1945, Wenck was appointed commander of the German [[12th Army (Wehrmacht)|Twelfth Army]] located to the west of Berlin to guard against the advancing American and British forces. But, as the [[Western Front (World War II)|Western Front]] moved eastwards and the Eastern Front moved westwards, the German armies making up both fronts backed towards each other. As a result, the area of control of Wenck's army to his rear and east of the [[Elbe]] River had become a vast [[refugee camp]] for Germans fleeing from the approaching Soviet Army. Wenck took great pains to provide food and lodging for these refugees. At one stage, the Twelfth Army was estimated to be feeding more than a quarter of a million people every day.<ref>[[#Ryan1966|Ryan 1966]]: p. 443</ref>
===Battle of Berlin===
{{Main article|Battle of Berlin}}
{{Refimprove section|date=April 2008}}<!-- most of the needed references can be found in the article [[Battle of Berlin]] -->
On 21 April,
On 22 April, as Steiner retreated, Wenck's
Wenck's forces attacked towards Berlin, but they were halted outside of [[Potsdam]] by strong Soviet resistance. Neither Busse nor Holste made much progress towards Berlin. By the end of the day on 27 April, the Soviet forces encircling Berlin linked up and the forces inside the city were cut off.
During the night of 28 April, Wenck reported to the [[OKW|German Supreme Army Command]] in Fuerstenberg that his Twelfth Army had been forced back along the entire front. According to Wenck, no attack on Berlin was possible as support from Busse's Ninth Army could no longer be expected. Instead, starting April 24, Wenck moved his army towards the Forest of [[Halbe, Brandenburg|Halbe]], broke into the [[Battle_of_Halbe|Halbe pocket]] and linked up with the remnants of the
According to [[Antony Beevor]], Wenck's eastward attack toward Berlin was aimed specifically at providing the population and garrison of Berlin with an escape route to areas occupied by U.S. forces: "Comrades, you've got to go in once more," Wenck said. "It's not about Berlin any more, it's not about the Reich any more." Their task was to save people from the fighting and the Russians. Wenck's leadership struck a powerful chord, even if the reactions varied between those who believed in a humanitarian operation and those keener to surrender to the Western allies instead of the Russians.<ref>[[#Beevor2002|Beevor 2002]]: p. 286</ref> According to Randall Hansen, Wenck's actions, with the help of luck and U.S. General [[William Hood Simpson|William Simpson]], successfully evacuated a large number of troops and civilians (variously estimated from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands), with Wenck himself being one of the last who crossed the river.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hansen|first1=Randall|title=Disobeying Hitler: German Resistance After Valkyrie|year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199927920|pages=[https://archive.org/details/disobeyinghitler0000hans/page/320 320]–323|url=https://archive.org/details/disobeyinghitler0000hans|url-access=registration|quote=wenck thousands people elbe.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Le Tissier|first1=Tony|title=Slaughter at Halbe: The Destruction of Hitler's 9th Army|date=Mar 8, 2012|publisher=The History Press|isbn=9780752495347|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OrU7AwAAQBAJ&dq=%22wenck%22+++elbe+300%2C000&pg=PT143}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Zumbro|first1=Derek|title=Battle for the Ruhr: The German Army's Final Defeat in the West|date=2006|publisher=University Press of Kansas|isbn=9780700614905|page=410}}</ref>
==Later life and death==
Wenck was taken prisoner by the U.S. Army. He was released in 1947, and then began a second career as an industrialist. During the 1950s, he worked as the managing director of Dr. C. Otto & Comp., a producer of industrial ovens, and in the 1960s as the director of the [[Diehl BGT Defence|Diehl]] Group, an arms manufacturer.<ref>[http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-14350722.html DER SPIEGEL 19/1982 - GESTORBEN - Walter Wenck ]</ref>
In 1957, he was invited to become [[Inspector General of the Bundeswehr]], but refused after being informed that his requirements,
In [[Cornelius Ryan]]'s 1966 epic ''[[The Last Battle (Ryan book)|The Last Battle]]'' he was listed as a contributor.
On 1 May 1982, Wenck died while on a trip to [[Austria]], when his car collided with a tree. He was buried in his hometown of [[Bad Rothenfelde]] in [[Lower Saxony]] a few days later.<ref>{{cite news |
==Awards==
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===Bibliography===
* {{cite book
|last=Beevor
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|isbn=978-3-938845-17-2
}}
==External links==
*{{Cite news |journal=[[Der Spiegel]] |issue=19 |year=1982 |title=Walter Wenck |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-14350722.html |language=de |access-date=18 November 2015
{{s-start}}
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{{succession box|
before=Generaloberst [[Alexander Löhr]]<br />reformed|
after=None (army disbanded)|
title= Commander of [[12th Army (Wehrmacht)|12. Armee]]|
years=10 April 1945 – 7 May 1945
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{{Subject bar
| portal1=Biography
}}
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[[Category:Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross]]
[[Category:20th-century Freikorps personnel]]
[[Category:
[[Category:German Army generals of World War II]]
[[Category:Road incident deaths in Austria]]
[[Category:Reichswehr personnel]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Star of Romania]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Saxony-Anhalt]]
[[Category:German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States]]
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