Wilhelm Heye  
(31.10.1869 - 11.3.1947)
place of birth:  Fulda, Hessen  (Hesse)


German colonel who was one of his country's most capable staff officers during the war. Heye was one of nine children born into the family of a Prussian lieutenant colonel. Much of his pre-war career was spent in staff work, including close to seven years attached to the Great General Staff in Berlin. As a major, he also did a 2-year stint with the Schutztruppe contingent in German Southwest Africa. At mobilization, Heye served as Field Marshal von Woyrsch's chief of staff on the Eastern Front. He had the difficult initial task of organizing a joint defensive effort to prevent encirclement by the hard-charging Russian forces. From their headquarters in Slonim (Ukraine), Heye and Woyrsch were able to accomplish their mission, despite having under their command the ill-equipped and poorly trained German Landwehr and Austo-Hungarian First Army troops.

Following the armistice with Russia, Heye was transferred West where he served the final year of the Great War as chief of staff for Duke Albrecht. During the final weeks of the war, General Groener assigned Heye the complex task of convening a session of Germany's highest ranking officers in order to discuss the question of the Army's loyalty to the Kaiser. Heye is also well-known for his activities during the post-War period. He succeeded von Seeckt as Commander in Chief of the Reichswehr (1926-30) and was promoted to the rank of Generaloberst. He also made a name for himself as a Stahlhelm leader who strongly advocated rearmament. Heye died in March 1947 in Braunlage, Harz.