Heinz Wismann

Heinz Wismann took part in World War I as a war volunteer fighting in France and Serbia. In 1915 he was promoted to lieutenant and was awarded the Iron Cross II Class and the Wounded Badge. After the war, he first worked as a merchant. From 1925-29, he studied philosophy, art history, history, and archaeology at the universities of Berlin and Heidelberg. He then worked in newspaper publishing houses and eventually received his doctorate in 1933.

Wismann became a member of the NSDAP as early as 1932. He was appointed to the Ministry of Propaganda in 1933, later heading the Department of Writing. In 1935, he was vice president of the “Reichsschrifttumskammer” (Reich Literature Chamber), and in this position in the management of the “Reichsstelle zur Förderung deutschen Schrifttum” (Reich Office for the Promotion of German Literature). In 1937, he was removed from all offices for financial irregularities. Additionally, it became known that he had been married to a “half-Jewess” and had concealed the fact.

During World War II, Wismann did his military service with the Wehrmacht. As a Soviet prisoner of war, he died near Samara in 1947.