Wilhelm Werner | |
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| Born | 6 June 1888 Apolda, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, German Empire (now Thuringia, Germany) |
| Died | 14 May 1945 (aged 56) Falkenau, Saxony, Allied-occupied Germany |
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| Service |
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| Years of service | 1905–1918, 1931–1945 |
| Rank |
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| Commands | SM U-55 |
| Battles / wars | |
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Wilhelm Werner (6 June 1888 – 14 May 1945) was a German naval officer in the First World War and SS staff general in the Second World War. As commander of U-55 during World War I he participated in several controversial actions, including the murder by drowning of surrendered crews of some of the ships he sank and attacks on marked hospital ships. The British government sought to prosecute Werner at the Leipzig war crimes trials, but he fled to Brazil, where he was reported to have worked as an architect and a coffee planter.
Werner returned to Germany in 1924, and two years later a German court dismissed the charges against him. He joined the Nazi Party, securing a seat for them in the Reichstag and joined the paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS). Werner rose to the rank of SS-Brigadeführer (equivalent to brigadier general) and during the Second World War served on the personal staff of Heinrich Himmler.