Draft:Werner Drews

Not to be confused with Werner Drewes.

Werner Drews
Born	(1914-03-16)16 March 1914 Bannaskeim, East Prussia
Died	23 November 1974(1974-11-23) (aged 60) Erftstadt, North Rhine-Westphalia
Allegiance	Weimar Republic Nazi Germany West Germany
Branch	Reichswehr (1932-35) Wehrmacht (1935-45) Bundeswehr (1955-72)
Rank	Oberstleutnant (Wehrmacht) Generalmajor (Bundeswehr)
Unit	1st Cavalry Regiment 11th Panzer Division Blank Office
Commands	Kampfgruppenschule II 2nd Panzergrenadier Division Territorialkommando Süd
Conflicts	World War II
Awards	German Cross in Gold (1945) Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1972)

Werner Willi Drews (16 March 1914 – 23 November 1974) was a German military officer who served in both the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during the Second World War and in the post-war West German Bundeswehr.

A staff officer during the war he joined the Bundeswehr in 1955 where he eventually rose to the rank of Major General was an important figure in the early development of the new German Army.

Early Life and Career

Werner Drews was born on on March 16, 1914, in Bannaskeim in the Rastenburg district of East Prussia. After his graduation from a humanistic grammar school he joined the Reichswehr in 1932 being assigned to the 1st Cavalry Regiment based in Tilsit. In 1934 after attending the Reichswehr Infantry School in Dresden and the Cavalry School in Hannover Drews was promoted to Lieutenant and spent the next several years as a platoon leader in the 1st Cavalry Regiment while also teaching at the Dresden Infantry School.

By 1938 he was commander of a cavalry squadron which he led during the first year of war before being transferred to teach at a Kriegsschule in 1940. Over the course of the rest of the war Drews served as a staff office in various units before being assigned as the 11th Panzer Division's First General Staff Officer near the end of the war. While in the unit Drews was promoted to the rank of Oberstleutnant and awarded the German Cross in Gold on January 31st 1945. After surrendering at the end of the war Drews spent three years as a prisoner of war and wrote two studies on the German military performance in the war for the Allies.

Later Career

From 1951 to 1955 Drews was employed at the Blank Office, the predecessor to the West German Ministry of Defense, where he was responsible for "general defense questions". From 1952 onwards he became a close colleague of Wolf Graf von Baudissin and was active in supporting both the expanded defense policy of the federal government and the implementation of the " Inner Leadership" (Innere Führung) concept which von Baudissin was a prominent proponent of.

In 1955 Drews joined the newly formed Bundeswehr as a Colonel and for two years was the head of Sub-Department IV C of the Armed Forces Staff in Bonn which was responsible for aspects of public relations and recruitment. In this capacity Drews became a mentor to future Brigadier General Karl-Christian Trentzsch and oversaw the production and screening of the 1956 film Die Ersten Schritte (The First Steps) about the Bundeswehr's difficult founding period.

In 1960 Drews was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and appointed commander of Kampfgruppenschule II in Munster, by 1964 he was a Major General and had been given command of the 2nd Panzergrenadier Division based in Kassel which he commanded until 1967. That year he was elected by North Atlantic Council as the assistant director of the International Military Staff (IMS) in Brussels. His final assignment was serving as commander of Territorial Command South from 1969 until his retirement in 1972. Drews died two years later on 23 November 1974 in Erftstadt.

In his last assignments Drews was considered, alongside Werner Panitzki and Alfred Zerbel, to be part of the "new generation of officers in leadership positions in the Bundeswehr." In terms of his importance in the development of the early Bundeswehr he was equated to Wolf Graf von Baudissin but was unable to achieve a higher position, possibly due to the decision to appoint Ulrich de Maizière as Inspector General of the Bundeswehr.

Personal Life

His son Rüdiger Drews was born in 1942, in 1962 he joined the Bundeswehr serving until his retirement in 2002 with the rank of Lieutenant General.

Awards and Decorations

• German Cross in Gold on 31 January 1945 as Oberstleutnant and First General Staff Officer of the 11th Panzer Division
• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1972)

Written Works

• Operations of the 11th Panzer Division in Southern France, described by the division operations officer. MS # B-756, 1947, National Archives and Records Administration.
• Remarks Regarding the War History of the Seventh U.S. Army (15 Aug.–14 Sep. 1944). MS # A-881, 1950, National Archives and Records Administration.

References

• Dermot Bradley; Heinz-Peter Würzenthal; Hansgeorg Model (1998), Die Generale und Admirale der Bundeswehr 1955–1997 – Die militärischen Werdegänge, Deutschlands Generale und Admirale, Teil VIb, Dermot Bradley, vol. Band 1, Adam–Fuhr, Osnabrück: Biblio-Verlag, pp. 409–411, ISBN 978-3-7648-2492-1
• Clemens Range (2013), Kriegsgedient – Die Generale und Admirale der Bundeswehr, Müllheim-Britzingen: Translimes Media Verlag, p. 115, ISBN 978-3-00-043646-8
• Thorsten Loch: Das Gesicht der Bundeswehr. Walter de Gruyter, 2012, S. 135 ff.
• Werner Drews. In: Politische Studien, Band 17, 1966, S. 601.