Wolfgang Wegener

Who was Wolfgang Wegener?

Wolfgang Wegener was an officer in the German Navy, retiring in 1926 with the rank of Vizeadmiral.

He is noted as the originator of a series of influential works, published between 1915 and 1929, outlining the so-called Wegener Thesis. This thesis criticised the naval strategy adopted by Germany in the First World War, and proposed an alternative strategy based on threatening the sea lines of communication of the United Kingdom with both surface and sub-surface forces. The Wegener thesis is often regarded as a significant contribution to German naval strategy in the Second World War, although the extent to which this was actually the case is disputed.