English source-aligned edition
Richard von Hegener
Richard von Hegener served as official of the Chancellery of the Führer and deputy head of the Reich Committee responsible for the administrative organisation of the murder of children and patients. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Germany / German Reich through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- As an official of the Chancellery of the Führer and deputy head of the Reich Committee, he and Hans Hefelmann were responsible for the organisational and administrative operation of the programme to kill children classified as disabled.
- Reports on children passed through the office of Hefelmann or his deputy Hegener before being sent to a panel of medical assessors; the surviving reconstruction of Wolfgang Götz-Zerban's case demonstrates this specific flow.
- On 17 December 1941 he took part in a meeting in Düsseldorf with medical staff concerning the tasks of the children's ward and the operation of the programme.
- After the war he used the name Richard Wegener. A court in Magdeburg sentenced him on 20 February 1952 to life imprisonment for participating in the programme's organisation and implementation; he was covered by an amnesty and released in 1956.
Place in the chain of responsibility
Hegener explains the administrative middle of the chain: receiving a report, preparing the circulation of records, maintaining contact with assessors and wards, and organising the programme. His conviction allows this responsibility to be distinguished from the medical assessments performed by physicians.
Key events and mechanisms
- joining the administration of the Reich Committee programme from 1939
- processing reports and coordinating the network of children's wards during the war
- the meeting concerning the children's ward in Düsseldorf on 17 December 1941
- the life sentence in Magdeburg on 20 February 1952 and release under an amnesty in 1956
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
After the war he used the name Richard Wegener and obtained employment in Mecklenburg. He was tried before a court in Magdeburg and sentenced to life imprisonment on 20 February 1952. He was released under an amnesty in 1956 and died in 1981.
Limits of the evidence
Hegener organised the programme's administrative flow and implementation, but the medical forms were also assessed by appointed physician-assessors; without his signature on a specific form, he should not be credited personally with issuing every medical decision. Parts of the Magdeburg trial record have not survived in full, limiting reconstruction of the basis for each detailed finding in the judgment.
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.