Professor Georg Willers of Hollwege and Kiel, Germany

Georg Willers was the youngest son of Johann Diedrich and Anna Elisabeth Hupens Willers. He was born May 19, 1884. Georg was well educated and became a Professor of Education at Kiel Univeristy. Georg was the father of two daughters. He visited his brothers in America at least twice.

Here are some thumbnail photos of Georg. Click on each to see a larger view of it.

Georg in Uniform.

Georg with wife and young daughters.

Georg and family at Christmas.

Georg in America with John G. Saathoff.

Georg Willers wrote his own Biography in German. The transcript below was translated by Dirk Oltmanns and Lyndon Irwin.

Georg Willers, was born May 19, 1884, the son of Johann Diedrich Willers and Anna Elizabeth Hupens. The family was relatively small and two older brothers of Georg emigrated early to America, and the oldest brother was a teacher. When he was 13 years old, the main teacher in Hollwege visited with Georg's father over Georg's future and recommended that Georg become a school teacher. His father agreed. From 1899-1903 Georg attended the teacher seminar. At age 19 he started teaching. From 1903-5 he was a school master in Varrell, Stuhr/Delmenhorst. With an annual salary of 700 DM, he had 91 children in his classroom. He then taught at several other locations. Then he began a five-year adventure teaching in Europe. From 1908-9 he taught at the German six-form high school in Copenhagen. From 1909-12 he was active at the German High School in Luettich and at the German school in Brussels. At the same time (1911-12) he also attended the University of Liège and in 1911, spent 3 months at London University.

At the end of 1912 he passed his test as a central school teacher. In 1912 he became a teacher for new languages to the navy - engineer and cover officer school in Wilhelmshaven. With the outbreak of war 1914 he became an active soldier and remained so until 1916. From October to December, 1914, he was an interpreter to the Commandant in Antwerp. In several engagements in Flanders he had to participate, and in one of these battles was severely wounded. After several operations over a few months, he became once again healthy, but some results remained. From 1916-18 he was again a naval teacher in Kiel.

With war over, he passed his test for the teaching profession at higher schools at the University of Kiel. He attained a doctorate to 1923 (PhD). From 1923-26 he taught with the army technical school in Ludwigsburg. In 1926, he became a secondary school teacher at the "Schiller Realgymnasium" in Stettin, where he taught until 1933.

Willers gave numerous lectures on the question of democracy. In March, 1933, he published an essay with the title, "Who Hitler selects, selects the war". Almost immediately (April 1, 1933), he was listed as an intolerable and was relieved as a secondary school teacher. He withdrew himself into hiding and burned many of his documents. The Gestapo monitored him and executed house searches. In November, 1933, he was again employed, but transferred for disciplinary reasons to Koeslin, where he remained until the end of the war in 1945.

At the end of the war, he was age 56, and was appointed for 2 years as an interpreter for the foreign intelligence service in the supreme command of the armed forces in the coding department. He tried to design a new German administration with permission of the Russians and to supply the hungry population with food. In the summer of 1945, he was appointed to a provisionally formed school department. However, the difficult living conditions and his family caused him in November, 1945 to return to Kiel. He began in Rendsburg as a secondary school teacher at the high school for boys. Then in January, 1949, he was appointed as a professor for English and methodology of English instruction to the educational university in Kiel. In 1950, he reached retirement age, however for many years, he continued to lecture and in 1968 took full retirement. At the age of 90, he wrote his Hollwege memoirs, but they was not published until after after his death. In September 1976, he returned to Hollwege and was enthusiastically received, when he spoke in the overcrowded hotel Heinemann about Hollwege of olden times.

 

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