Army Personnel Office (Wehrmacht)

The Army Personnel Office (Heeres Personal Amt, Heerespersonalamt or Heeres Personalamt) was a German military agency formed in 1920 and charged with the personnel matters of all officers and cadets of the army of the Reichswehr and later the Wehrmacht. With increased recruitment of officers in 1935 and especially in the Second World War, it was given multiple new tasks. The growing demands led to numerous organisational changes.

In October 1942 Major General Rudolf Schmundt became the new head of the HPA. After his death from injuries received during the assassination attempt on Hitler's life of 20 July 1944 General Wilhelm Burgdorf took over the function.

The agency had several departments (Abteilung).^[1]

• Abteilung P 1: Planning human resources, personnel management of the officers
• Abteilung P 2: Disciplinary matters of the officers
• Abteilung P 3: Staffing of the General Staff officers; transferred to the central department of the General Staff of the Army in 1935
• Abteilung P 4: Personnel management of the officers of the special careers; was renamed P 3 on 1 April 1939
• Abteilung P 5: Order, decorations and awards department

Chiefs of the Heerespersonalamt

General Bodewin Keitel, head of the department from 1938 to 1944.

• General Johann Edler von Braun, 7 December 1918
• General Wilhelm Heye, 1 April 1922
• General Hermann Reinicke, 1 October 1923
• Colonel Joachim von Stülpnagel, 1 February 1927
• Colonel Günther von Hammerstein-Equord, 1 October 1929
• General Erich von dem Bussche-Ippenburg, 1 November 1930
• Colonel Viktor von Schwedler, 1 October 1933
• General Bodewin Keitel, 4 February 1938
• General Rudolf Schmundt, 1 October 1942
• General Wilhelm Burgdorf, 12 October 1944

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