Gerhard Wagner ( Admiral ) Gerhard Wagner ( born 23 November 1898 , Schwerin , died 26 June 1987 , Altenkirchen ) was a German naval officer , and the last Rear Admiral of the Federal Navy . Career . Wagner joined the Imperial German Navy on 4 July 1916 . Wagner campaign . At the beginning of the Second World War , Wagner was Naval Attaché in Madrid , Spain . The Wagner campaign was named after him : From January to August 1940 , 300 tons of strategic commodities , mainly tungsten , were exported from Spain to the German Reich . The transaction was accounted with deliveries of German arms , mercenary services and transports to Spain . Still after 1 September 1939 , the outbreak of World War II , airplane parts were delivered to Spain . The German exports to Spain which had increased during the Spanish Civil War were mainly carried out seaborne . With the outbreak of World War II the Allies tried to block this sea route . The Wagner campaign was devised to make German cargo ships that were stuck in Spanish ports change their flags and partially subscribe them to Spanish entrepreneur Juan March . Surrender . During the Second World War , Wagner became head of the Operational Department of the naval staff . At the end of the war , Wagner together with the supreme commander of the Kriegsmarine , Hans Georg von Friedeburg visited British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and negotiated a partial surrender of the German forces in northern Germany at Lüneburg Heath on 4 May 1945 . Nuremberg Trials . Wagner gave testimony on May 13 and 14 , 1946 at the Nuremberg Trials . Post - war period . In the postwar period Wagner was a member of the Naval Historical Team Bremerhaven , a group of German officers appointed by the United States Navy to work the up war experiences of German naval forces from a German point of view . In this context , the report 1949 , " Soviet anti - submarine warfare potential ( A historical summary of soviet anti - submarine warfare ( ASW ) operations during World War II ) " was published wherein he described the missions of German U - boats U 9 , U 18 , U 19 , U 20 , U 23 , U 24 , U 576 , U 752 , U 986 and U 997 in the years from 1942 to 1945 . In 1951 he wrote " Critique on Vice - Admiral Eberhard Weichold ' s essay on ' German surface ships - policy and operations in World War II ' ( promulgated in ONI GHS / 4 ) " . In this context , two documents known as Bremerhaven or Wagner memoranda were written on the construction of a new German Navy : " Aufbau eines deutschen Marinekontingents im Rahmen deutscher Mitwirkung an der Verteidigung Westeuropas [ Establishment of a German naval contingent in the frame of a German involvement in the defense of Western Europe ] " , the so - called Wagner ' s memorandum , March 1951 , and " Ausführungen des deutschen Marinesachverständigen , Konteradmiral a . D . Gerhard Wagner über Fragen des deutschen Marinebeitrages [ Explanations by German naval expert Rear Admiral ( ret . ) Gerhard Wagner on questions of the German naval contribution ] " , 8 February 1952 . German Federal Navy . In the Federal Navy of West Germany Wagner necame deputy of Navy Inspector Friedrich Ruge . He was the first flag officer to hold the position of the integrated NATO Commander Naval Forces Baltic Approaches ( COMNAVBALTAP , 1961 to 1962 ) , in the beginning called Commander Allied Naval Forces Northern Area Central Europe ( COMNAVNORCHENT ) . In this role , he held the temporary rank of Vice Admiral .