was a German member of the Templar movement in Israel and one of its leaders and an active Nazi. The Palmach men assassinated him.
Gothilf Wagner was born in Stuttgart in 1887. He immigrated to Israel at the age of eight. His father founded a metal foundry in the Templar and Lala neighborhood in Jaffa in 1890, called the "Wagner Brothers" - Brüder Wagner. The factory, housed in a three-story building that later housed the Nehushtan elevator factory, was bombed in 1916, during World War I, by the cannons of a French warship, because it worked for the Turkish army [source required]. During the conquest of Israel by the British army, the Templars were exiled by the British to Egypt and returned to Israel in 1920. Upon their return to Israel, Wagner joined the factory and ran it together with his two brothers, Adolf and Georg.
Wagner, his wife and two sons lived in the Templar neighborhood of Sharona (now the Kirya in Tel Aviv). Over time, Wagner became head of Sharona's council.
Wagner, who was known as a man of antisemitic views and in his factory produced weapons for the Arab gangs, became a declared Nazi. Over time, he became the representative of the Nazi party in Israel. All his factory workers, 45 in number, were party members. Wagner spoke at Nazi conventions and rallies in the country and at Hitler's youth rallies. For his parents' money wedding he received a personal congratulatory letter from Hitler. The letter was framed and served as a sort of icon for community members.
Before the outbreak of World War II, some of the young people of the Templar community left the country and volunteered for the German army (including Wagner's two sons). With the outbreak of the war the British Mandate authorities saw in Templars enemy nationals, their colonies were surrounded by barbed wire fences and guard towers and turned into detention camps. As General Erwin Rommel's Africa Corps approached from North Africa to Israel, the British began deporting some members of the community to Australia.
Some of the Templars were replaced by Jews who were citizens of Israel who had been in Poland at the outbreak of the war, and were considered British nationals with the inscription "British passport" stamped on their passports. The remaining Templars in the country, of which Wagner was one, were imprisoned in their colonies. After the end of the war the last Templars lived in the country, until in the early stages of the War of Independence, in the last weeks of their stay in the country, the British sent them to Australia. Wagner became the leader of the Templars left in the country and was one of those left in the country after the end of World War II.
As a citizen of an enemy state, Wagner was forced to close the Wagner Brothers factory on April 1, 1940.
During the war, as Rommel's forces approached Israel, it was widely believed that if the Germans conquered Israel, they would appoint Wagner's son Gauleiter (district commander) of the country.
After the end of World War II, the British police and officers in Israel soon forgot their war against the Nazi enemy. Less than half a year had passed since the end of the war in Europe and they had already reconnected with their former enemies and participated in the joys of the inhabitants of the Templar colonies. Following the forgiving attitude, the Germans abounded in demands and demands, and even demanded that Jewish policemen not be sent to their colonies.
The detainees were given permission to leave their places of detention, accompanied by police officers, in order to conduct their business and work in their fields and to accustom the Jewish community to a normal life. The British police guards, who accompanied the Templars to their work, allegedly intended to prove that the Germans were not free and under guard even during their work, but in fact the British policemen served as bodyguards to protect them from the revenge of the Jewish community.
Wagner became the spokesman for the Germans who remained in the country. The British government negotiated with him and even responded to some of his repeated demands. Due to his status as head of the Sharona Council and as an industrialist, Wagner was granted a special status during this period after the end of the war. He was responsible for the work of the Templars imprisoned in Sharona and for the payment of their wages, all under the supervision and supervision and police escort of the British.
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