Army Personnel Office (Wehrmacht)

The Army Personnel Office (HPA; 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. Following the dismissal of Friedrich Hossbach as chief military adjutant to Hitler in 1938 Rudolf Schmundt the then Deputy Chief of the Personnel Department took over as de facto chief military adjutant and continued in this post when he was promoted to Chief of the Army Personnel Office in October 1942. After Schmundt died from injuries received during the assassination attempt on Hitler's life of 20 July 1944, the Deputy Chief of the Personnel Department Wilhelm Burgdorf took over the function and as chief military adjutant to Hitler.

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: Orders and decorations (Orden und Ehrenzeichen) department