Ada von Boeselager

Adele Franziska Henriette Maria "Ada" von Boeselager (born June 17, 1905 in Peppenhoven , † 1973 in Sorrento ) was a German painter and writer. She also wrote under the pseudonyms Francesca Rega and Gioconda Comitti .

Life

She was born on the Peppenhoven manor as Adele Franziska Henriette Maria von Boeselager as the daughter of Johanna von Heusinger and Friedrich Freiherr von Boeselager. In 1934 she married Werner Schingnitz , who was a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Leipzig in Berlin-Steglitz . After the breakdown of this marriage in July, Adele von Boeselager returned to her parents' estate. The marriage with Schingnitz was divorced in July 1936.

Adele wrote articles on zoological topics. During the 1936 Olympics , von Boeselager got to know the German bookseller and publisher Eduard Obenaus, who ran a company in Shanghai . In the second half of January 1939, she embarked with around a thousand Jewish refugees in Genoa on board the Conte Biancamano with the destination Shanghai. On February 25, 1939, she and Obenaus married in Manila . In the second half of December 1939 she gave birth to a daughter in Shanghai. Obenaus was a member of the NSDAP and began to work in the information office in Shanghai, a propaganda unit of the German Foreign Office , which was headed by Jesco von Puttkamer . Soon the relationship between Adele and Eduard also failed. She accused him of being a National Socialist, homosexual and consumptive and demanded a divorce, which he refused. In April 1942, Adele's second child had a son. As his biological father, she gave Eduard a man from southern Europe who was known to him by name and reputation. A Shanghai-based German lawyer made her a divorce suit on for foreign German competent private lawsuits Berlin Regional Court to submit. The marriage was divorced in early 1943 through the man's fault.

Adele resumed her maiden name. The Shanghai Vice Consul informed her that the Berlin District Court had given her custody of both children. Obenaus, on the other hand, applied to the Shanghai Consul General Martin Fischer to withdraw her custody. In the course of these disputes, Adele pointed out rumors that homosexual contacts and orgies that were prohibited under Section 175 , which was then in force at the information office, were regularly taking place in the information office . Puttkamer visited Adele in a hotel in Tsingtau and threatened to have her citizenship revoked because her lawyer was a Jew and an agent of the Soviet Union. The German consul in Tsingtau, Hans von Saucken, threatened her and she was interrogated by the Gestapo in Beijing. On December 30, 1944, a nanny in the service of Obenaus tried to snatch the children from Adele on the street in Shanghai. They were all taken to a Shanghai Police Station. A private detective who was also employed from Obenaus phoned the German consulate from there. Shortly afterwards an employee of the consulate came and picked up the children in a company car. The children were handed over to Obenaus, who brought them to Germany. Above she handed over to the care of his sister, who lived near Hanover. Adele was stuck in Shanghai and from there sued the Burgdorf District Court for the children to be surrendered. In 1948 she received a passport from the International Refugee Organization (IRO) as a refugee of German nationality and received monthly financial support from the organization. At that time she was considered the only German in China who had no status as a “ displaced person ”. It was not until the spring of 1949 that she was able to travel to Germany with a ship ticket sponsored by the IRO.

After her return, she applied to the Burgdorf District Court for a declaration of illegality for her son. However, the Braunschweig District Court initially granted the father custody because the court did not know her whereabouts. Thereupon Adele, who meanwhile lived in Wiesbaden , reported Obenauf to the police at the beginning of January 1950 for violating the still valid Paragraph 175, forgery of documents , embezzlement and child abduction. In mid-January 1950, the Brunswick public prosecutor's office rejected the declaration of illegality because it was not in the public interest. In April 1950, the Braunschweig court changed its previous decision on custody and now awarded it to the Braunschweig Youth Welfare Office. Adele protested in writing to Federal Justice Minister Thomas Dehler and also traveled to Bonn to interview the ministry personally. From there, however, she was referred to the Lower Saxony Ministry of Justice. From May 1950, her son was placed in a children's home.

Works

• Homeland. From wanderlust to homesickness . Noessler & Co., Shanghai 1940.
• From the Summer Palace to the Temple of Heaven. A Beijing novel . Peking-Verlag, Munich 1956, 1st edition 1955.
• as Gioconda Comitti: Tragic Love Ride in Spain or The Power of the Stars . Peking-Verlag, Munich 1956, 1st edition 1955.
• A turning point in Capri . Peking-Verlag, Munich 1956.
• Amoureuse encounters between Mallorca and Morocco . Peking-Verlag, Munich 1956.

literature

• The pants are attached . In: Der Spiegel . No. 27 , 1950 ( online ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Ada von Boeselager in the catalog of the German National Library
• Boeselager, Adele von (1905–1973), writer on Tsingtau.org