Alexander Freiherr von Senarclens-Grancy

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Alexander Ludwig Freiherr von Senarclens-Grancy (born August 25, 1880 in Vught ; † 1964 ) was a German naval officer and naval attaché . After the First World War he was adjutant to the exiled German Emperor Wilhelm II.

Live and act

Alexander von Senarclens-Grancy, who came from an ancient noble family from Switzerland, joined the Imperial German Navy around 1898 . After he had been promoted to Korvettenkapitän in the course of his officer career, Senarclens-Grancy was used as a naval attaché in 1913 through the mediation of his sponsor, Admiral Tirpitz .

Navy attaché (1913-20)

In August 1913, Alexander von Senarclens-Grancy took over as successor to Werner von Rheinbaben (1878–1975) the post of naval attaché at the German embassy in Rome . Chargé d'affaires in Rome was Hans von Flotow (1862–1935). After the outbreak of the First World War, he tried to influence the Italian government in favor of entering the war or a benevolent neutrality in favor of the German Reich. With the same request, a change of ambassador was made in December 1914. But Bernhard von Bülow (1849–1929), as the new business agent, tried in vain to take this step through Italy. But the further efforts of Senarclens-Grancy in February 1915 to persuade the German government to tie the Italians firmly to the Central Powers by promising to cover their coal needs from German reserves on a permanent basis , however, no longer came to fruition On May 23, 1915, when diplomatic relations with the German Reich broke off when he entered the world war, he had to leave the country.

As a result, Alexander von Senarclens-Grancy continued his activities in Italy, which focused on the Mediterranean region, and moved to Athens as a German naval attaché for Italy's neighboring country Greece on June 12, 1915 in the rank of corvette captain . His assistant here was the sea captain Friedrich Kloebe. In Greece they were primarily entrusted with the food-technical supply of the German submarines with the eastern Mediterranean area, as well as with the coordination and direction of the movement of the submarines in this area. Although von Senarclens-Grancy attached less importance to Greece for the actual course of the war, he insisted that the Berlin government must support the Greek government of Venizelos in order to win their sympathy. His Greek political ideas for the post-war period envisaged making the country on the Mediterranean the main transshipment point for German goods traffic with India and East Africa and drawing it into the Triple Alliance as Italy's successor . Another important task was the observation of the war strategy of the Entente powers in the southern Balkans for the naval intelligence service.

On July 7, 1916, the New York Times prematurely reported a transfer of Senarclens-Grancy to Washington, DC as German military attaché for the United States of America, as the successor to the recalled Karl Boy-Ed , finally came as a result of the rapidly deteriorating German-American Relationships no longer materialize. Instead, after he had to leave Greece as a result of the war on November 30, 1916, Senarclens-Grancy moved in January 1917 as a naval representative to the staff of the German military governor of Romania General Erich Tülff von Tschepe and Weidenbach (1854-1934). His main task there consisted in the organization of the war-essential export of Romanian oil to Germany.

From September 1917 to November 1918, Alexander von Senarclens-Grancy finally acted as "Marine Plenipotentiary at the Ottoman Navy Minister" in Turkey . In February 1919 he moved to Stockholm as an attaché , where he initially took over the post of attaché for Sweden . In April he also took over responsibility for Norway and in August he was finally given the title of “Naval Attaché for the Nordic Empires”. In addition, he was given responsibility for Denmark and Finland at the same time . After the post of attaches for the Nordic empires was abolished in March 1920 as a result of the dismantling of the German navy, and in accordance with the claims of the victorious powers of the First World War, Senarclens-Grancy returned to Germany.

"Agent of the Emperor" (1920–40)

Around 1920 Senarclens-Grancy became a confidante and adjutant ("confidential agent and honorary aide de camp") of the abdicated former German emperor Wilhelm II in his exile in Doorn, the Netherlands.

As “agent of the emperor”, Senarclens-Grancy tried to dismantle the republican system and restore the principle of monarchy in the German Empire during the time of the Weimar Republic . Among his efforts in this direction, a coup plan from 1932 should be mentioned in particular: In that year he undertook a secret trip to Germany, during which he approached various leaders of the right-wing parties and influential officers of the army and navy with an ambitious plan, such as one could restore the Hohenzollern monarchy. At first he argued that the fatherland urgently needed a firm hand in order to remove its worries and needs. In order to be able to “be effective”, this must stand above the lows of party politics. Therefore - according to the plan - units of the German navy should pick up Wilhelm II in the North Sea at a previously agreed point and bring him to the naval base in Wilhelmshaven. After his arrival, the emperor was to issue a proclamation to his people stating that "the responsible men and women of every political opinion and shade" ("every political color and creed") had summoned him to examine the further fate of the To direct nation. The incumbent Chancellor Franz von Papen was then to abdicate and the Reich President Paul von Hindenburg transferred his powers of office to the Kaiser. A new government would then be set up with a general as chancellor, who would eventually follow the formal restoration of Wilhelm's empire.

Alexander von Senarclens-Grancy's attempts to use the army and Hitler , as the leader of the largest political party and commander-in-chief of the most powerful private task force, were unsuccessful. They failed because of the personal ambitions of the Nazi leaders and the concerns of the generals that an attempt to reinstall the Hohenzollern as a ruling house would provoke massive resistance from the population.

Even after the National Socialist “ seizure of power ” Senarclens-Grancy was unable to “recognize the hostile attitude of the Nazis towards the Hohenzollern house” (“blindly obtuse about the hostile attitude of the Nazis towards the house of Hohenzollern”) and hoped - without recognizable basis - that somehow Hitler could be persuaded to restore the monarchy.

As an art collector

In his spare time, Senarclens-Grancy, as a private collector, gathered an extensive collection of ancient art objects that are now in the possession of the Archaeological Institute of the University of Mainz , which the collection initially received on loan in 1948 and later took over entirely. The Mainz team combined the objects from Senarclens-Grancy's collection with those of two other private collections - a small collection of fragments from the estate of Wilhelm von Massow and the collection of a certain Doctor Preyß - to form a joint collection. This new, larger collection serves primarily as a study and teaching collection, but is also accessible to art lovers.

family

Senarclens-Grancy had an older sister Luise Wilhelmine von Senarclens-Grancy (born August 23, 1879 in Darmstadt , † January 7, 1938 in Marburg ), who since June 27, 1905 with the Royal Prussian Captain Friedrich Freiherr Schenck zu Schweinsberg ( * May 14, 1875 in Waldmichelbach; † January 15, 1953 in Kirtorf) was married.

He himself had been with Freiin zu Eisenbach (born November 9, 1887 in Ludwigseck), a daughter of the Hereditary Marshal and Grand Ducal Hessian Chamberlain Volprecht R. Freiherr zu Eisenbach and Else von Harnier (Ludwigseck, Kr . Rotenburg ad Fulda), married.

Awards

literature

  • Klaus-Volker Giessler: The institution of the naval attaché in the German Empire. Boppard on the Rhine 1976.
  • Hans Hildebrandt: Formation history and staffing of the German armed forces , Volume 2 (Marine) Biblio Verlag Osnabrück, 2000.
  • Marineattaché, Books LLC, Wiki Series, Mephis USA, 2011, p. 2 ff.
  • Ranking lists of the Imperial Navy, Mittler und Sohn Verlag, Kiel University Bookstore, years 1898 to 1920

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility, 1954, p. 385.
  2. ↑ Ranking lists of the Imperial Navy, Mittler und Sohn Verlag, Kiel years 1898 to 1920
  3. ↑ Klaus-Volker Giessler, The Institution of the Naval Attaché in the Empire, Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein, 1976, p. 92 ff.
  4. ↑ Giessler 1976, p. 123.
  5. ↑ Hans Hildebrandt, Formation History and Staffing of the German Armed Forces, Volume 2 (Marine) Biblio Verlag Osnabrück, 2000
  6. ↑ Giessler 1976, p. 84.
  7. ^ Marineattaché, Books LLC, Wiki Series, Mephis USA, 2011, pp. 2ff.
  8. ^ A b Walter H. Kaufmann: Monarchism in the Weimar Republic. P. 211.
  9. ^ Lamar Cecil: Wilhelm II. 1989, p. 341.
  10. ↑ Roland Hampe and Erika Simon: Greek life in the mirror of art. 1959, p. 42.
  11. ^ A b German Adels Archive: Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, 1954, p. 385.
  12. ↑ Awards and their order according to the handbook for the German Empire. 1918, p. 70.
personal data
SURNAME Senarclens-Grancy, Alexander Freiherr von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Senarclens-Grancy, Alexander Ludwig Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval attaché
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Vught
DATE OF DEATH 1964