Alfred Zintgraff

Alfred Zintgraff (born May 3, 1878 in Düsseldorf , † February 12, 1944 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ) was a German diplomat.

Life

Alfred Zintgraff was the younger brother of the Africa explorer Eugen Zintgraff . Zintgraff studied law and was awarded a Dr. jur. PhD . Zintgraff was a member of the Corps Hasso-Nassovia and the Corps Rhenania Bonn . In June 1906 Zintgraff was accredited in the Protectorate of British East Africa in Mombasa .

On February 10, 1908 wrote chargé Zintgraff after an audience with Menelik II. In a telegram:

“… The Negus… expressed very confidentially, after removing the usual entourage, that he would acknowledge it with thanks if the German government were able to name a suitable impartial person to advise him on his intended reform work. Above all, he attaches great importance to the fact that this personality is able to advise and help him in legal and administrative matters "

- Alfred Zintgraff, telegram of February 10, 1908

No one was proposed by the German Foreign Ministry. Menelik II finally asked Zintgraff to become his advisor. Zintgraff was on leave from the foreign service and was the successor of State Councilor Alfred Ilg, who had left in 1907, as Minister of Menelik II.

Menelik II fell ill in the autumn of 1909 and Empress T'aytu , who had initially advocated Zintgraff's appointment, turned to the doctor after Dr. Max Steinkühler had found that she traditionally medicated her husband with potassium cyanide , including Zintgraff, which led to Zintgraff's recall.

As part of a dispute between Willy von Roy and Albrecht von Rechenberg about the colonial policy of the German Reich in German East Africa , von Roy appointed Zintgraff in 1911 as editor of the German East African newspaper . In this role, Zintgraff founded the German East African newspaper GmbH , which existed until 1916.

On the revisionist work of Heinrich Schnee , Ten Years of Versailles 1919–1929 on the occasion of the political dispute over the Young Plan in 1929, Government Councilor a. D. Zintgraff contributed the article The Colonial Guilt Lie .

Zintgraff was reactivated during National Socialism as a full honorary professor and head of the international department at Heidelberg University . Alfred Zintgraff and his NSDAP party comrade and SS member Eugen Fehrle became the curator of the Josefine and Eduard von Portheim Foundation in Heidelberg and exhibited the artefacts of the ethnographic collection as evidence of imperial claims by the German Reich and the superiority of the German character.

In 1938, together with SS-Oberscharführer Wilhelm Classen , Zintgraff published the contributions to foreign and foreign policy training for the comrades of the NSDStB .

Zintgraff left the board of trustees of the Portland Foundation due to illness in 1939 and made retirement demands on the foundation, which reduced the foundation's other activities, whereupon his successors on the board of trustees liquidated the Institute for Crystal Research .

literature

• Johannes Hürter (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871 - 1945. 5. T - Z, supplements. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 5: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-71844-0 , p. 382 f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Klaus Vassel: Corps history of Hasso-Nassovia zu Marburg 1839-1954. A retelling, Vol. 2. Marburg 1981, p. 274.
2. ↑ Baessler archive contributions to ethnology NF XLIII, 1995, p. 18 in: Springhorn, R .: History of the ethnology department of the Lippisches Landesmuseum Detmold
3. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 99 , 672; 12 , 637
4. ↑ File R 14898, Political Archive, Foreign Office Department A, files relating to: General Affairs of Abyssinia. Abyssinia No. 1. from October 1, 1907 to June 9, 1908. Vol. 15, after: Wolbert GC Smidt , in: Stefan, Heinrich Scholler (ed.): On the way to modern Ethiopia. Commemorative publication for Bairu Tafla. Lit, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8258-9075-9 , p. 223 ( digitized version )
5. ^ Clara Schlichtenberger: Harmony and Complication. The collection of Victor Goldschmidt, founder of the Ethnographic Museum of the J. u. E. von Portheim Foundation in Heidelberg. In: Journal of the History of Collections. Volume 10, 1998, pp. 199-206 ( digitized version ).
6. ↑ Wolf Gruner: The persecution and murder of the European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945. Volume 1: German Empire 1933–1937. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58480-6 , p. 419 note ( digitized version ).
7. ↑ Are the city of Heidelberg and the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg aryanization profiteers from the property of the Josefine and Eduard von Portheim Foundation in land and houses? We'll get started and keep researching! ( Memento from February 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

predecessor	Office	successor
Georg Coates	Ambassador of the German Reich in Ethiopia 1908	Robert von Scheller-Steinwartz