August Schillinger

August Schillinger (born September 21, 1876 in Miesbach , † September 8, 1939 in Falenica near Warsaw ) was a German diplomat . After a series of activities at various German consulates , Schillinger headed the Krakow consulate from 1931 , and from 1938 as consul general. After the German invasion of Poland , he was separated from the other consulate staff and was last seen alive in Polish custody in Falenica near Warsaw on September 8, 1939. He was pronounced dead on November 19, 1940. Based on the circumstantial evidence, it was assumed that he had been murdered by his Polish companions during a transport.

Life

The son of the landowner and Fisheries Consultants for Bayern, Alfred Schillinger put 1895 on the Maximiliansgymnasium Munich the High School from. From October 1, 1895 to September 30, 1896, he did his military service as a one-year volunteer . In 1900 he became a lieutenant and in 1911 a first lieutenant in the reserve .

From 1896 to 1900 Schillinger studied law , science and philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and Erlangen . He passed his first law exam on July 12, 1900 and his second law exam in December 1903. From August 1, 1900, he was in the Bavarian judicial and administrative service. From November 1904 to 1905 he was a laborer at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Upper Bavaria in Munich .

On August 18, 1903, Schillinger was drafted into the Foreign Service for a consular career. From February 1906 he was employed in Department II (Trade Policy) of the Foreign Office and from May to July 1907 at the Academy for Social and Commercial Sciences in Frankfurt am Main . After a short stay at the consulate in Paris in August 1907, Schillinger was at the consulate in Chicago from August 10, 1907 . On February 9, 1908, he was given the status of Vice Consul.

His further diplomatic career led Schillinger in September 1912 as acting head to the Manila consulate , where he arrived on January 22, 1913. On September 24, 1913, he was seconded to the St. Louis Consulate as acting head , where he began business on November 17, 1913. From March 17, 1914, he was seconded to the Consulate General in Amsterdam , whose acting management he took over on May 3. On June 11, 1914, he was appointed Consul of Panama . He did not take up this post, but took over the acting management of the consulate in Fiume on July 26, 1914 .

In June 1915 Schillinger was called up for military service. With the rank of Rittmeister of the reserve he served until May 22, 1918. On May 18, 1918 he was appointed acting head of the consulate in Schaffhausen . In September 1918 he moved to the newly established consulate in Rostov until it was closed on February 6, 1919.

On August 7, 1919, Schillinger was given a foreign trade position in the Foreign Office. On February 14, 1920 he took over the management of the passport office of the diplomatic mission in Paris . On February 19 he was promoted to Legation Councilor and on October 17 to Legation Council II class. On January 21, 1921, he was given temporary retirement. From December 8, 1921 to August 22, 1922, Schillinger was temporarily employed at the embassy in Washington . From February 14, 1923 he worked provisionally in the Foreign Office, including the commissioner for the mixed courts of arbitration and the state missions. From November 4, 1924, he worked temporarily at the embassy in Warsaw , where he headed the passport department until January 2, 1930.

After Schillinger had been employed in Department V. (Law) of the AA on January 29, 1930, he took over the provisional management of the Consulate General in Reykjavik on May 9, 1930 . On January 26, 1931, he was initially appointed acting head of the consulate in Krakow , which he held until September 1, 1939. He was promoted to consul II class on June 3, 1932 and to consul I class on March 5, 1934. From November 29, 1938, his official title was Consul General. Since December 1, 1937, Schillinger was a member of the NSDAP .

During the evacuation of the consulate staff after the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Schillinger and his secretary Ruth Jurek were separated from their colleagues. Investigations revealed that the two had been taken to Warsaw and detained there. On September 7th, they were apparently handed over to the local city commandant in Falenica, a current part of the south-east of Warsaw. The following day, September 8, the two were last seen alive. Allegedly they were supposed to be transported to Otwock in a military convoy . According to other sources, they were to be driven to Otwock in a car accompanied by two Polish officials. In any case, Schillinger and his secretary never got there. On the basis of numerous circumstantial evidence, the German district court , which August Schillinger and Ruth Jurek declared dead on November 19, 1940 after a year with no signs of life, assumed that the two were murdered by their companions. The date and place of death were determined: “8. September 1939 near Falenica (Poland) ”.

literature

• Biographical manual of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945 . Vol. 4: p . Edit v. Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper and Martin Kröger. Schüningh, Paderborn 2012, p. 73 f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Declared dead on November 19, 1940.
2. ↑ Wojciech Krzyżanowski quotes a written information from Hans Ulrich Sareyko from the Political Archive of the Foreign Office from 1977. Wojciech Krzyżanowski: Late Bukareszteńskie (3) . In: Zeszyty historyczne 43 (1978), p. 176 f. ( PDF ). Tomasz Rabant relies on Schillinger's personal files from the Political Archives of the Foreign Office. Tomasz Rabant: Antypolska działalność niemieckiej służby dyplomatycznej Konsularnej w Polscew przededniu II wojny Êwiatowejoraz jej ewakuacja i likwidacja . In: Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość 1/9 (2006), p. 212 f.