Birger Dahlerus

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Birger Dahlerus (born February 6, 1891 in Stockholm ; † March 8, 1957 there ) was a Swedish industrialist. He became known as Hermann Göring's mediator in the last days before the outbreak of the Second World War .

Life

Mediator role in the German-Polish crisis

Dahlerus had contacts to important Englishmen and leading men of the Third Reich such as Hermann Göring . With Hitler's approval, Goering turned on Dahlerus in August 1939 to reach an agreement with London. For this he met with Adolf Hitler , Arthur Chamberlain and Lord Halifax , the British Foreign Minister. In the important phase on the eve of the outbreak of war, he negotiated and tried to avert the disaster. On the morning of August 31, accompanied by the British delegation councilor George Ogilvie-Forbes, he visited the Polish ambassador Józef Lipski to explain Hitler's last offer on the Danzig question .

In the first days after the outbreak of war, Dahlerus continued his efforts, but was rejected by the British leadership in London with the offer that Goring would come to England to negotiate. The mediator failed because of Poland's refusal to negotiate and England's determination to now put a stop to Hitler. In 1946 Dahlerus testified as a witness for Goering at the Nuremberg trial . In July 1945 he published his memoirs from 1939 under the title “Sista försöket” (“Last attempt”). They appeared in Germany in 1948 in a translation by Hellmuth Dix , a brother of Rudolf Dix , who was a defense attorney in the Nuremberg trial of major war criminals .

Publications

  • Sista försöket. London-Berlin summer 1939 . Norstedts, Stockholm 1945.
    • German edition: The last attempt. London-Berlin summer 1939. Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Munich 1948. (several subsequent editions: 1981, ISBN 3-485-01831-7 )

literature

  • Johann Wolfgang Brügel : Dahlerus as an intermediate carrier after the outbreak of war. In: Historical magazine. Volume 228, Oldenbourg, Munich 1979.
  • Jörg Isringhaus: Among murderers. Structure paperback, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-7466-2760-1 . (deals historically as far as possible correctly, among other things, with Dahlerus' efforts to prevent the war at the last second)

Web links

Commons : Birger Dahlerus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files