Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg

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Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg, 1934

Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg (born June 25, 1910 in Spandau , † June 1, 2003 in Herrsching am Ammersee ) was a German diplomat and author . After his career as a naval officer and his training as a lawyer , he joined the diplomatic service of the Federal Republic of Germany .

Müllenheim-Rechberg was the highest-ranking survivor in the sinking of the battleship Bismarck in 1941 . He published his experiences as a fire control officer on board the Bismarck in an eyewitness report which , in addition to the nautical perspective, also included a classification of the events in their historical context.

Life

He came from the noble family of those von Müllenheim . In 1929 he passed his Abitur and entered the Reichsmarine in the same year . He was u. a. from autumn 1938 assistant to the German naval attaché in London . With the beginning of the Second World War he performed his service on various warships. After surviving the sinking of the battleship Bismarck in 1941 as a fourth artillery officer with the rank of lieutenant commander as one of the few, he was promoted to corvette captain on February 1, 1943 and was in Allied captivity in Great Britain and Canada until the end of 1946 .

In 1949 Müllenheim-Rechberg passed his state examination in law . Three years later, in 1952, he entered the service of the Foreign Office and became Legation Counselor . In 1955 he took part in the NATO delegation in Paris , and a year later in the NATO troop treaty conference in Bonn . In 1958 he was appointed consul or ambassador to the West Indies , and from 1965 he was appointed ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo . In 1968 Müllenheim-Rechberg became Consul General in Toronto and in the same year received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1st class. In 1971 he returned to Africa as Ambassador to Tanzania . 1975 Müllenheim-Rechberg retired.

Works

  • Abduction and death of Moise Tschombé . The end of a hope for the Congo. LIT-Verlag 1998, ISBN 3-8258-3940-0 .
  • Battleship Bismarck. A survivor in his time. Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-548-25644-9 .
  • Battleship Bismarck. A survivor reports on the splendor and fall of the Bismarck on May 27, 1941. Flechsig Verlag, May 1, 2005, ISBN 3-881-89591-4 .

Web links

Commons : Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Battleship Bismarck. A survivor in his time. P. 20.
personal data
SURNAME Müllenheim-Rechberg, Burkard Freiherr von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Müllenheim-Rechberg, Burkhard von; Rechberg, Burkard von M.-; Rechberg, Burkard von Müllenheim-; Müllenheim, Burkard from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat and author
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Spandau
DATE OF DEATH June 1, 2003
Place of death Herrsching am Ammersee