Friedrich-Karl von Plehwe

Friedrich-Karl Albrecht von Plehwe (born April 25, 1912 in Langfuhr near Danzig ; † December 1, 1998 ) was a German officer, diplomat and writer. Plehwe was best known as Secretary General of the Western European Union from 1974 to 1977.

Live and act

Plehwe came from an old Prussian noble family. His ancestors were farmers, lawyers and officers. His grandfather was General Carl Siegfried von Plehwe .

After attending the humanistic Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Königsberg , Plehwe started a career as an officer (cavalry) in the Reichswehr in 1930 . In 1933 he was promoted to lieutenant and in 1939 to Rittmeister and regimental adjutant. On October 6, 1936, he was appointed regimental adjutant to the 3rd Cavalry Regiment. On August 26, 1939, he was assigned to the staff of the 19th Infantry Division .

After attending a general staff course from April 7, 1940 to June 14, 1940, Plehwe was appointed general staff officer in autumn 1940: from late 1940 to autumn 1943 he was an assistant to Enno von Rintelen , the military attaché at the German embassy in Rome . He was then assigned to the staff of the 719th Infantry Division (Ia in representation) in the occupied Netherlands , where he remained until September 1944. During this time he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on July 1, 1944.

In April 1945 Plehwe was taken prisoner by the Americans , from which he was released after a short time. In the autumn of the same year he began to study law and political science as well as new history at the University of Göttingen . In 1949 he received his doctorate there with an international work for Dr. jur.

After two years in the export industry, Plehwe was accepted into the Foreign Service in 1951. From 1952 to 1962 he was employed as a diplomat in Paris , most recently as counselor and as permanent representative of the German ambassador to NATO . He then worked in the Political Department of the Foreign Office in Bonn before he was posted to the Western European Union in London in 1968 , where he remained as Ambassador and Deputy Secretary General, from 1974 as Acting Secretary General until his retirement in 1977.

Since the 1960s, Plehwe also made a name for himself by publishing several contemporary historical publications, including a biography of General and Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher .

Fonts

• Problems of citizenship under international law with special consideration of the effects of multiple citizenship on third countries , 1948 (dissertation).
• Fateful hour in Rome. End of an alliance , 1967.
• International Organizations and Modern Diplomacy , 1972.
• Horsemen, fighter and rebel. The Unusual Life of General Ernst-Günther Baade , 1976 (later republished as The Independent Life of General Ernst-Günther Baade. His Thoughtful Farewell to the Authorities , 1998).
• When the axle broke. The end of the German-Italian alliance in World War II , 1980.
• Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher. Weimar's last chance against Hitler , Esslingen a. N. 1983.
• View through many windows. Memoirs 1919–1978 , 1992.
• The floods in the Netherlands in 1944 , in: VjhZG 15, 1967, pp. 403-411.