Georg Ahrens (diplomat)

Georg Ahrens (born November 12, 1890 in Berlin , † September 7, 1967 in Karlsruhe ) was a German diplomat and writer .

Life

Georg Ahrens was born in Berlin as the son of the owner of a trading company Gustav Ahrens and his wife Johanna, née Wernicke-Laurenz. Here he also attended the Realgymnasium Berlin-Grunewald, today's Walther-Rathenau-Gymnasium , where he passed his Abitur at Easter 1909. He then studied law at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg , the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and finally until 1913 at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin. In the same year in May he passed his legal traineeship and received his doctorate in June. jur. On June 3, he began working in the Prussian judicial service.

In the Foreign Office

On January 16, 1914, Georg Ahrens was called up to the Foreign Office, was initially employed free of charge and was summoned to the German Consulate General in Shanghai in June 1914 . From here he moved to the Consulate General in Yokohama in September and to the Consulate in New Orleans in the following month . On March 1, 1915, he was transferred to the German embassy in Washington . When the embassy was closed in July 1917 after the USA had declared war on Germany, he returned to Berlin, where he served in the Foreign Office in Department IV (News) from April 26, 1917 , and was admitted as an attaché a little later Appointed Legation Secretary 8 November 1918.

With the establishment of the Weimar Republic, Georg Ahrens got a job in the area of ​​responsibility of the Undersecretary for Political Affairs. Here he worked closely with Carl Brinkmann (1885–1954) from Department IA, with whom he also edited the publication "The statesmanlike work of the President in his speeches: Woodrow Wilson" during this time. From mid-1920 he headed the Office of the State Secretary for Political Affairs and from January 30, 1922 he was appointed Legation Councilor. Since the end of the year he has been preparing for his next assignment abroad in Hungary. As legation councilor, second class, he was appointed to the German legation in Budapest. The German chargé d'affaires was Viktor Prinz zu Wied (1877–1946). Ahrens began his service on April 24, 1923. After two years he returned to Germany in June 1925, was temporarily employed in Department III (British Empire, America, Orient) in the Foreign Office and moved to St. Louis in the summer of the same year . To re-establish the German consulate there, he took up his post on October 15, 1925 and was appointed consul II in July 1929. After another three years he moved to the embassy to Mexico at the end of the year. The German envoy in Mexico City at that time was Eugen Johann Will (* 1877). In October of the following year, Ahrens was appointed to the local legation council. During his tenure, he dealt with the culture of Mexico and in 1936 published a documentary volume on the excavation sites of Monte Albán and Mitla . At the beginning of 1938 he took temporary retirement in January and returned to Germany from Mexico.After working in the overseas department of AEG at the end of 1938, he again worked in the Foreign Office in the cultural policy department, Section V (agreements and contracts in the cultural field). He took over this department as head in 1943 and worked in the Foreign Office until January 31, 1945.

After the defeat of Germany in World War II in 1945 and the formation of the four zones of occupation, Georg Ahrens was from October 1946 to March 1949, shortly before the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, personal advisor to the Hessian Prime Minister Karl Geiler (1878-1953) and later his successor Christian Stock (1884–1967), with the title of senior government councilor. He then worked as a freelance writer, translated several political books, such as the writings of Henry Kissinger , wrote introductions to them and published them in German publishers.

In 1951 Georg Ahrens returned to the service of the Foreign Office, where he was entrusted with setting up and taking over the consulate in Atlanta and took up his post on May 20, 1951 as Consul 1st class. Almost two years later, in February 1953, he was proposed as head of the newly established embassy in Colombo and took over in December 1953. After two years in office, he asked for retirement at the end of 1955 and returned to Germany in February 1956.

family

Georg Ahrens married Hildegard, nee Schmidt zur Nedden, on February 18, 1922. From this marriage two sons were born. The oldest was Johann Georg, born December 7, 1922, followed by Rudolf-Martin, born February 6, 1928.

Georg Ahrens died on September 7, 1967 in Karlsruhe.

Fonts

• The statesmanlike work of the president in his speeches: Woodrow Wilson , (as editor, together with Carl Brinkmann), D. Reimer Verlag Berlin, 1919
• Photos of the Monte Albán and Mitla archaeological sites , Ibero-American Institute Oaxaca, México, 1936
• Europe before the decision: memories u. Outlook of an Engl. Politician , by Robert Boothby , (as editor and translator), Droste-Verlag Düsseldorf, 1951
• Nuclear weapons and foreign policy , by Henry Kissinger , with an introduction by Frido von Senger (as translator), Oldenbourg Verlag Munich, 1959

literature

• Biographical Handbook of the Foreign Service 1871–1945, Ed. Foreign Office, Schöningh Verlag Volume 1, 2014, pp. 13f.
• Georg Ahrens in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available).

Web links

• Literature by and about Georg Ahrens in the bibliographic database WorldCat

Remarks

1. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 6: T-Z. Winter, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-8253-5063-0 , p. 319f.
2. ↑ Biographical Handbook of the Foreign Service 1871–1945, Ed. Foreign Office, Schöningh Verlag Volume 1, 2014, p. 13f.
3. ^ Frank Schmidt: Christian Stock (1884-1967): A biography. Hessian Historical Commission, Darmstadt 1997