Gustav Adolf Sonnenhol

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Gustav Adolf Sonnenhol (born January 25, 1912 in Lüdenscheid , † January 21, 1988 in Bonn ) was a German ambassador . Sonnenhol joined the NSDAP in 1931 and the SS in 1939 . During the Second World War he worked a. a. in the Inland II group at the Foreign Office under Eberhard von Thadden . One of his tasks was to observe the processes of the diplomats involved in the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 and to inform the management of the Foreign Office about it. In the Federal Republic of Germany he initially did public relations work for the Marshall Plan , joined the FDP in 1956 and later acted as ambassador to South Africa and Turkey, among other things. One of his sons is also a diplomat.

Sonnenhol (right) on a diplomatic mission in 1965

Life

From 1929 to 1930 Adolf Sonnenhol was a member of the Hitler Youth . Sonnenhol studied law and economics and joined the SA in 1930 and the NSDAP in 1931 ( membership number 545.961). From 1935 to 1937, Sonnenhol headed the foreign department of the National Socialist German Student Union and studied in Paris (1936) and London (1938). He became the personal assistant to the Reich Student Leader Gustav Adolf Scheel . Sonnenhol wrote a legal and political dissertation in 1936 at the Philipps University of Marburg .

On November 9, 1939, Sonnenhol joined the SS (membership number 347.149) and promoted to Obersturmführer on April 20, 1941. On June 1, 1939, he was employed in the Reich Foreign Ministry. He was stationed in Paris from 1940 to 1941 and was promoted to Legation Secretary on March 13, 1941 . From 1941 to 1942 he was Vice Consul at the Consulate General in Casablanca as Deputy Theodor Auer and after the occupation of Morocco by the Allies ( Operation Torch ) from 1942 to 1944 at the Consulate General in Tangier , which had an international statute based on the Morocco treaties. His repeated wish to be drafted into the front line was rejected. In the Inland II group in the Foreign Office under Eberhard von Thadden , Horst Wagner's deputy , the Inland II B division was headed by Vice Consul Emil Geiger from April 1943 to June 1944 . Department Inland II B was responsible for liaising with the chief of the security police and the SD, the regulatory police, police attachés, police investigations and information. When Geiger went to Barcelona as consul in July 1944 , Sonnenhol replaced him from July to October 1944. One of his tasks was, in particular, to observe the processes of the diplomats involved in the attack on July 20 and to inform the management of the Foreign Office about it. When Sonnenhol was then transferred to Geneva , he was replaced as head of Group Inland II B by Rudolf Bobrik . Sonnenhol worked together with Count Christoph Dönhoff (born July 27, 1906 in Friedrichstein; died 1992), brother of Marion Countess Dönhoff, at the Consulate General in Geneva from November 1944 until the end of the war.

From 1949 to 1951, Adolf Sonnenhol was employed in the Marshall Plan Ministry headed by Vice Chancellor Franz Blücher in Section III 4, Marshall Plan : Public Relations , which he took over in 1951. From 1951 to 1953 he headed the press office. From March 1953 to 1956 he was head of Section K1: Cabinet submissions from the Federal Chancellery , the Foreign Ministry, BMBR, the Ministry of Health , legal issues relating to European integration , committee meetings of the Bundestag and Bundesrat . From 1957 to 1962, Sonnenhol was Karl Werkmeister's deputy, first class counselor at the representation of the FRG at the OECD .

In 1956, Sonnenhol joined the FDP . As a foreign policy advisor to Walter Scheel and a connoisseur of France, he took part in the German political discussions and, in 1963, campaigned against strong currents in the FDP for the ratification of the treaty on Franco-German cooperation (Elysée Treaty) and the expansion of bilateral relations France a. From 1965 to 1972 he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

From 1962 to 1968 he was head of the economic policy department in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation (BMZ). 1968 to 1971 he was ambassador to South Africa . Because of his National Socialist past, Federal President Gustav Heinemann Sonnenhol rejected the appointment of State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry under Walter Scheel . Instead, Sonnenhol was given the post of ambassador to Turkey . Following his diplomatic activities, he worked from 1977 to 1985 as an industrial consultant. As a "critical friend", he continued to grapple with South Africa and Turkey as well as with development policy issues.

Publications (selection)

  • Downfall or transition? Against the German fear. Seewald, Stuttgart and Herford 1984, ISBN 3-512-00709-0
  • South Africa without hope? Ways out of danger. Econ, Düsseldorf and Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-430-18590-4
  • Raw material supplier South Africa. German Africa Foundation, Bonn 1980
  • Turkey - land between two worlds. Comments from a critical friend. Edited by Dietrich Schlegel, Leske and Budrich, Opladen 1990, ISBN 3-8100-0804-4
  • The Third World: Myth and Reality, Bouvier, 2007 (edited by Rainer Barthelt of a manuscript with a foreword by the former Federal President Walter Scheel)
  • Customs, morals, morality and law in future criminal law, with special consideration of the judgment of the perpetrator's personality. A value-reality analysis. JD Reuter, 1936, 56 pp.

literature

  • Hans-Jürgen Döscher, Foreign Office in the Third Reich. Diplomacy in the Shadow of the Final Solution, 1987 (pp. 286/287)
  • Roland Ray, rapprochement with France in the service of Hitler? Otto Abetz and the German policy on France 1930–1942. Study on Contemporary History Vol. 59, Oldenbourg, Munich 2000 ISBN 3-486-56495-1 (pp. 215-239)
  • Eckart Conze, Norbert Frei, Peter Hayes and Moshe Zimmermann: The Office and the Past. German diplomats in the Third Reich and in the Federal Republic . Karl Blessing Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-89667-430-2 .
  • Susanna Schrafstetter: A Nazi Diplomat Turned Apologist for Apartheid: Gustav Sonnenhol, Coping with the Past and West German Foreign Policy towards South Africa. In: German History. Volume 28, No. 1, 2010, pp. 44-66.
  • Sebastian Weitkamp: Brown diplomats. Horst Wagner and Eberhard von Thadden as functionaries of the “Final Solution”. Dietz, Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-8012-4178-0 .
  • Wolfgang Schollwer, FDP in Transition - Records 1961–1966 (Ed. Monika Faßbender), Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich, 1994
  • Jan-Erik Schulte and Michael Wala (eds.), Resistance in the Federal Foreign Office - diplomats against Hitler, settlers, Munich, 2013
  • CIA / FBI memo dated July 12, 1965 (NARA RG 263, box 49 - 230 / C / 65/1 and box 122 230/86/24/4)
  • Philipp C. Brooks "Oral History Interview with Dr. Gustav Adolf Sonnenhol", Information Officer, Marshall PlanMinistry, Germany 1949-54, from May 14, 1964 for the Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, MO
  • Neal H. Petersen, From Hitler's Doorstep, The Wartime Intelligence Reports of Allen Dulles, 1942–45, Pennsylvania State University (p. 417/418)
  • Biographical manual of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Volume 4: p . Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service, edited by: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-71843-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roland Ray: Approaching France in the service of Hitler? Otto Abetz and the German policy on France 1930–1942. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56495-1 , p. 211.
  2. ↑ Sonnenhol dissertation: Customs, morals, morality and law in future criminal law, with special consideration of the assessment of the perpetrator's personality. A value-reality analysis, JDReuter, 1936, 56 pp.
  3. ^ Sonnenhol, Transition or Downfall, pp. 89–90
  4. ↑ Weitkamp, ​​Brown Diplomats, p. 111, Sonnenhol, transition or downfall, p. 93
  5. ^ Weitkamp: Brown diplomats . 2008, p. 111 .
  6. ↑ Sonnenhol: transition or setting . 1984, p. 106-112 .
  7. ↑ Sonnenhol: transition or setting . Notes on July 20, 1944, p. 106-112 .
  8. ^ Ray: Approaching France . 2000, p. 111 (and footnote 20) .
  9. ^ Weitkamp: Brown diplomats . 2008, p. 111 .
  10. ↑ Sonnenhol: transition or setting . 1984, p. 113-115 .
  11. ↑ Schollwer: FDP in transition . 1994, p. 33 ff., 101 .
  12. ↑ Reinhard Schiffers (editor): FDP federal board. The Liberals chaired by Erich Mende. Minutes of meetings 1960-1967 . Düsseldorf 1993, p. 460-464 .
  13. ↑ Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Volume 4: p . Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service, edited by: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2012, p. 293.
  14. ↑ Sonnenhol: South Africa without hope? Ways out of danger. Düsseldorf and Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-430-18590-4 .
  15. ↑ Sonnenhol: Turkey - land between the worlds. Comments from a critical friend . Ed .: Dietrich Schlegel. Leske and Buderich, Opladen 1990, ISBN 3-8100-0804-4 .
  16. ↑ Sonnenhol / Barthelt, with a foreword by Walter Scheel: The Third World: Myth and Reality . Bouvier, Bonn 2007, ISBN 978-3-416-03163-9 .
predecessor Office successor
Werner Junker Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Pretoria / South Africa
1968 to 1971 		Erich Strätling
Rudolf Thierfelder Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ankara / Turkey
1971 to 1977 		Ulrich Sahm
personal data
SURNAME Sonnenhol, Gustav Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ambassador
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludenscheid
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1988
Place of death Bonn