Hans-Adolf von Moltke
Hans-Adolf Helmuth Erdmann Ludwig Waldemar von Moltke (born November 29, 1884 in Opole , Upper Silesia , † March 22, 1943 in Madrid ) was a German landowner in Silesia and ambassador to Poland during the Weimar Republic and during the National Socialist era.
Life
Moltke studied law and joined the Foreign Service in 1913. From 1920 to 1922 Moltke was the representative of the Foreign Office at the Plenipotentiary for the Upper Silesia voting district in Opole and then from 1922 to 1924 a member of the Mixed Commission for Upper Silesia. From 1924 to 1928 he was Counselor at the Embassy in Constantinople . From 1931 he was envoy in Warsaw and there from 1934 in the rank of ambassador (conversion of the embassy). After the beginning of the war, Moltke returned to the Foreign Office in Berlin. a. as head of the archives commission for the evaluation of captured files.
On January 11, 1943, Moltke became ambassador in Madrid. His sudden death just ten weeks after taking up the new post was seen in the USA as the result of an assassination attempt by the Gestapo : he had got caught in the power struggle between SS leader Heinrich Himmler and Abwehr chief Wilhelm Canaris .
He was also landowner on the estates of Wernersdorf ( district of Breslau ) and Klein-Bresa ( district of Strehlen ).
Since 1904 he was a member of the Corps Saxo-Borussia Heidelberg .
On October 1, 1937, he joined the NSDAP .
Polish war guilt
The German Historical Institute has republished a press photo from 1939 about its activities in German foreign policy after the outbreak of war :
- "Alleged war guilt: The former German ambassador to Poland, Hans-Adolf von Moltke, demonstrates archive material from Warsaw to foreign press representatives as" proof "of Poland's guilt for the outbreak of war (autumn 1939). The photo shows the former German ambassador to Poland, Hans-Adolf von Moltke, presenting archive material from Warsaw to foreign press representatives as "proof" of Poland's war guilt. "
genealogy
He comes from the old Mecklenburg noble family Moltke . He was the grandson of the Prussian District Administrator Adolf von Moltke (1804–1871), a brother of Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke , and son of Julie Zuckschwerdt (1862–1943) and the royal Prussian State Minister and Chief President Friedrich von Moltke (1852–1927), landowner on Klein-Bresa, member of the Prussian mansion and legal knight of the Order of St. John .
Moltke married on June 8, 1926 at Gut Klein-Öls ( district of Ohlau ) Davida Countess Yorck von Wartenburg (born September 24, 1900 at Gut Klein-Öls; † September 26, 1989 in Möckmühl ), daughter of the royal Prussian district administrator Heinrich Graf Yorck von Wartenburg and Sophie Freiin von Berlichingen .
The couple had 8 children:
- Monika von Moltke (1927–1948)
- Maria von Moltke (* 1929)
- Friedrich von Moltke (1931–2018), bank director
- Heinrich von Moltke (* 1933), Director General for Enterprise Policy at the European Commission
- Wulf von Moltke (* 1935), commercial director
- Gebhardt von Moltke (1938-2019), a. a. German ambassador in London
- Angelika Baronin von Hahn (* 1940), Professor of Neurology at the University of London ( Ontario )
- Renate von Dobschütz (* 1942), art historian , married to Leonhard von Dobschütz .
literature
- biographical data in the Federal Archives: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic"
- Genealogical manual of the nobility . Noble houses. A. Volume XXV = Volume 117 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1998, ISSN 0435-2408 , p. 339.
- Bernard Wiaderny: The Polish Underground State and the German Resistance. 1939-1944. VWF - Verlag for Science and Research, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89700-348-1 ( Academic Treatises on History ), (At the same time: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss.).
- Bernard Wiaderny: Hans Adolf von Moltke. A political biography . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2017, ISBN 978-3-506-78448-3 .
- Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 3: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: L – R. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-506-71842-6 .
- Olaf Jessen: The Moltkes. Family biography. CH Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60499-7 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Nazis among themselves In: Aufbau / Reconstruction, April 16, 1943, p. 1.
- ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 66 , 1139
- ↑ German History in Documents and Pictures (DGDB)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Moltke, Hans-Adolf von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Moltke, Hans-Adolf Helmuth Erdmann Ludwig Waldemar von (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German landowner in Silesia and ambassador to Poland in the Weimar Republic and during the Nazi era |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 29, 1884 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Opole , Upper Silesia |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 22, 1943 |
| Place of death | Madrid |