Johann Christian Lankes

Johann Christian Lankes (born December 4, 1919 in Munich ; † December 22, 1997 ) was a German diplomat and was accredited as an ambassador in several foreign missions of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Life

In 1962 Lankes was accredited as chargé d'affaires of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany in Thailand and Laos, with headquarters in Bangkok .

He was then accredited as Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the government of Ahmed Sékou Touré in Guinea in October 1968 . Lanke's actions as a diplomat were aimed at enforcing the Hallstein Doctrine 's claim to sole representation and preventing diplomatic relations between the GDR and Guinea. With this objective in mind, a cooperation agreement in the field of internal security was concluded with Guinea in February 1970 . The Fritz Werner machine tools company built a tannery and a uniform and shoe factory in Conakry .

This cooperation was in conflict with the previous policy of the federal governments, which supported the Portuguese colonial war with arms deliveries via Samuel Cummings , while the regime of Sékou Touré supported the anti-colonial liberation movement Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde , which supported the Portuguese rule in neighboring Guinea -Bissau fought. Guineans, who were designated as police officers, received further training in the Federal Republic of Germany, where some of them applied for asylum . Guinean opposition members expressed criticism of the Touré regime in the German public without this being stopped by the German side. The activities of the diplomats of the Federal Republic focused on preventing and hindering diplomatic activities of the GDR in Guinea and did not go beyond that. Guinean requests for cooperation were refused if there was no imminent danger that the GDR could take on such a project in competition. The conflict turned into a crisis when in November 1970 Operation Mar Verde Sékou Touré was supposed to be murdered in a commando operation. After the attack failed, the German brewery director Adolf Marx and the head of a CJD project in Kankan, Herman Seibold, were arrested. Seibold died under torture in Camp Boiro in Conakry , and he officially committed suicide. The local manager of the Fritz Werner branch, Count Ture Ulf von Tiesenhausen , was shot by the attackers because his car was mistaken for the Amilcar Cabrals, and a diplomat from the German Democratic Republic was also killed.

In a letter dated December 21, 1970, Sékou Touré's government asked Gustav Heinemann to recall Lankes, as he did not enjoy their trust. In addition, the government of Guinea expelled about 100 other citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany, including six technical instructors from the Bundeswehr . Diplomatic relations between Guinea and the Federal Republic were broken off by Guinea.

Lankes submitted his letter of accreditation to the government of Mikael Imru in Addis Ababa on October 18, 1975 . From 1976 he was also accredited in Beirut . At the end of 1978, Ethiopia found itself in the Ogaden War with neighboring Somalia . As part of the “ Operation Magic Fire ” in mid-October 1977, Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski had made far-reaching promises for the approval of the Siad Barre government in Mogadishu for the deployment of the Federal Police's GSG 9 on their territory. On January 1, 1978, Barre met Helmut Schmidt in Egypt . On January 12, 1978 State Secretary Udo Kollatz had from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Marie Schlei with the Somali ambassador a loan agreement about 11.8 million US dollars , signed for free use. Such loan agreements sometimes contained clauses stating that the foreign currency should not be used "for luxury goods or military equipment" or a product catalog from German manufacturers to choose from was not included in this contract. The Barre government used the foreign currency to purchase T-54 from the Anwar al-Sadat government . In mid-January 1978, the government of Mengistu Haile Mariam expelled the German military attaché Detlef Münchow from Ethiopia. Klaus Kinkel , head of the Foreign Office's planning team, traveled to Addis Abbeba in January 1978. Lankes became a persona non grata declared that his laissez passer for Ethiopia was from 23 January 1978, to 24 hours, within which Harald buses charge d'affaires was.

On February 12, 1982, Lanke's letter of accreditation was accepted by the government of Thailand.

From 1987 to 1997 Ambassador was a. D. Hans Christian Lankes Chairman of the German-Thai Society .

Honors

• 1983: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolf Donner: The DTG mourns Dr. Hans Christian Lankes. (PDF; 6.6 MB) In: Thailand-Rundschau. German-Thai Society V., June 1998, p. 4 , accessed on February 23, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Ulbricht's drums and drummers in Laos. In: The time . No. 47/1962
3. ↑ In France, writings by Guinean dissidents had been removed from the market for some obscure reasons.
4. ↑ Adolf Marx: cursed who forgets us. Tortured for Germany. (2 MB)
5. ↑ Noisy chatter . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1978 ( online ).
6. ↑ Ethiopia Expels Bonn Ambassador In Retaliation. In: Sarasota Herald Tribune , January 23, 1978
7. ↑ Speech by His Excellency Dr. Johann Christian Lankes Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany at the presentation of his credentials to His Majesty the King of Thailand in the 12th February 1982  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on ohmpps.go.th  

predecessor	Office	successor
	Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Laos 1962	Claus Vollers
Hans Bidder Walter Boss	Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Thailand 1962 1982–1985	Hans-Ulrich von Schweinitz Helmut Rückriegel
Hans-Günter Sulimma	Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Guinea 1968–1970	Peter Truhart
Rüdiger von Pachelbel	Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Lebanon 1976	Tono Eitel
Herbert von Stackelberg	Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ethiopia 1975–1978	Harald Busse
Ernst E. Jung	Secretary of NATO for Political Affairs 1978–1981	Fredo Dannenbring