Hans Danckwerts

Hans Danckwerts (born December 22, 1897 in Crispendorf ; † probably December 1945 / spring 1946 in POW camp 168 in Minsk ) was a German intelligence officer and editor .

Life

After the First World War , Danckwerts settled in Berlin, where he lived until 1945. From 1922 at the latest he was in the service of the German Overseas Service (DÜD). He seems to have been active both in the actual (commercial) DÜD and in the news service of the same name, which operated behind the facade of the regular DÜD using its name, i.e. to have worked in a double function both as an editor and as an intelligence service .

In the 1920s, Danckwerts was an employee of the DÜD intelligence service in a leading position in the intelligence service collection and processing of confidential material about the labor movement in Germany, especially about the communists, carried out on behalf of the leading men of the Ruhr industry (compilation of newspapers and newspaper clippings, informers and observer reports). Probably in connection with this, he also gave various lectures within various conservative network organizations. a. repeated before the German gentlemen's club about the dangers of communism. In 1931 Danckwerts took over the management of the Association for Free Economy which had emerged from the DÜD, but at the same time continued to work for the partially existing DÜD. In the 1930s Danckwerts worked alongside his news-collecting activity - in the context of which he a. a. worked with Karl Heinz Abshagen - temporarily as editor of the magazine Volk und Reich .

During the Second World War, Danckwerts worked as a clerk at the “Reich Association for Coal”, dealing with issues relating to the allocation of labor (“work assignment”). After the end of the war he found a job at the Central Office for Fuel Management.

In October 1945 Danckwerts was arrested by the Soviet secret service GRU at his office . He was then probably taken to POW camp 168 near Minsk. The returnees Rolf Dombrowski reported in the 1950s that he had met Danckwerts in December 1945 in the dungeon of the camp. He is said to have been sentenced to death soon afterwards and hanged publicly in Minsk. In 1957 Danckwerts was declared dead by the Lichterfelde district court at the request of his family. The declaration came into force on September 19, 1957.

literature

• Fritz Mierau : The disappearance of Franz Jung. Stations in a biography , Hamburg 1998.
• Rainer Orth : The official seat of the opposition , Cologne 2015.
• Klaus Tenfelde (Hrsg. '): Forced labor in the mine. Documents , vol. 2, p. 68 and 770.

Web links

• Description of the Abshagen estate at IfZ with comments on Danckwerts