Hans Riesser (diplomat)

Hans Eduard Riesser (born September 17, 1887 in Frankfurt am Main , † March 22, 1969 in Geneva ) was a German diplomat . He also worked as an author under the pseudonym HE Lichten .

Life

Riesser, son of the lawyer and later Vice President of the Reichstag Jakob Riesser and brother of the pharmacologist Otto Riesser , studied law at the University of Oxford , Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and Friedrich after attending school at the Kaiser Friedrich School in Berlin-Charlottenburg -Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin . Following his 1910 took place Promotion to Dr. iur. at the University of Jena . In 1914 he passed his state examination as a lawyer . During the First World War he worked as a soldier first with the head of the civil administration for Belgium and then with the navy with the radio operators and received several awards for his military achievements.

In November 1918 he joined the diplomatic service of the Foreign Office and took part in the Versailles peace negotiations as an attaché as a member of the German delegation . He was then Legation Secretary at the Embassy in Norway between 1919 and 1921 and then at the Embassy in the United States . He was then from 1923 to 1926 Counselor at the Embassy in Estonia , before he was Counselor 1st class at the Embassy in France from 1926 to 1933 . After the seizure of power by the Nazi Party , he was dismissed for political and anti-Semitic reasons in July 1933 from the diplomatic service.

He then stayed in exile in France and initially worked for a US brokerage firm in Paris. After working as a director of Radiac SA in Paris from 1934 to 1939, he went to Switzerland , where he not only worked as a self-employed businessman , but also worked in the Defense / Abroad Department of the Reich German High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) . After his arrest by the Gestapo in 1940 and subsequent imprisonment, he was expatriated from German citizenship in 1941 . In 1943 he managed to escape to Switzerland.

After the Second World War he returned to Germany in 1949. After that, in June 1950 after the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, he was reinstated in the diplomatic service. Initially, he was Lecturer in Legation and Deputy Consul General in New York City . In 1952 he received a reparation notice.

Most recently, from 1952 until his retirement in 1955, he was an observer with the rank of Consul General and then Ambassador to the United Nations in New York City. In this function, on August 14, 1952, he signed the certificate of accession of the Federal Republic of Germany to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) . In 1954, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit with a Star for his services . His successor as an observer at the UN was Felix von Eckardt in 1955 .

In 1962 his autobiography was published under the title From Versailles to the UN: From the Memories of a Diplomat .

literature

• 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 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans Eduard Riesser in the catalog of the German National Library
• Hans Riesser in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
• Hans Eduard Riesser in the online version of the Reich Chancellery Edition Files. Weimar Republic

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hermann Graml: Between Stresemann and Hitler. Oldenbourg, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-486-64583-8 , p. 63 ( digitized version )
2. ^ Aid to Greece: Breaking a dam in the fight against inflation. ( Memento of March 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Handelsblatt . March 25, 2010

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Head of the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations 1952–1955	Felix von Eckardt