Harald Graf von Posadowsky-Wehner

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Harald Graf von Posadowsky-Wehner (born August 25, 1910 in Kiel , † September 8, 1990 in Bonn ) was a German ambassador .

Harald von Posadowsky-Wehner (right) 1968 with the Malagasy Chief of Staff

Life

Harald Graf von Posadowsky-Wehner was a son of the naval officer and attaches Harry von Posadowsky-Wehner and Erika von Witzleben-Normann. Posadowsky-Wehner completed a commercial apprenticeship and studied economics in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Paris from 1932 to around 1936. He received his doctorate as Dr. rer. pole. and then took up a position as assistant director of IG Farben in Frankfurt / Main in 1937 . When the Second World War broke out , he was drafted into the Air Force and in 1941 transferred to the Reich Ministry of Aviation, where he served until 1945. In 1947, Harald von Posadowsky-Wehner was released from prisoner-of-war captivity and then became a consultant in the office for peace issues in Stuttgart. In 1950 he switched to the Federal Ministry of Economics in Bonn as a consultant. In 1952 he joined the diplomatic service as head of the economic department of the German embassy in Canberra . In 1956 he became a consultant in the economic policy department of the Foreign Office in Bonn. From 1960 to 1964, Harald von Posadowsky-Wehner served as the German ambassador to Nigeria . From 1964 he was head of the Africa department at the Foreign Office and had a decisive influence on West German Africa policy. He finished his career as Consul General in New York from 1970 to 1975.

He received a special honor and a further highlight in his career in December 1977, when he attended the coronation of Jean-Bédel Bokassa in the Central African Republic as the German Ambassador . As on many of his other African stations, he was awarded a medal on this occasion - here at his request through the mediation of the German ambassador. His wife also got one on this occasion. This made the count very proud. His statement in a private conversation about the durability of what is now the Central African Empire proved to be extraordinarily prophetic: "Well, it will last for two years."

Harald Graf von Posadowsky-Wehner was married to Dorothee geb. Jacobs-Werlé (1914–1961). They had two children, Sylvius (born 1941) and Alexandra (1937–1965). In 1967 he married Princess Josephine Wilhelmine von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1922-2006), daughter of Albrecht von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen .

Works

  • Africa in the last 10 years , Pfaffenhofen, 1970

Web links

literature

  • Walther Killy (Ed.), Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie , Volume 8, 1998.
  • Who is who? , 12th edition, 1955.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhart Bindseil : In Innermost Africa: An Ambassador Experienced Bokassa I and His Empire , 2010.
predecessor Office successor
Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Lagos
1960–1964 		Günther Gnodtke
personal data
SURNAME Posadowsky-Wehner, Harald Graf von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Posadowsky-Wehner, Harald von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiel
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1990
Place of death Bonn