Heinz Schneppen

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Heinz Schneppen (* 1931 in Bocholt ) is a former German diplomat and historian who was ambassador to Paraguay from 1989 to 1993 and most recently from 1993 to 1996 to Tanzania .

Life

Diplomatic career

After attending school in 1951, Schneppen began studying history , German and philosophy at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster , which he did at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich , the University of Leiden and Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg (USA) . After graduating, he completed on December 9, 1958 his studies with a doctorate to the Dr. phil. at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität zu Münster with a dissertation entitled Dutch Universities and German Spiritual Life from the foundation of the University of Leiden until the late 18th century . Subsequently, between 1959 and 1960 he was assistant to the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) in Bonn and between February and September 1960 assistant consultant in Section IV / 3 (Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Nordic States) in Section IV (Abroad) of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government .

In 1960 Schneppen joined the Foreign Service and was initially employed as a press assistant at the embassy in the United Kingdom between 1960 and 1962 and then from 1962 to 1964 as a press officer at the embassy in the Netherlands , before he returned from 1964 to 1967 Referat L 4 (press department) was at the headquarters of the Foreign Office in Bonn. From 1967 to 1970 he was seconded to the Federal Government's Press and Information Office, where he was personal assistant to the heads of the Press and Information Office, Günter Diehl and Conrad Ahlers. After working at the embassy in Ecuador between 1970 and 1973 , he was employed at the embassy in France from 1973 to 1976 .

Schneppen returned to the headquarters of the Foreign Office in 1976, where he was deputy head of Section 222 (technological, economic and scientific questions, verification, specific weapons bans, peace research) of subdivision 22 (Federal Government Commissioner for Disarmament and Arms Control) in 1979 of Department 2 (Political Department). Between 1979 and 1984 he was head of the German Information Center, a division of the Washington Embassy based in New York City . After his return to Germany, he was head of Unit 012 (Public Relations Abroad and Domestic) in the Executive Committee from 1984 to 1985 and then between 1985 and 1989 Head of Unit 205 (United Kingdom, Commonwealth Issues, Canada, Ireland, Nordic States) in Department 2 (Political Department) of the Federal Foreign Office.

In 1989 Schneppen succeeded Richard Louis as ambassador in Paraguay and held this position until 1993, after which he was replaced by Joachim Kausch . He was most recently accredited as Ambassador to Tanzania in 1993 as the successor to Dietrich Venzlaff . He remained in this position until he retired in 1996.

Historian and non-fiction author

After his retirement, Schneppen devoted himself mainly to his work as a historian and published several non-fiction books. First published in 1999 were the autobiographical letters of Emily Ruete , an Omani-Zanzibari princess who, after marrying the German businessman Rudolph Heinrich Ruete, lived as a writer and teacher in Germany. In 2002 a biography of the French naturalist Aimé Bonpland was published .

He achieved fame as the author of specialist books on topics related to National Socialism published by the Berlin Metropol Verlag . In his 2007 book Odessa and the Fourth Reich. Myths of Contemporary History , he dealt with the organization of former SS members , the subject of the book The Odessa Files by Frederick Forsyth , published in 1972 and filmed in 1974 . 2009 ghetto commandant appeared in Riga: Eduard Roschmann. Facts and fictions about the commander of the Riga Ghetto , Eduard Roschmann . In 2011, a biography of the organizer of the Nazi gas truck murders, Walther Rauff, was published .

Schneppen also wrote articles in specialist journals, such as about Chalid ibn Barghasch , the Hospitali ya Ocean Road , Otto Bräutigam , who worked in leading positions in the Foreign Office as well as in the Reich Ministry for the occupied eastern territories of Alfred Rosenberg during the Nazi era and in the post-war period in 1954 he became head of the Eastern Department of the Federal Foreign Ministry , as well as Franz Nüßlein , who was deployed in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during the Second World War and who worked as a diplomat in the Federal Republic of Germany from 1955 and whose obituary was published in the foreigner's employee newspaper internAA Office in May 2003 was the trigger for the obituary decree in the Foreign Office 2003, from which the obituary affair developed in early 2005. In 2011 he already wrote an article about the work of the Independent Commission of Historians of the Federal Foreign Office .

Publications

Books

  • Dutch universities and German intellectual life, from the founding of Leiden University to the late 18th century . Dissertation University of Münster, 1958, Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 1960
  • Emily Ruete: Letters home . Editor. Philo-Verlag, Bodenheim near Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-8257-0114-X
  • Aimé Bonpland: Humboldt's forgotten companion? Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, 2002.
  • Zanzibar and the Germans. A special relationship. 1844-1966 . LIT Verlag, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-8258-6172-4
  • Odessa and the Fourth Empire. Myths of Contemporary History . Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-938690-52-6
  • Ghetto commander in Riga: Eduard Roschmann. Facts and fictions . Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 3-938690-93-3
  • Walther Rauff. Organizer of the gas truck murders. A biography . (Zeitgeschichten series; Volume 7). Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86331-024-0

Essays

  • Sayyid Ḫālid b. Barġaš: Three days of the Sultan - thirty years in exile . In: Islam. Vol. 76, Issue 2 (1999), pp. 299-312.
  • The beginnings of the Ocean Road Hospital in Dar es Salaam: from Mission Hospital to Government Hospital . In: Sudhoffs Archiv , Volume 84, No. 1, 2000, pp. 63-88
  • Nietzsche and Paraguay: the philosopher as a farmer? In: Nietzscheforschung , Yearbook of the Nietzsche Society, Volume 8, 2001, pp. 249–265.
  • On the hunting instinct of historical investigators: The report of the "Independent Commission of Historians" on the past of the Federal Foreign Office . In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft (ZfG), 2011, No. 7/8, pp. 593–620.
  • Arguable and controversial: Simon Wiesenthal retrospectively . In: ZfG , 2011, No. 2, pp. 101–112
  • Consul General aD Dr. Otto Bridegroom: Resistance and Entanglement. A source-critical investigation . In: ZfG , vol. 60, 2012, issue 4, pp. 301–330.
  • The case of the retired consul general Franz Nüßlein. A reconstruction , In: ZfG, 2012, pp. 1007-1037
  • The Nuremberg verdict on the “criminal organizations” and its consequences. A critical balance . In: ZfG , 2015, No. 1, pp. 28–67
  • Conjectures about Rauff . In: ZfG , 2016, No. 10, pp. 876–882.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schneppen, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat and historian
DATE OF BIRTH 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Bocholt