Helmuth Listemann

Helmuth Listemann (born October 23, 1872 in Magdeburg ; † May 29, 1924 near Duisburg ) was a German diplomat , interpreter and consul in Bushehr in Iran .

family

Listemann came from a family of merchants and politicians from Magdeburg. His grandfather was the Magdeburg sugar factory owner and city councilor Friedrich Conrad Listemann. His father was Conrad Listemann , General Director of Magdeburg Life Insurance, Chairman of the Magdeburg City Council and a member of the Prussian House of Representatives . He was born with Ellen La Combe, who was a native Swiss citizen. Her father was the professor Adolphe La Combe.

Life

After graduating from the Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Magdeburg, Listemann studied law from 1893 at the Université de Lausanne , the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (today's Humboldt-Universität ) in Berlin and at the seminar for oriental languages . During his studies in Lausanne he became active at the Société d'Étudiants Germania Lausanne . In November 1897 he passed the legal traineeship exam and became a trainee lawyer at the Berlin Court of Appeal . In April 1898 he passed the diploma examination in the Persian language and, after he had passed the 2nd state examination and wrote his dissertation, he was awarded a doctorate in 1898. jur. PhD. From November 1897 he worked in the Prussian judicial service.

In April 1898 he was drafted into the Foreign Service ( Dragomanat Service ) and then employed as a dragomanat aspirant at the German legation in the Iranian capital Tehran . In 1902 he was given the title Dragoman, the former designation of the Foreign Office for interpreters who were specially trained for communication between the state authorities and the embassies and consulates in the Orient . From 1905 he headed the German vice consulate in Bushehr in Iran , and in 1906 he was given the status of consul. From 1907 he was reinstated in the embassy in Tehran and after he had passed the consular examination in February 1914, he was awarded the title of consul in June 1914. In the same year Listemann married the Swiss Ellen La Combe in Lausanne , Switzerland .

Listemann was then consul of the German Empire in Bushehr in Iran as the successor to Wilhelm Wassmuss . During his consular activity in Iran, the Constitutional Revolution , the struggle of the Iranian parliament ( Majlis ) against the Shah of Persia Mohammed Ali Shah, occurred there between 1905 and 1911 . In addition, it came in 1907 to the Anglo-Russian partition treaty ( Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1907) ). From 1915 to 1921, Iran became involved in the First World War and was occupied by British and Russian troops. Right at the beginning the cast man was arrested on March 6, 1915, an illegal raid in the early hours of March 9, 1915 by British soldiers to the German consulate in Bushehr and international law as a POW over Basra brought to India and there in an internment camp for civilians interned in Ahmednagar . The long unpublished detailed descriptions of the incident in the memoirs of officer Cecil John Edmonds involved in the capture were published in 2009. According to his statement, during the capture and the subsequent search of the residence and official residence of Consul Listemann, a diplomatic code book was found and stolen, which was used to encrypt messages between Berlin and Madrid and between Berlin and Constantinople (for the Middle East ) has been used. This had far-reaching consequences, since from now on the diplomatic correspondence could be read by the British. Listemann was only able to return to Germany from internment in India five years later. After his return in February 1920, he was employed at various positions in the Foreign Office in Berlin. From October 1920 he was in Berlin in the Department of the Foreign Ministry of Foreign Trade and worked there in the Department , which for the Indian Ocean , Africa and Western Asia was responsible. Most recently, in August 1921, he was appointed head of the Foreign Office's passport office in Düsseldorf . After the passport office was closed in February 1924, it was "unused".

On May 29, 1924, at the age of 51, he committed suicide in the Rhine near Duisburg.

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 u. a. 2008, ISBN 978-3-506-71842-6 .
• Cecil John Edmonds: East and West of Zagros: Travel, War and Politics in Persia and Iraq 1913–1921. Koninklijke Brill, Leiden NL 2009, ISBN 978-90-04-17344-6 .
• Erwin Garvens : Directory of members of the Société d'Étudiants Germania Lausanne . Hamburg 1937

References and comments

1. ^ Wilhelm Litten : Persian honeymoon. Georg Stilke, Berlin 1925, p. 246
2. ↑ Stefan M.Kreutzer, Wilhelm Wassmuss - A German Lawrence, S. 103f. in: Loth / Hanisch (Ed.) First World War and Jihad, Oldenbourg Verlag Munich 2014
3. ↑ Behind the veil in Persia; English documents. CL van Langenhuysen, Amsterdam 1917, p. 9 and p. 81
4. ↑ Cecil J. Edmonds in the English language Wikipedia
5. ^ Cecil John Edmonds: East and West of Zagros: Travel, War and Politics in Persia and Iraq 1913–1921 . Koninklijke Brill, Leiden NL 2009, p. 68 ff.
6. ^ Cecil John Edmonds: East and West of Zagros: Travel, War and Politics in Persia and Iraq 1913–1921 . Koninklijke Brill, Leiden NL 2009, p. 75 f.
7. ^ 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 u. a. 2008, p. 105.

predecessor	Office	successor
Wilhelm Wassmuss	Consul of the German Empire in Bushehr , Persia 1914–1915	vacant