Henning Thomsen

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Henning Thomsen (born July 11, 1905 in Berlin ; died December 31, 1972 in Bonn-Bad Godesberg ) was a German diplomat during the time of National Socialism and in the Federal Republic of Germany .

Life

Thomsen's father was the farmer and member of the Reichstag, Richard Thomsen , and his mother's name was Emma Arnold. Henning studied economics , law and agriculture, passed the diploma examination for farmers in 1930 and began his professional life as a consultant for the German Society for League of Nations . In 1934 he was accepted into the diplomatic service as an attaché. He passed the diplomatic and consular examination in 1936 and was initially employed at the legation in Oslo from October 1938 . Thomsen became Legation Secretary on July 4, 1938. He was a member of the NSDAP since August 1, 1937 and a member of the Reiter-SS since June 28, 1933 . In 1938 he moved to Dublin as a delegate to the envoy Eduard Hempel and saw the outbreak of the Second World War there . In 1942 he became Counselor in Dublin. The Republic of Ireland was neutral during World War II and maintained diplomatic relations until May 10, 1945. In Ireland there was a very active group of the NSDAP foreign organization , which was also involved in agent activities that were organized in the embassy by the press attaché Carl-Heinz Petersen and von Thomsen. The linguist Ernst Lewy, who fled to Dublin from Germany, feared the National Socialist Ambassador Hempel less than his secretary Thomsen, whom he believed to be a Gestapo spy .

The Irish Prime Minister Éamon de Valera granted the members of the embassy asylum after the end of the war , although the Allies demanded their extradition, and Thomsen “entered a construction company”. He escaped internment because he did not return to Germany until April 1951. In June 1952 he was reassigned to the Foreign Service of the Federal Republic of Germany and was deployed in Lima until the end of 1953 . After working in the Political Department in Bonn , he worked in Tehran from 1956 , where he was appointed Counselor in 1961. In 1960 Thomsen was appointed the first German ambassador in the now independent Cameroon . From late 1964 to May 1970 he was ambassador in Reykjavík , where he succeeded Hans-Richard Hirschfeld . In 1970 he was retired.

The cold shoulder that the Irish ambassador William Warnock showed him in Bonn when he did not invite him to a reception despite his protests proved that his work in the German embassy in Dublin was not forgotten during the Nazi rule of injustice .

Thomsen was in his first marriage since October 1936 with Hiltrud Wernher von Eggeling, daughter of Wilhelm Wernher and adopted daughter of Dr. rer. pole. Bernhard von Eggeling , and in second marriage since March 1970 with Angela Rinkler, related. de Cerro Cebrian, married.

Honors

On February 4, 1969, Henning Thomsen received the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class.

literature

  • Johannes Hürter (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. 5. T - Z, supplements. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 5: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-71844-0
  • John P. Duggan: Mr. Hempel at the German Legation in Dublin 1937-1945 , Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2002 ISBN 0-7165-2757-X . Diss. Dublin 1980
  • John P. Duggan: Neutral Ireland and the Third Reich , Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1985 ISBN 0-7171-1384-1
  • Horst Dickel: German foreign policy and the Irish question from 1932 to 1944 , Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1983 ISBN 3-515-03896-5 . Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Diss., 1980
  • Andrea Wiegeshoff: "We all have to relearn something": on the internationalization of the Foreign Service of the Federal Republic of Germany (1945/51 - 1969) . Göttingen: Wallstein, 2013 ISBN 978-3-8353-1257-9 , p. 438f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Personal data in: Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945, ed. from the Foreign Office, vol. 5, p. 33.
  2. ^ John P. Duggan: Neutral Ireland and the Third Reich , p. 25
  3. ↑ Horst Dickel: German foreign policy and the Irish question from 1932 to 1944 , p. 147f; P. 192
  4. ^ John P. Duggan: Neutral Ireland and the Third Reich , p. 42
  5. ↑ Cake from Mrs. Evelyne , Der Spiegel , June 29, 1950
  6. ^ John P. Duggan: Neutral Ireland and the Third Reich , p. 251
  7. ↑ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt: S 1 No. Evidence 1 .
personal data
SURNAME Thomsen, Henning
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1972
Place of death Bonn-Bad Godesberg