Herbert Sulzbach

Herbert Sulzbach OBE (born February 8, 1894 in Frankfurt am Main ; † July 5, 1985 in London ) was a German author and diplomat of Jewish descent who did outstanding work for the reconciliation between Great Britain and Germany after the Second World War .

Life

Herbert Sulzbach comes from a Frankfurt banking family. He was born in Frankfurt am Main as the son of the banker and composer Emil Sulzbach . His grandfather Rudolf Sulzbach (1827–1904) was a banker and co-founder of the private bank Gebr. Sulzbach since 1855. Herbert Sulzbach was tutored at home, later attended the Goethe-Gymnasium and from 1906 to 1908 the Dr. Hoch's Conservatory . On May 27, 1919, he married Margot Rocholl, from whom he was divorced in 1922. On June 19, 1923, he married Otto Klemperer's niece , Beate Scherk. She was a theater actress (residence theater, tribune, Kammerspiele), but also worked for the film (including "The Secret of the Green Mask", 1916; "My Leopold", 1924).

During the First World War , Herbert Sulzbach served as an artilleryman and soldier at the front for four years.

In 1938 he emigrated to England with Beate Scherk, her sister and his daughter from their first marriage. Together with other migrants, the couple were interned by the British on the Isle of Man for a time as " hostile foreigners " . In the meantime, his and his family's fortunes were “ Aryanized ” in Germany , some other family members managed to escape, others perished in extermination camps .

In 1940 Sulzbach joined a volunteer corps of the British Army, which was used to expand defenses.

When more and more German prisoners of war arrived in the British Isles towards the end of 1944, he was used as a translator in various camps. There he worked trust-building far beyond the post-war period.

Commitment to German-British reconciliation

Herbert Sulzbach believed in the good in people. He took the prisoners seriously, supported them in their personal interests and helped them to reflect on humanistic values.

From January 1946 to May 1948 Sulzbach worked as a translator and cultural officer in the prisoner-of-war camp Featherstone Park near Haltwhistle in Northumberland . The camp at Featherstone Castle , which originally housed Italian prisoners of war, was set up in 1944 and existed until 1948. From 1945 it served as a camp for German officers. In accordance with the new British re-education , he not only promoted political training for prisoners, but also a variety of cultural and sports activities. In addition, the Germans were given the opportunity to take their school-leaving exams and qualifications in the trade, as well as to study at the camp university that was set up especially for them. and so prepare for civil life. The lecturers included a. Norman Bentwich (1883–1971), professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Benjamin Britten , Victor Gollancz , Yehudi Menuhin , Basil Liddell Hart , Ivone Kirkpatrick and Harold Nicolson , as well as lectures by Gerhard Leibholz , Martin Niemöller and Hugh Trevor-Roper . The success of these measures was unique. Most of the prisoners allowed themselves to be won over to the ideas of democracy and international understanding through the courtesy of the British (freedom of movement was allowed early on). Former Featherstone inmates attribute the greatest influence to Sulzbach, who, despite his traumatic experiences in Germany, worked tirelessly for "his" people and confronted them without prejudice. He was supported by Sir Henry Faulk , the head of the British re-education program and Colonel Charles Geoffrey Vickers, the camp commandant.

After the Featherstone camp was closed, former guards and prisoners came together again and again and finally founded the German-British friendship society "Featherstone Park Association" in 1960, of which Sulzbach became honorary chairman.

In 1951 he took over the post of cultural attaché in the German embassy in London . There he continued to be involved in a variety of ways for German-British reconciliation until his departure in 1981. He informed the British public about Germany, supported the establishment of town twinning and numerous meeting and exchange programs.

Herbert Sulzbach was buried in 1985 at the side of his wife Beate in Hampstead Cemetery .

Awards

Herbert Sulzbach received numerous awards over the course of his life, including the Iron Cross 1st Class, the European Peace Cross, the Order of the British Empire and the Great Federal Cross of Merit .

Fonts

• Two living walls. Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935.
  • Reprint: Between two walls: 50 months on the western front. Vowinckel, Berg am See around 1985, ISBN 3-921655-45-5 .
  • English translation: With The German Guns. Four Years on the Western Front. Cooper, Barnsley 1973. 1998, ISBN 0-85052-599-3 .
• "Inside Featherstone Park", in Rolf Breitenstein: "Total War to Total Trust", Oswald Wolf, London 1976.

literature

• Peter Englund : Stridens skönhet och cares. Atlantis, Stockholm 2008, ISBN 978-91-7353-244-0 .
  • German by Wolfgang Butt: Beauty and horror: A story of the First World War, told in nineteen fates. Rowohlt, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-87134-670-5 .
• Ainslie Hepburn: Trust, Reconciliation and Friendship, in: Humanitas, The Journal of the George Bell Institute, Volume 9, Number 2, University of Chichester, Chichester April 2009.

swell

• Englund describes the First World War from “at the bottom” , news.de, October 29, 2011, accessed on July 14, 2012
• The mirror on Herbert Sulzbach's departure from the German Embassy , accessed on July 13, 2012
• "That's where we learned what democracy is." Deutschlandradio, May 5, 2010 , accessed April 30, 2013

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Annual reports from 1878 to 1921 ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 24, 2012.  
2. ↑ Mrs. Beate Sulzbach. ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: AJR information. January 1983, p. 5, accessed on July 16, 2012. (PDF file; 8.82 MB) 
3. ↑ Beatrice Scherk in the Internet Movie Database (English).
4. ^ Written reproduction of the interview of May 5, 2010 with prisoner of war Engelbert Hoppe , accessed on April 30, 2013.
5. ↑ Eduard Hoffmann and Ingrid Leifgen: As a young German in English captivity . Broadcast on Monday, October 19, 2009, 10:05 a.m., SWR2 , audio document, accessed on April 30, 2013.
6. ^ Renate Held: Captivity in Great Britain. , retrieved April 30, 2013.
7. ^ Featherstone - As a young German in English captivity. (PDF; 44 kB) accessed on July 16, 2012.
8. ^ The Pioneer Terence Prittie to Herbert Sulzbach. accessed on July 14, 2012. (English)