Herbert von Richthofen

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Herbert Freiherr von Richthofen (born June 7, 1879 in Strehlen , † 1952 in Moscow ) was a German diplomat .

Life

The younger of the Count's line of noble family Richthofen originating Herbert studied after school attendance law and joined after graduating in 1903, initially in the judicial service of the Kingdom of Prussia and then after his promotion to Dr. iur. In 1904 in the diplomatic service . In the following years he found employment in the Foreign Office in Berlin and was appointed Legation Secretary in 1907 .

Between 1911 and 1914 he worked as legation secretary at the consulate general in Cairo and was appointed legation councilor in 1915 during his subsequent activity in the Foreign Office . He was then from 1916 to 1918 counselor at the legation in Bulgaria . After the end of the First World War , he was released from service in the Reich in 1919 and lived on the family estate . During this time he also had friendly relations with the Norwegian painter and graphic artist Olaf Gulbransson , with whom he lived for a time in a hut in Partenkirchen .

In 1922 he was reinstated in the diplomatic service. From 1922 to 1928 he was head of the British Empire , America and Orient department in Department III of the Foreign Office and was promoted to lecturing councilor in 1923 . In 1928 he was promoted to Ministerial Director in Department II.

In 1930 he succeeded Ulrich von Hassell as envoy first class to Denmark . He held this office in 1936 until he was appointed envoy 1st class in Belgium as the successor to Raban Adelmann von Adelmannsfelden, who died the year before , while Cécil von Renthe-Fink succeeded him as envoy in Copenhagen . In the period as ambassador in Brussels he had it also contacts with the local correspondents of the NS - Newspapers Völkischer observers and West German observers René Bayer . On March 1, 1938, he joined the NSDAP .

In 1938 he was initially put into temporary retirement as envoy first class in Belgium and replaced in this position by the previous chief of protocol at the Foreign Office, Vicco von Bülow-Schwante .

In 1939 he was recalled to the diplomatic service and, as successor to Eugen Rümelin, envoy 1st class in Bulgaria . In 1941, however, he was put into temporary retirement again and replaced as envoy in Sofia by the SA group leader and police chief of Frankfurt am Main, Adolf Beckerle . In 1944 he was finally given permanent retirement .

After the end of the Second World War , he was arrested by the Red Army in 1945 . In 1951 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a Soviet court for “preparing and waging a war of aggression”. In 1952 he finally died in Soviet custody in Lubyanka Prison in Moscow .

He had been a member of the Corps Borussia Bonn since 1900 .

literature

  • Richthofen, Herbert, Freiherr von. In: Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 2: L-Z. Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1931, DNB 453960294 , p. 1527.
  • 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 , pp. 654 f.
  • Johannes Hürter (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 4: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: S Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-71843-3 , p. 508

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richthofen in the 19th and 20th centuries
  2. ↑ Rainer Bottle, Fritz Heinrich, Carsten Koch (Ed.): Religious Studies in consequence. Lit, Münster 2000, ISBN 3-8258-4505-2 , p. 43 ( digitized version )
  3. ↑ Files on German foreign policy 1918–1945. Series C: 1933–1937 - The Third Reich; The first years. Volume VI, 1: November 1, 1936 to March 13, 1937. Göttingen 1981, p. 61
  4. ^ Kösener corps lists 1910, 19 , 728
predecessor Office successor
Raban Adelmann von Adelmannsfelden German ambassador to Belgium
1935–1938 		Vicco von Bülow-Schwante
personal data
SURNAME Richthofen, Herbert von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Richthofen, Herbert Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Strehlen , Province of Silesia , Kingdom of Prussia , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH 1952
Place of death Lubyanka Prison , Moscow , Russian SFSR , Soviet Union