Joachim of Elbe

Joachim von Elbe (born June 2, 1902 in Hamm ; † June 8, 2000 in Madison , USA ) was a lawyer and diplomat .

Signature of Joachim von Elbe, autograph in a copy of his autobiography Unter Preußenadler und Sternenbanner

Life

Joachim von Elbe was the third of five children of District Administrator Kurt von Elbe (1871–1957) and his wife Käthe, née. Freiin von Richthofen (1876–1962) was born on June 2, 1902 in Hamm in Westphalia. He grew up in Neuwied , attended grammar school there and graduated from high school in 1920. In the same year von Elbe began studying law and political science at the University of Hamburg . He continued this in Kiel in the winter semester of 1920 and moved to Berlin for the summer semester of 1922 . Joachim von Elbe received his doctorate as Dr. jur. in 1925 on the subject of administrative jurisdiction according to the laws of the federal states .

In 1924 von Elbe passed the first state examination in law at the Higher Regional Court in Berlin . After that, he joined the service as a trainee lawyer at the district court of Berlin-Charlottenburg that same year . In the same year 1924 he moved as a government trainee to the district government of Gumbinnen in East Prussia , then to the district office of Goldap . In 1926 he continued his training in Königsberg . At the beginning of 1928 he completed his training with the 2nd  state examination and was appointed government assessor in the Templin district in the Uckermark .

Due to the National Socialist race laws - Joachim von Elbe was a great-grandson of the banker Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy , was considered a "2nd degree hybrid" and was therefore excluded from civil service - went from Elbe to the Free City of Danzig as legal advisor to the Senate , and finally Emigrated to the USA in 1934.

Letters of recommendation that Manina had obtained for Wied from American friends were helpful .

In the United States, he studied at the Yale University in New Haven , Connecticut , US law . He became an American citizen in 1941 and a year later, in October 1942, was drafted into the US Army and trained in psychological warfare at the Military Intelligence Training Center in Camp Ritchie , Maryland . In 1946 he returned to Germany as a member of the legal department of the US military government and accompanied the transition to democracy and a sovereign state in western Germany. With the final replacement of the military government on May 5, 1955 and the establishment of the US embassy, ​​von Elbe switched to embassy service and remained there until 1969.

In retirement, Joachim von Elbe dealt with Roman history in Germany and wrote the two autobiographical works Unter Preußenadler and Sternenbanner and Witness to History .

Works

• Administrative jurisdiction according to the laws of the federal states (diss.), Berlin 1925
• The Romans in Germany. Excavations, sites, museums , Berlin 1977
• Under Prussian eagles and stars and stripes. A life for Germany and America. , Munich 1983
• Our Roman Heritage , Frankfurt 1985
• Witness to History. A Refugee from the Third Reich Remembers. , Madison 1988

literature

• Ilsemarie von Scheven: Glorious life balance against a gloomy background . In: Heimatblätter. History, culture and customs in Hamm and Westphalia. Supplement to the Westfälischer Anzeiger. Episode 19 October 2003

Web links

• Literature by and about Joachim von Elbe in the catalog of the German National Library
• Page of the US Embassy in Germany on Joachim von Elbe
• Elbe family

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bernd Willscheid: Manina zu Wied (1909-1956) in Frauenbüro Neuwied (ed.): From Frau zu Frau, Part II , Verlag Peter Kehrein, 1995, ISBN 9783980326650 , pp. 82-92
2. ↑ Joshua Franklin: Victim Soldiers: German-Jewish Refugees in the American Armed Forces during World War II ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Honors Thesis from Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts; 2006; P. 8 (pdf; 1.29 MB)