Johann Wettstein from Westersheimb

Johann (János) Wettstein from Westersheimb

Johann (János) Wettstein von Westersheimb (born June 20, 1887 in Budapest , † October 21, 1972 in Locarno ) was an Austro-Hungarian, later Hungarian diplomat . He was the Hungarian ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1933 to 1938 and to Switzerland from 1938 to 1943 .

Wettstein was a member of the Hungarian branch of the aristocratic Wettstein von Westersheimb family and studied political science and law at the University of Budapest. After graduating from the kuk diplomatic academy in Vienna in 1913, he joined the Austro-Hungarian diplomatic service. His first stationing was at the kuk embassy in Durrës , Albania . During the First World War he served as an orderly officer in the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army Command on various fronts. For his brave commitment, combined with injuries, he has received several awards and promotions. In 1917, retired from service, Wettstein returned to the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Ministry.

After the collapse of the monarchy, Wettstein entered the Hungarian diplomatic service. He was a member of the peace delegation in Neuilly-Versailles and wrote their “Political Diary”. Appointments to embassies in Paris , The Hague and Berlin followed . From 1933 to 1938 Wettstein - with the rank of Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Minister - was the Royal Hungarian Ambassador to Prague and from 1938 to 1943 to Bern .

After his retirement in 1943, he and his wife Margit, nee Baroness Bornemisza, settled in Ascona in the canton of Ticino .

In February 1944, Wettstein received another politically explosive personal assignment together with two other Hungarian diplomats who were still active in Switzerland at the time. Prime Minister Miklós Kállay (1888–1967) entrusted her with the administration of the secret fund he set up at a Swiss bank, the aim of which should have been the continuation of an independent Hungarian foreign policy in the event of a foreign occupation. With the occupation of Hungary by the German Wehrmacht on March 19, 1944, this happened faster than expected, so that there was no longer any possibility of clarifying the exact conditions for the use of the money with the client, the Prime Minister. Wettstein therefore unilaterally returned his mandate and recorded its reasons in a detailed memorandum, the scientific processing of which was initiated in 2018.

Wettstein left no memoirs, but published his political views in a self-published publication in 1966.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ A magyar békeküldöttség NAPLÓJA, Neuilly-Versailles Budapest. összeállította Zeidler Miklós, Budapest 2017.
2. ↑ Joó András: “Gstaad 9/6/99.”, - A svájci úgynevezett Kállay-féle aranyalap létrejöttének és kezelésének Genealogie –– dokumentumok Wettstein János ha-gyatékából, Lymbus 2018.
3. ↑ Wettstein János: Szemelvények emigrációs megnyilatkozásaimból, 1944–1956. Ascona 1966.