Johannes Dede

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johannes Dede , also Hans Dede (* 1900 in Hamburg , † in the early 1970s on the Galapagos Islands ) was a German honorary consul in Mallorca .

Life

He was born the son of a businessman in Hamburg. Dede worked as an employee in a travel agency on Mallorca. He is described as gifted in languages ​​and initially politically left-wing. Professionally, he made a career at the German-Spanish travel agency Baquera, Kusche & Martin , where he worked his way up to the head of the Palma branch . In 1932 Dede initially took over the role of German honorary consul in Palma de Mallorca on the Spanish Mediterranean island of Mallorca. His predecessor was Alfred Müller, who died at the end of 1931 . In June 1933 he officially took over the function. He also changed his political orientation and joined the NSDAP . The German businessman Paul Esch-Hörle , based in Sóller , took over the representation of Dedes from time to time.

Consul Dede worked in his office on the same circuit with the living in Mallorca German within the meaning of the Nazi government. So he organized celebrations on the occasion of the appointment of Adolf Hitler and on May 1st on the beach of Portals Nous . He made sure that the German school on the island acted in the interests of the National Socialists. The teachers and the library were true to the line. Dede also organized collections for the winter charity . For the Reichstag election in the German Reich in 1936 , which was only conducted as a sham election , Dede organized the participation of German citizens on Mallorca. They were brought to Tanganyika, off Palma de Mallorca, in three motor boats, where they were cast. Whether he developed into a dangerous pursuer of the anti-fascists residing in Mallorca is controversial. In some cases he is described as one of the biggest criminals in Germany abroad, others portray him as an opportunist .

Dede had contact with the German writer Albert Vigoleis Thelen , who was in exile on Mallorca. He tried to get him excited about the Third Reich, which Thelen rejected. There was then a political hostility between the two. Dede had Thelen spied on. However, Dede Thelen kept arranging assignments as a tour guide and, although he was on a blacklist of the National Socialists and Falangists , got him an exit visa valid for 48 hours.

Dede's tasks also included providing information to the German National Socialist government about the activities of German exiles on Mallorca. So he was asked whether Harry Graf Kessler was behaving "hostile to Germany", whereupon Dede truthfully announced that Kessler would not appear. He also had to report on Hermann Graf Keyserling's appearances in Palma de Mallorca.

Dede also had business with the pacifist Heinz Kraschutzki . Kraschutzki, forcibly expatriated by the National Socialists, asked Dede to officially confirm the denationalization.

He was involved in the deportation of Jews overseas, i.e. to areas outside Germany, as long as the people did not express themselves critical of Adolf Hitler. It is said that he helped prevent the conscription of the sons of Konrad Liesegang, who fled from Germany, into the Wehrmacht .

In a spy report on Dede from 1939, it is estimated that Dede initially protected certain emigrants, especially Jewish ones, but that this then changed.

Affected anti-fascists later described Dede as someone who surrendered anti-fascists to the Spanish military authorities and misled Germans with untruths to travel to Germany, where they were brought to justice or to concentration camps . He had fun making life for emigrants as difficult as possible. Dede had denounced and had her property confiscated by customs. He liked to play himself as the master of life and death. He also made it possible for Gestapo agents to enter and meet refugees.

In 1936 the Spanish Civil War began , which also led to fighting on Mallorca. Dede recommended that all German citizens leave the island. Due to the overall change in the political situation, the number of Germans who had to be looked after by the consul on Mallorca fell from 3,000 in 1933 to around 80 in 1942.

Since 1932 there was a local branch of the NSDAP in Palma de Mallorca. From 1936 there were profound personal differences between the local group and the consulate. The head of the Adler local group, who was also the head of the German School, had deposed the school board without involving Dede. The chairman of the school board was Paul Esch-Hörle, with whom Dede was friends. A protracted, bitter dispute arose between Dede and above all Adler's deputy, Walter Rup, who later became the local group leader. The dispute led to a party trial against Dede. However, he remained consul until 1945.

Ten hours before the end of the Second World War in Europe, three Spanish police officers sealed the office of the German consulate in Plaça Cort 5 in Palma de Mallorca on May 8, 1945 in the presence of Dede . The travel agency's rooms on the same floor were not affected. Dede handed the policemen a pistol. According to Dede, the weapon came from a German pilot of the Condor Legion , who was found dead on a beach in Mallorca. Only in 1959 was a German consulate reopened in Palme de Mallorca.

Dede initially lived on Mallorca. His presence in Palma de Mallorca is documented for at least 1946. Probably also in the 1950s he stayed in Mallorca and Valencia . He owned a house in Son Ferriol near Palma de Mallorca. As recently as 1970, he is said to have worked in an agricultural cooperative in Palma de Mallorca as head of personnel. He then moved to his Mallorcan adopted daughter Catalina on the Galapagos Islands, part of Ecuador . He probably died there in the early 1970s.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Axel Thorer, Mallorca - Lexicon of the secrets of the island , Hoffmann and Campe Hamburg, 2006, ISBN 978-3-455-50006-6 , page 62
  2. ↑ a b c d e Martin Breuninger, Germà García i Boned, Mallorca's forgotten history - How the island paradise became hell , Vitolibro Mallorca and Malente 2011, ISBN 978-3-86940-001-3 , page 76
  3. ↑ a b Martin Breuninger, Germà García i Boned, Mallorca's forgotten history - How the island paradise became hell , Vitolibro Mallorca and Malente 2011, ISBN 978-3-86940-001-3 , page 78
  4. ↑ Martin Breuninger, Germà García i Boned, Mallorca's forgotten history - How the island paradise became hell , Vitolibro Mallorca and Malente 2011, ISBN 978-3-86940-001-3 , page 35
  5. ↑ Martin Breuninger, Germà García i Boned, Mallorca's forgotten history - How the island paradise became hell , Vitolibro Mallorca and Malente 2011, ISBN 978-3-86940-001-3 , page 75
  6. ↑ Martin Breuninger, Germà García i Boned, Mallorca's forgotten history - How the island paradise became hell , Vitolibro Mallorca and Malente 2011, ISBN 978-3-86940-001-3 , page 50
  7. ↑ Martin Breuninger, Germà García i Boned, Mallorca's forgotten history - How the island paradise became hell , Vitolibro Mallorca and Malente 2011, ISBN 978-3-86940-001-3 , page 67
  8. ↑ Martin Breuninger, Germà García i Boned, Mallorca's forgotten history - How the island paradise became hell , Vitolibro Mallorca and Malente 2011, ISBN 978-3-86940-001-3 , page 72
  9. ↑ Martin Breuninger, Germà García i Boned, Mallorca's forgotten history - How the island paradise became hell , Vitolibro Mallorca and Malente 2011, ISBN 978-3-86940-001-3 , page 101 f.
  10. ↑ a b Martin Breuninger, Germà García i Boned, Mallorca's forgotten history - How the island paradise became hell , Vitolibro Mallorca and Malente 2011, ISBN 978-3-86940-001-3 , page 77
  11. ↑ Axel Thorer, Mallorca - Lexicon of the secrets of the island , Hoffmann and Campe Hamburg, 2006, ISBN 978-3-455-50006-6 , page 62
  12. ↑ Martin Breuninger, Germà García i Boned, Mallorca's forgotten history - How the island paradise became hell , Vitolibro Mallorca and Malente 2011, ISBN 978-3-86940-001-3 , page 95
  13. ↑ a b Martin Breuninger, Germà García i Boned, Mallorca's forgotten history - How the island paradise became hell , Vitolibro Mallorca and Malente 2011, ISBN 978-3-86940-001-3 , page 117
  14. ↑ Martin Breuninger, Germà García i Boned, Mallorca's forgotten history - How the island paradise became hell , Vitolibro Mallorca and Malente 2011, ISBN 978-3-86940-001-3 , page 117 f.
personal data
SURNAME Dede, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dede, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: between 1970 and 1974
Place of death Galapagos Islands