Jonah of Ustinov

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Jona Freiherr von Ustinov , also Klop Ustinov , (* December 2, 1892 in Jaffa , then Ottoman Empire , † December 1, 1962 in Eastleach , Great Britain ), the father of the actor Peter Ustinov , was a German diplomat and worked during the Nazi era for the British secret service MI5 .

Life

Jona von Ustinov was born as Jonah Freiherr von Ustinow . Dissatisfied with his first name, he soon adopted his nickname "Klop" (bug) as his first name.

His father, Plato von Ustinow ( Russian Платон Григорьевич Устинов ; 1840–1918) ran the Hôtel du Parc in Jaffa , at the time the first house on the site. Plato was a Russian of noble birth and had the good Ustinowka (Устиновка), today in the Saratov Oblast (Rajon Balashov , owned). Initiated by a missionary from the St. Chrischona pilgrimage mission in Jaffa , Peter Martin Metzler , Plato Ustinov converted to Protestantism in 1875. Initially he did this in secret, since his rank as a Russian nobleman was tied to his membership in the Russian Orthodox Church. After he had sold Ustinowka in 1876, he went to Metzler's home in Württemberg, where he openly professed Protestantism and married Metzler's daughter Marie in Korntal . The marriage was unhappy and divorced in 1888.

Through the mediation of the Württemberg Queen Olga Romanowa , he was naturalized as a German and his noble rank as Freiherr von Ustinow was recognized. In his second marriage he married Magdalena Hall (1868–1945), daughter of the German, Jewish born Moritz Hall (1838–1914) and his wife Welette-Iyesus. Both had met and fallen in love in Ethiopia, where Hall evangelized as a Protestant convert on behalf of St. Chrischonas. Welette-Iyesus, who took on the first name Katharina during the marriage, was the daughter of the German painter Eduard Zander , who worked at the Ethiopian court, and the lady-in-waiting Isette-Werq. Magdalena Hall and Plato von Ustinow had four children, Jona was their first.

As a child he visited a. the elementary school of the Protestant congregation in Jaffa , which has been supported by regular subsidies from the Jerusalem Association since 1890, and later a grammar school in Düsseldorf . He finished his school days in Yverdon in Switzerland and then studied at the French University of Grenoble . Before moving to London in 1913, he worked for a short time as a lecturer in law at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin .

Although Ustinov was an opponent of all nationalism from his earliest youth due to this international experience, he took part in the First World War as a German fighter pilot in the Aviation Department (Artillery) 250 . For his services he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Württemberg Military Merit Order on September 13, 1917 . His younger brother Peter von Ustinow, also a pilot from the same unit, fell in 1917.

In 1918, after the end of the war, he first became a correspondent for “ Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau ” (the first German news agency ) in Amsterdam . Ustinov traveled to the Soviet Union in 1920 to make inquiries about his father's whereabouts. On this trip he met his wife Nadjeschda Leontijewna Benois (1896–1975), the daughter of the Russian architect Leonti Nikolajewitsch Benois . He then returned - now married - to work at the German embassy in London .

When the Nazis came to power, the position became increasingly difficult for the completely different minded Jona von Ustinov. In 1935 he finally lost his job at the embassy because he refused to provide evidence that the Foreign Office would have made his Ethiopian and Jewish ancestors known to the Foreign Office . He then naturalized himself and his family in Great Britain.

Soon after, he was recruited as a spy by the UK domestic intelligence service MI5 . He tried to get the British government to take a tougher course (= less appeasement ) towards Adolf Hitler, which was supposed to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War . He conveyed the plans for the German invasion of Czechoslovakia to the British government seven months before its occupation in 1939, but was unable to convince then Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to intervene early.

Jona von Ustinov died in Eastleach in 1962, the day before he would turn 70.

progeny

Jona von Ustinov married the painter Nadjeschda Leontijewna Benois (1896–1975), also known as Nadija Benois or Benua, on July 17, 1920, daughter of the Russian architect of French descent Leonti Nikolajewitsch Benois (1856–1928). The couple had their son Peter Ustinov on April 16, 1921 .

literature

  • Johannes Hürter (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. 5. T – Z, supplements. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 5: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-71844-0 , p. 108
  • Peter Ustinov, John Miller: Peter Ustinov: The gift of laughter . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2003, ISBN 3-462-03226-7
  • Peter Ustinov: Oh my goodness! . Heyne, 1979, ISBN 3-453-01067-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ejal Jakob Eisler ( איל יעקב איזלר): Peter Martin Metzler (1824–1907): A Christian missionary in the Holy Land [(1907–1824)פטר מרטין מצלר סיפורו של מיסיונר נוצרי בארץ-ישראל; German] ( Treatises by the Gottlieb Schumacher Institute for Research into the Christian Contribution to the Reconstruction of Palestine in the 19th Century [פרסומי המכון ע"ש גוטליב שומכר לחקר פעילות העולם הנוצרי בארץ-ישראל במאה ה -19], Volume 2). Haifa 1999, ISBN 965-7109-03-5 , p. 33 andכה.
  2. ↑ On their trip to Palestine , Wilhelm II and his wife Auguste Victoria stayed at the Hôtel du Parc on October 27, 1898 , which their tour operator Thomas Cook considered the best lodging in Jaffa. See Alex Carmel (אלכס כרמל) : The settlements of the Württemberg Templars in Palestine (1868–1918) [התיישבות הגרמנים בארץ ישראל בשלהי השלטון הטורקי: בעיותיה המדיניות, המקומיות והבינלאומיות, ירושלים: תשו"ל; dt.] ( Publications of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg: Series B, Research , Volume 77). Third edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-17-016788-X , p. 161 (first edition 1973).
  3. ^ Ejal Jakob Eisler: The German contribution to the rise of Jaffa 1850-1914: On the history of Palestine in the 19th century ( Treatises of the German Palestine Association , Volume 22). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-447-03928-0 , p. 105.
  4. ↑ Ejal Jakob Eisler (איל יעקב איזלר): Peter Martin Metzler (1824–1907): A Christian missionary in the Holy Land [(1907–1824)פטר מרטין מצלר סיפורו של מיסיונר נוצרי בארץ-ישראל; German] ( Treatises by the Gottlieb Schumacher Institute for Research into the Christian Contribution to the Reconstruction of Palestine in the 19th Century [פרסומי המכון ע"ש גוטליב שומכר לחקר פעילות העולם הנוצרי בארץ-ישראל במאה ה -19], Volume 2). Haifa 1999, ISBN 965-7109-03-5 , p. 49 andמא.
  5. ^ Toby Berger Holtz: Hall, Moritz . In: Siegbert Uhlig (Ed.): Encyclopaedia Aethiopica . Volume 2: D-Ha . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-447-05238-4 .
  6. ^ Wolbert GC Smidt: Connections of the Ustinov family to Ethiopia . In: Aethiopica. International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies , Volume 8, 2005, pp. 29-47.
  7. ^ Ejal Jakob Eisler: The German contribution to the rise of Jaffa 1850-1914: On the history of Palestine in the 19th century ( Treatises of the German Palestine Association , Volume 22). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-447-03928-0 , p. 128.
  8. ^ Jona von Ustinow on: Frontflieger.de .
  9. ↑ Aviation Department (Artillery) 250 on: Frontflieger.de .
personal data
SURNAME Ustinov, Jonah of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ustinov, Klop von; Ustinow, Jonah von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British agent, father of Peter Ustinov
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Jaffa , Palestine, Ottoman Empire
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 1962
Place of death Eastleach , United Kingdom