Josef Loens

Josef Löns (1961)

Josef Löns (right) and the Berlin Senator Paul Hertz at an exhibition in The Hague on the subject of "Berlijn bolwerk der vrijheid" ("Berlin - Bulwark of Freedom")

Josef Löns gives an opening speech for the exhibition "Berlijn bolwerk der vrijheid"

Josef Lons (* 14. November 1910 in Zundert , North Brabant , Netherlands , † 1974 ) was a German local politician of the CDU and diplomat .

Life

The son of a Board of Education studied after visiting the secondary school law and began after graduation to Dr. iur. as well as the second state examination in law, work as an in-house counsel for an insurance company . In 1937 he became head of the personnel department of an insurance company and began his military service in the Wehrmacht after the start of the Second World War .

After the end of the Second World War he became a consultant at the Cologne city ​​council . Between 1946 and 1948 he was not only Secretary General of the CDU in the British zone of occupation , but also as a personal advisor to Konrad Adenauer's closest collaborators . As Secretary General of the CDU, he was instrumental in bringing about the CDU's Ahlen program on February 3, 1947.

Thereafter Löns was from 1948 to 1952 an alderman of the city of Cologne during the term of office of the mayors Ernst Schwering and Robert Görlinger .

In January 1953 he entered the diplomatic service and was initially head of the department for organization in the personnel department, before he became head of the department for personnel and administration of the Foreign Office in August 1953 . In October 1953 he was promoted to Ministerial Director .

During this time the so-called "Schlitter case" occurred in 1954. On December 20, 1954, a Christmas party for members and guests of the mission took place in the German embassy in London . The invitation to this celebration was issued by Counselor Oskar Schlitter and his wife Daisy Schlitter during the holiday of Ambassador Hans Schlange-Schöningen . Because of a reception at the Foreign Office on the same day, Schlitter was unable to attend the ceremony and asked his wife to say a few words of welcome. According to press reports, in her improvised welcoming address, Ms. Schlitter had used phrases (“We are in hostile countries”), which the guests found embarrassing and which the press was indignant about. After an internal investigation by Löns, Schlitter was put into temporary retirement between 1955 and 1958.

As part of an extensive staff reshuffle, Löns was appointed Ambassador to the Netherlands in February 1958 as the successor to Hans Mühlenfeld . He held this office until 1963 when he was replaced by Hans Berger . In this capacity he also signed the Convention on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations to Children for the Federal Republic of Germany. During this time there was also a rapprochement between the Dutch and German social democrats ( PvdA and SPD ), which Löns described as follows: “The Netherlands are no longer afraid of a social democratic federal government”, as well as between Germans and Dutch.

Löns then became ambassador to Austria and thus successor to Friedrich Janz , who was retiring .

Then in 1970 he was appointed ambassador to Switzerland . He held this post until November 1973. He then took early retirement.

He was a member of the Catholic student association KStV Nibelung Cologne.

Publications

• Laurenz Ambrosius, Josef Löns, H. Rengier: Law regulating the legal relationships of persons falling under Article 131 of the Basic Law, including d. Legislative ordinances, administrative regulations, guidelines issued to date. 1952

Web links

• Josef Löns in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
• Hans Booms, Ulrich Enders, Konrad Reiser: The cabinet minutes of the federal government. Volume 8: 1955. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-486-56280-0 , p. 182, footnote 10 ( digitized version )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rudolf Uertz: The Ahlener program: The zone committee meeting of the CDU of the British zone from February 1st to 3rd, 1947 and their preparations.
2. ^ Schlitter case: Cabinet minutes of March 16, 1955 (Federal Archives)
3. ↑ Foreign Office / Bonn. The Schlitter consequences: Incident on the express. In: Der Spiegel . No. 4/1955
4. ^ Schlitter affair / diplomats. The golden bridges: "Mrs. Daisy" on the front pages. In: Der Spiegel. No. 13/1955
5. ↑ Act on the Convention of October 24, 1956 on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations towards Children (PDF; 339 kB)
6. ^ Marc Drögemöller: SPD and PvdA: On the relationship between German and Dutch social democrats since 1945.
7. ^ Friso Wielenga : Between Approach and Distance. Dutch and Germans since 1945. ( Memento of the original from October 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 6.0 MB) 2000 
8. ↑ Friso Wielenga: A line under the past? The normalization of bilateral political relations - Part 2.
9. ↑ German ambassadors in Austria since 1871 ( memento of the original from January 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ Lons, Josef in the database Dodis the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland