Josias of Rantzau

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Josias von Rantzau 1941

Josias von Rantzau , completely Josias Clemens Christian Wilhelm Cuno von Rantzau (born August 3, 1903 in Schwerin , † probably June 1950 in Potma ( Temnikow )) was a German diplomat.

Life

Josias von Rantzau came from the non-counts Mecklenburg branch of the Schleswig-Holstein Equites Originarii family Rantzau and was the middle son of Court Marshal Cuno von Rantzau and his wife Erica, nee. von Müller (born October 30, 1878 in Vrestorf, today district of Bardowick ; † April 13, 1958 ibid). His older brother Johann Albrecht von Rantzau became a historian and university professor; his younger brother Cuno von Rantzau (1910–1982) married the shipowner Liselotte von Rantzau-Essberger in 1942 .

From 1922 to 1926 he studied political science at the universities of Munich, Kiel and Göttingen. In Göttingen he became a member of the Corps Saxonia Göttingen in 1922 . On April 28, 1926, he passed the trainee exam . After six months as a volunteer at a cotton import company in Bremen , he traveled to London and Paris in 1927 to study languages .

On May 1, 1928, he entered the diplomatic service of the German Reich and passed the diplomatic-consular examination on February 27, 1931. His first post abroad was from April 27, 1931 to November 15, 1933 as an attaché at the embassy in Stockholm , where he headed the economic department. In autumn 1933 he moved to the embassy in Bucharest , where he worked from December 11, 1933 to January 9, 1936. On July 23, 1935 he was promoted to legation secretary. During his time in Bucharest he was also the host of the British writer Patrick Leigh Fermor , who wrote about it in The Interrupted Journey . In Fermor's memory, Rantzau was deeply troubled by the rise of Nazism . Nevertheless, he became a member of the NSDAP on February 1, 1938 .

From May 1936 to the end of 1937 he was employed as Vice Consul in the German Consulate General in New York City . In the spring of 1937, he and Ingrid Warburg greeted his corps brother and long-time friend Adam von Trott zu Solz on his arrival in New York. In 1940 he paved the way for Trott to join the Foreign Service. Later, as recalled Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg , suddenly there was a remarkable coolness between Trott and Rantzau.

Employee of the Foreign Office in 1941. From left to right: Alexander Werth , Hans Felix Richter, Adam von Trott zu Solz , Josias von Rantzau

After interim employment in the Foreign Office, he was legation secretary at the German embassy in London from December 1938 until the declaration of war in 1939 . From there he came to the Embassy in The Hague until April 1940 . From April to June 1940 he was employed in the Political Department of the Foreign Office in the IM / Militaria department and was a representative of the office at the High Command of the Wehrmacht . In June 1940 he became head of the information department (from April 1943: cultural policy department). He headed Unit II / Front Propaganda and Intelligence Service and was responsible for looking after the liaison officers at the Army High Command . On August 12, 1940, he was promoted to the Legation Council .

Rantzau was connected to people in the Kreisau Circle in many ways , but, according to Tatiana Metternich in her memoir, shied away from participating in an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler . On October 15, 1941 he married Ludovica (called Louisette) Johanna, geb. Countess zu Wykradt and Isny ​​(* July 21, 1910 - May 1, 1986, buried in Waldenburg (Württemberg) ), a daughter of Eugen von Quadt zu Wykradt and Isny and his wife Pauline, born. Countess of Königsegg-Aulendorf . Father Alfred Delp performed the church wedding , and Adam von Trott and Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg first made contact with Delp at the wedding . The couple had a daughter, Marie Gabrielle (born August 29, 1942), who married Friedrich Karl IV. Zu Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst (1933-2017) in 1966.

He had just been promoted to the Legation Council on April 18, 1943 , and was reappointed to the Legation in Bucharest on April 27, 1943, now as head of the cultural department. He was also responsible for the German Scientific Institute in Bucharest. On January 14, 1944, he was appointed Counselor First Class .

As a result of the coup d'état and the change of front in Romania on August 23, 1944, the Red Army occupied Bucharest and the embassy building on September 2. Ambassador Manfred von Killinger shot himself; Rantzau and other members of the embassy fell into the hands of the Soviet intelligence service SMERSch . He was taken to Moscow and imprisoned in Lefortovo Prison , for a time in the cell next to Raoul Wallenberg , whom he knew from his time in Stockholm.

At an unknown point in time, he was transferred to POW Camp No. 58, where he presumably died in June 1950. On August 31, 1951, he was pronounced dead in Germany .

literature

  • Rantzau, Josias von , in: Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 3: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: L – R. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-506-71842-6 , pp. 570f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960 , 45 , 706
  2. ^ Daniel B. Roth: Hitler's bridgehead in Sweden: the German legation in Stockholm 1933-1945. Münster: LIT 2009, ISBN 978-3643103468 , p. 48, note 15.
  3. ↑ The interrupted journey. From the Iron Gate to Mount Athos. The third part of the journey. Edited by Colin Thubron and Artemis Cooper, from the English by Manfred Allié and Gabriele Kempf-Allié (original title The Broken Road), Dörlemann Verlag Zürich, ISBN 9783908777953 .
  4. ^ Artemis Cooper: Patrick Leigh Fermor. An adventure. London: John Murray 2012, ISBN 978-0-7195-5449-0 , p. 87.
  5. ↑ Clarita von Trott zu Solz : Adam von Trott zu Solz. A biography. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-117-9 (new edition: Lukas, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86732-063-4 ), p. 131.
  6. ^ Andreas Schott: Adam von Trott zu Solz: Jurist in the Resistance: Constitutional and state-political views in the Kreisau circle. Paderborn: Schöningh 2001 (Legal and political science publications of the Görres Society) ISBN 9783506733979 , p. 41 note 148
  7. ^ Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg: Report of an unusual life. Goldmann, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-442-03922-3 , p. 118.
  8. ^ Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg: Report of an unusual life. Goldmann, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-442-03922-3 , p. 118.
  9. ↑ Photo of the grave of Ludovica von Rantzau ( Memento of the original from February 9, 2017 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.royaltyguide.nl
  10. ↑ Benigna von Krusenstjern : "That it makes sense to die - to have lived". Adam von Trott zu Solz. 1909-1944. Biography. Wallstein, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8353-0506-9 , p. 579, note 127
  11. ^ Frank-Rutger Hausmann : "Even in war the muses are not silent": the German Scientific Institutes in World War II. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2001, ISBN 3-525-35357-X , p. 61.
  12. ↑ See Vadim Bistein: Smersh: Stalin's Secret Weapon. Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII. Biteback Publishing 2013, ISBN 9781849546898 .
  13. ^ Elenore Lester: Raoul Wallenberg: The Man in the Iron Web. New York: Prentice-Hall 1982 ISBN 9780139443220 , p. 170.
personal data
SURNAME Rantzau, Josias from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rantzau, Josias Clemens Christian Wilhelm Cuno von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwerin
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: June 1950
Place of death Potma ( Temnikow )