Karl Hermann Knoke

Minister and later Ambassador Karl Hermann Knoke (accepted in May 1964)

Karl Hermann Knoke (born August 9, 1909 in Königsberg (Prussia) , † December 28, 1994 in Bonn ) was a German lawyer and diplomat .

Family and education

Karl Hermann Knoke Georg Paul was in on August 9, 1909 East Prussian Konigsberg born as the fourth child of the then extraordinary professor of Public Law Paul Knoke and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Hermann Knoke. He got his nickname from his grandfathers, both theologians . Karl Knoke was a professor at the University of Göttingen and Protestant abbot to Bursfelde , Hermann Knoke Superintendent in Walsrode . The ancestors came from a family of village school teachers in Linsburg in today's Nienburg / Weser district . The classical philologist , local researcher and hobby archaeologist Friedrich Knoke was the brother of both grandfathers.

The family moved to Braunschweig during the First World War in 1915 , where Knoke started school. In 1927 he passed an excellent Abitur in Gmunden , Austria. Knoke's father worked in a high position for Duke Ernst August von Braunschweig and went into exile with him in Austria. The duke lived at Cumberland Castle near Gmunden. After finishing school, Knoke learned the French language at the prestigious Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris . This was followed by studies of law in Munich , at the Sorbonne , in Berlin and Göttingen. Knoke was a great admirer of original French and Russian literature. In 1931 he took the trainee examination at the Higher Regional Court of Celle , and in 1936 he passed the Great State Examination at the same Higher Regional Court .

Activities in business and administration

Knoke aspired to a career as a diplomat as early as the 1930s. Although he had excellent state exams and language skills, he was unable to get a position as an attaché . Knoke's distance from the National Socialists and his lack of NSDAP affiliation stood in the way of a diplomatic career. Even a doctoral project on a topic from international law did not develop well and had to be abandoned. His doctoral supervisor Herbert Kraus was politically unacceptable and was forced to retire. Now he began his professional activity in 1937 at the Reichs-Kredit-Gesellschaft in Berlin.

During the Second World War he was employed in staff positions in enemy reconnaissance, most recently in the rank of first lieutenant in the reserve. He found little interest in the military world. In 1941 he married Count Ruth zu Dohna-Schlodien , daughter of the law scholar, university professor and DVP politician Alexander Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien , and later had four children with her. His wife had a doctorate in physics and was known to him from childhood in Königsberg. Her sister Dagmar married the later Lieutenant General Wolf Graf von Baudissin , who played a key role in building up the Bundeswehr and was one of the leading peace researchers.

After the war Knoke became a civil servant in the finance department of the Upper Presidium of Hanover , from which the Lower Saxony Ministry of Finance emerged in 1946 . In 1945 he was appointed to the government council and in 1947 to the senior government council. During this time, Knoke was often separated from his family. He lived in Hanover and his wife and children at Marienburg Castle , the residence of Duke Ernst August von Braunschweig . Knoke was then elected senior district director in the Fallingbostel district for twelve years in 1947 . One of Knoke's primary tasks was to accommodate refugees and displaced persons in the post-war period. The economically disadvantaged population was not always positive about this issue.

Knoke's time in the Foreign Office

Knoke joined the Foreign Office on October 23, 1950 . First he was sent to Athens . Werner von Grundherr was consul general there , and Knoke was his deputy. In Greece, memories of the Balkan campaign in which the German Reich attacked the country in World War II in 1941 were still alive. The Wehrmacht committed war crimes in Greece , such as the Distomo massacre . Knoke campaigned for economic cooperation and actively promoted German corporations. In 1954 he joined the Foreign Office in Bonn headquarters, where he worked as Southeast Europe - Speaker . Knoke took over provisional management of the Ostpolitik sub-department from Otto Bräutigam .

From 1958 he was envoy and deputy ambassador to Moscow . Diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union had only existed for a few years. Knoke experienced the Berlin crisis in Moscow in November 1958. Here the family was constantly bugged, and the house staff selected by the KGB were also responsible for surveillance. This fact was well known to the Knokes and the situation was accepted.

From 1963 Knoke was envoy to the German embassy in Paris . During this time he maintained contact with his brother-in-law Wolf Graf von Baudissin , who worked at the NATO headquarters in nearby Fontainebleau , where he was able to acquire extensive knowledge of international defense policy.

In September 1965 he received accreditation as ambassador to the Netherlands. The effects of the Second World War could still be felt in the Netherlands. The German Reich attacked the Netherlands in the western campaign in 1940. When the Crown Princess and later Queen Beatrix married the German Claus von Amsberg in 1966, the rejection of the Germans among the people became more than clear.

In June 1968, Knoke succeeded Rolf Friedemann Pauls as the second German post-war ambassador to the State of Israel, which was founded in 1948 . His predecessor started working in 1965 and was not received particularly well due to the Holocaust . The German public showed solidarity with Israel during the Six Day War in June 1967, which later favored Knoke's situation in the country. In Israel, the family sought contact with the Jeckes , the Israelis of German origin. In 1971 Jesco von Puttkamer Knoke followed as ambassador.

From 1971 to 1974 he was ambassador to Brazil during the military dictatorship , where he was the first ambassador to the new capital Brasilia . Germany's economic interests were promoted. Contact with German subsidiaries in Brazil was maintained. Such was Volkswagen do Brasil operates since 1953 in the country. From the end of his activity in Brazil, he also took part in the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea . In 1977 Knoke ended his professional career.

Honors

• 1966: Large Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany

literature

• Andrea Wiegeshoff: "We all have to relearn something": on the internationalization of the Foreign Service of the Federal Republic of Germany (1945/51 - 1969) . Wallstein, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8353-1257-9 , p. 428f.

Web links

• Karl Hermann Knoke in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
• Genealogical database on the Internet - Geneall

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Prince's Palace and Schoolhouse. Hannoverscher Anzeiger from August 22, 1913
2. ^ Document of abdication signed by Paul Knokes
3. ↑ Otto Bridegroom . In: Der Spiegel . No. 41 , 1956, pp. 48 ( Online - Oct. 10, 1956 ).
4. ^ ANP Historisch Archief Community : Knokes took office in 1965 in the Netherlands
5. ↑ 40 years of German-Israeli relations
6. ^ Ambassador Knoke's note