Karl Klingenfuß

Karl Otto Klingenfuß , spelling also Klingenfuss , (born January 8, 1901 in Mannheim , † April 30, 1990 in Buenos Aires ) was a German diplomat.

Studies and NSDAP

The son of Christian Friedrich Klingenfuß, who was employed by the railway company as a worker, and his wife Emmi Wolter studied in Vienna, Heidelberg and Freiburg (Breisgau) and received his doctorate in 1925. phil. Two years later, he received a scholarship from the German Research Foundation to work at the German Institute for International Affairs (DAI) in Stuttgart with problems of minority rights and other questions of nationality .

In 1929 he took on a permanent job at the DAI, and from 1932 onwards he headed the associated department as a press attendant. He also worked in the administration of the institute. In 1933 he joined the NSDAP on May 1st . Towards the end of 1934 he was a member of the NSDAP's foreign organization . In the AO he took on other tasks within the Nazi cultural community as Gauobmann and Gaudozentenbundsführer. From November 1935 he was in charge of the cultural office belonging to the institution.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

In mid-January 1938 he moved to the Foreign Office (AA) with the rank of legation secretary to work in the cultural policy department in the department for languages ​​and German language advertising. At the end of February 1939 he was transferred to the embassy in Buenos Aires , where he worked until the beginning of April 1940. Immediately afterwards he went to the Embassy in Montevideo . On August 12, 1940, he was promoted to the Legation Council . When diplomatic relations with Uruguay were broken off in January 1942, he returned to Germany in early April 1942.

At the beginning of June 1942 he took up a job at the AA in Department D (Germany) in Section III, which was also responsible for the “ Jewish question ” (Nazi jargon). In this position he prepared several letters for his department head Franz Rademacher , which were countersigned by Rademacher and department head Martin Luther . In a letter dated July 27, 1942, he expressed to Adolf Eichmann the approval of the AA for the deportation of Jews from Belgium , France and the Netherlands . On October 27 of the same year he took part in the so-called final solution conference in Eichmannreferat IV B 4 of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). On November 23, 1942, he wrote a letter to the RSHA in which he gave his consent to the appointment of SS-Hauptsturmführer Dieter Wisliceny as advisor for the deportation of Jews in Bulgaria . This was considered indispensable in Slovakia and Theodor Dannecker was chosen .

Request for transfer

Klingenfuß followed the instructions with little hesitation, but without much effort. However, he asked Rademacher uncomfortable questions about the Jews to be deported. Rademacher submitted the "official" version that the Jews would be concentrated in ghettos and sent back after the war. A question about the purpose of the task force was also answered evasively. These would only be used to fight partisans. Rademacher lost patience with Bladefoot and referred him to SS-Sturmbannführer Rolf Günther , Eichmann's deputy in the RSHA. Klingenfuß turned down the offer to visit the Theresienstadt ghetto when he learned from Rademacher that this ghetto served as a model camp for visitors. In the meantime he had also received some indications from the family as to what the deportation of Jews actually meant.

In October 1942, Klingenfuß turned to the head of personnel at the AA, Hans Schröder, and asked for a transfer to another position. He was transferred to Bern in December 1942, so that he was able to work there as a cultural advisor in the legation at the beginning of January 1943. In September 1943 he was transferred to the embassy in Paris, where he worked until mid-August 1944. In mid-September 1944 he took up his new position at the Foreign Office in the Political Department in Section II. His new tasks dealt with the supervision of the Gauleitung in Baden. In Baden-Baden , from the beginning of October 1944, he took up the position of representative of the Foreign Office at the Reich Defense Commissioner for Baden-Alsace.

Indictment and escape

As a result of the collapse of the Nazi regime in May 1945, Klingenfuß was detained. He was interrogated by Robert MW Kempner towards the end of 1947 in Nuremberg. On September 1, 1948, the Nuremberg District Court issued an arrest warrant for aiding and abetting murder, but it refrained from executing it due to incapacity for detention. In December 1949, Klingenfuß went from Singen to Switzerland and from there to Argentina . The preliminary investigation opened on January 19, 1950 in Nuremberg was suspended in November 1950 due to absenteeism. In Buenos Aires he held the post of managing director of the German-Argentinian Chamber of Commerce from 1951 to 1967. When another charge was brought against him in 1952 in connection with Rademacher, the German authorities received a notice from the Argentine Attorney General in March 1953 that Klingenfuß would not be extradited. The facts of imperfect incitement is not punishable in Argentina. In August 1958, the German ambassador to Argentina, Werner Junker , urged the German authorities to end the proceedings.

The Bamberg district court released him from further persecution on December 9, 1960. He only followed instructions, his own initiatives are not known. At most he was a Nazi helper with the charge of attempting to incite a crime. However, with its decision of March 1, 1960, the Federal Court of Justice qualified this offense in such a way that the offenders concerned were no longer prosecuted. However, the regional court emphasized that Klingenfuss' innocence had not been proven, nor was there any reasonable suspicion. Because of the judgment of the BGH, however, the criminal chamber sees "no more possibility of a conviction".

Fonts

• Beust and Andrassy and the danger of war from 1875 , in: Archives for Politics and History, 4th year, issue 12, 1926.
• Of German nature and role in the world. A cultural-political consideration , quoted in: Helmut Scheur, Dichter und ihr Nation, 1993, p. 427.
• Trade and change. Five decades of chamber work , in: German-Argentinian Chamber of Commerce 1916–1966, Buenos Aires 1966.
• Argentina between yesterday and tomorrow. Streiflichter on the economic and political situation , Cologne 1967.
• History of Germanness in Argentina , with Werner Hoffmann as editor, Buenos Airos 1978.
• Germans in Argentina: 1520-1980 , with Wilhelm Lütge, Werner Hoffmann and Karl Wilhelm Körner, Buenos Aires 1981.

credentials

• Robert MW Kempner : Eichmann and accomplices. Europa Verlag, Zurich et al. 1961.
• Christopher R. Browning : The final solution and the German Foreign Office. A study of Referat D III of Department Germany. 1940-43. Holmes & Meier, New York NY et al. 1978, ISBN 0-8419-0403-0 .
  • German: The "Final Solution" and the Foreign Office. Section D III of the “Germany Department”. 1940-1943. Translated by Claudia Kotte. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2010, ISBN 978-3-534-22870-6 ( publications by the Ludwigsburg Research Center of the University of Stuttgart 16).
• Claudia Steur: Theodor Dannecker . A functionary of the "Final Solution". Klartext-Verlag, Essen 1997, ISBN 3-88474-545-X ( Writings of the Library for Contemporary History NF 6), (At the same time: Stuttgart, Univ., Diss., 1995).
• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945? Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-10-039309-0 .
• Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 2: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: G – K. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2005, ISBN 3-506-71841-X .
• Uki Goñi : " Odessa ". The true story. Escape aid for Nazi war criminals. Association A, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-935936-40-0 .
• Heinz Schneppen: "Odessa" and the "Fourth Reich". Myths of Contemporary History. Metropol, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-938690-52-9 ( Zeitgeschichte series 3).
• Daniel Stahl: Nazi Hunt. South America's dictatorships and the prosecution of Nazi crimes . Wallstein, Göttingen 2013

literature

• Joshua A. Fishman: Studies in Modern Jewish Social History. Ktav Publishing House, New York NY 1972, ISBN 0-87068-190-7 .

Web links

• Accusations against Klingenfuß in connection with the Eichmann trial
• Is it too easy for “The Office”?
• 20th century press kit (search for "Klingenfuss")

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, p. 316.
2. ↑ Eckart Conze; Norbert Frei; Peter Hayes; Mosche Zimmermann: The Office and the Past - German Diplomats in the Third Reich and in the Federal Republic, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-89667-430-2 , p. 282.
3. ↑ Christopher R. Browning: The "Final Solution" and the Foreign Office. Section D III of the Germany Department 1940-1943. Darmstadt 2010, ISBN 978-3-534-22870-6 , pp. 198-191.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Daniel Stahl: Nazi Hunt , 2013, p. 385