Karl Selter

In front of the New Reich Chancellery , first row v. l. No. Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop , Foreign Minister Karl Selter, and the Head of the Presidential Chancellery Otto Meissner (June 7, 1939)

Karl Selter (born June 12 ^jul. / 24. June  1898 ^greg. Hof Pääro, village Puhmu , Governorate of Estonia , today rural community Koeru , county Järva , Estonia , † 31 January 1958 in Geneva , Switzerland ) was an Estonian lawyer, diplomat and politicians. He was Foreign Minister of the Republic of Estonia in 1938/39.

youth

Karl Selter was born as the son of the farmers Joosep Selter (1871-1940) and Julie Rosenberg. He came from a relatively wealthy background. He attended a private Progymnasium in Tallinn and then a secondary school in the Estonian capital.

Seldom took part in both World War I and the Estonian War of Independence against Soviet Russia (1918-1920), where he was wounded. From 1919 to 1921 he was a guest student at the Medical Faculty of the University of Tartu . Due to the war, he was only able to take his Abitur at the Tallinn Evening High School in 1921. Karl Selter then studied law in Tartu from 1921 to 1925 .

administration

From 1919 to 1921 he worked as a secretary to the Estonian military staff. From 1923 to 1927 he was a consultant in the Estonian Ministry of War, then in the Estonian Ministry of Justice. In 1932 he established himself as a lawyer ( vandeakvokaat ) in Tallinn . Seldom was also the head of the legal department of the Tallinn City Council and legal advisor to the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. From 1936 he was a member of the Estonian Olympic Committee .

politics

Selters political career began in 1933. From October 1933 to May 1938 he was Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs in the cabinet of the authoritarian head of state and government Konstantin Päts . In 1937, Selter belonged to the Constituent Assembly ( Rahvuskogu ) and then until November 1939 to the Parliament ( Riigivolikogu ).

From May 1938 to October 1939 Selter was Estonian Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Kaarel Eenpalu . The rapprochement between Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin , which led to the division of Eastern Europe between the two dictators in the " Hitler-Stalin Pact " , coincided with Selter's term of office . On September 28, 1939, under Stalin's ultimate pressure, Selter had to sign a mutual assistance pact with the Soviet Union in Moscow , which provided the Red Army with military bases in Estonia and marked the beginning of Estonia's incorporation into the Stalinist sphere of power.

In November 1939, shortly before the occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union , Selter became Estonian representative to the League of Nations in Geneva. At the same time he was the Estonian envoy to the Holy See and from May 1940 to Switzerland.

After the Soviet occupation of Estonia in the summer of 1940, Selter initially stayed in exile in Switzerland. From 1945 to 1953 Selter was editor-in-chief of the Estonian exile newspaper Eesti Post , which was published in Geislingen an der Steige . After the Second World War , Selter was from 1952 a liaison between the Estonian government in exile and the Federal Republic of Germany .

Karl Selter died in Geneva in 1958. He is buried on the Cimitière de Saint-Georges.

Private life

Seldom married the captain's daughter Melanie (Milla) Peks (1896–1970) in 1926. The couple had a son, Kaarl Peeter Selter (1936–1990).

literature

• Eesti elulood. Tallinn: Eesti entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 468

Web links

Commons : Karl Selter  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Short CV (Estonian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pääro - Karl Selteri sünnikoht