Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg (1921–1972)

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Guttenberg in 1967

Karl Theodor Maria Georg Achatz Eberhart Joseph Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg (born Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg) (born May 23, 1921 at Weisendorf Castle ; † October 4, 1972 in Stadtsteinach ) was a German politician ( CSU ).

From 1967 to 1969 he was Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery .

Life

Guttenberg began his schooling at the Jesuit college Stella Matutina in Feldkirch in Vorarlberg , which moved to St. Blasien in the Black Forest in March 1934 . A great uncle of Guttenberg was the bishop of Steinamanger , János Mikes . Guttenberg's father Georg Enoch Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg was picked up during the so-called Röhm Putsch on July 1, 1934 at 3 a.m. and was released after a few weeks - despite the news of his death. In 1936 Guttenberg moved to the old grammar school in Würzburg , where he passed the Abitur in 1938. He then went to the Wehrmacht as an officer candidate and took part in the Second World War.

In 1940, shortly before the start of the campaign in the west , he criticized a lieutenant in his department who boasted that he had " stabbed a dirty Jew with his own hands" during a raid in Poland . Guttenberg snapped at him: "I would have preferred to shoot the SS instead of the Jews," and added: "Hitler is an adventurer who has lost track." A court martial was opened with the help of a friend of his father's set. As he himself reports, Guttenberg was punished with arrest in disciplinary proceedings by his unit because "I gave an older comrade the wrong impression that I was subversive". In 1944, via his uncle Karl Ludwig Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg , Karl Theodor came into the vicinity of the military resistance against Adolf Hitler , which culminated in the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 . His uncle was executed.

Guttenberg was captured by the British in 1944, where he worked, among other things, for the Calais soldier broadcaster . In autumn 1946 he was sentenced to a fine of 300 marks for insulting "Saujude". Guttenberg himself said: "My conscience does not allow me to assert with certainty that I did not need the statement."

In 1957, together with his mother Elisabeth , he was appointed Knight of the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem by Cardinal Grand Master Nicola Cardinal Canali and invested in Munich on April 30, 1957 by Lorenz Jaeger , Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy . He belonged to the Bamberg Commandery.

At the end of the 1960s, Guttenberg was diagnosed with incurable amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and that he only had two to three years to live. He found it increasingly difficult to walk. After his last speech in the Bundestag on May 27, 1970, he could no longer step down from the podium alone, on which Rainer Barzel and Leo Wagner supported him. Guttenberg was last present in the Bundestag when the vote on the Eastern Treaty was held on May 17, 1972; he had to be driven to the ballot box in a wheelchair. Then he retired to his family in Guttenberg . During the last weeks of his life he was bedridden and, with complete mental clarity, could only make himself understood with a show of hands.

In the introduction to Guttenberg's memoirs, footnotes , Friedrich Torberg quotes the minstrel Süßkind von Trimberg : "Anyone who does noble work, I want to be noble" - in New High German "Whoever is noble should be considered noble to me". The introduction ends with the sentence “Der Freiherr Karl Theodor von Guttenberg tout adellichen”.

family

Guttenberg came from the old Frankish noble family of the family of Guttenberg , which dates back to the 12th century and in 1700 by Emperor Leopold I was elevated to the realm baron.

His father was Georg Enoch Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg (1893–1940), his mother Elisabeth, born Freiin von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen (1900–1998). He had three siblings: Philipp Franz (1920–1943), Maria Nives (* 1925) and Therese (1929–1953), who was married to the architect Alexander von Branca .

At the beginning of July of the war year 1943 in Munich, he married Rosa Sophie, Princess and Duchess of Arenberg (1922–2012), the eldest daughter of Prince and Duke Robert-Prosper von Arenberg (1895–1972) and Princess Gabrielle von Wrede ( 1895-1971). His wife's only sister, Dr. med. vet. Princess Anna-Eugénie and Duchess of Arenberg (1925–1997), was married to Felix Habsburg-Lothringen (1916–2011), a son of the last Austrian imperial couple, Charles I and Zita , since November 1952 .

Guttenberg and his wife had five children: Elisabeth (* 1944), wife of CSU politician Franz Ludwig Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg since 1965 , Georg Enoch (1946–2018), conductor, Michaela (* 1949), married to Johannes Freiherr Heereman von Zuydtwyck, Benedikta (* 1953), who was only a few weeks old, and Praxedis (* 1956), married to Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager .

Guttenberg owned large estates in Franconia, many hotels and spa facilities and the Deidesheimer Reichsrat von Buhl winery .

The former Federal Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (* 1971) is his grandson.

Political party

In 1946 he was a co-founder of the CSU in his home town of Stadtsteinach . Until 1972 he remained chairman of the local CSU district association. In the CSU he was still a member of the board of the Upper Franconian district association from 1957 to 1972 and was a member of the state board from 1961 to 1972. Shortly before his death, he elected him honorary chairman.

MP

Guttenberg belonged to the district council of the Stadtsteinach district from 1948 to 1952 and from 1962 to 1972 . He was a member of the German Bundestag from 1957 to June 6, 1972 . In 1957 and 1961 he was directly elected in the Bundestag constituency Forchheim , and in 1965 in the Bundestag constituency Kulmbach ; In 1969 he entered the Bundestag via the Bavarian State List .

Guttenberg received the Governor of Michigan George W. Romney as Parliamentary State Secretary on December 14, 1967

Guttenberg soon made a name for himself there as a foreign politician and a sharp debate speaker, who also found respect among political opponents. After the resignation of the FDP ministers due to the Spiegel affair , he began exploring the possibilities for a grand coalition with Herbert Wehner (SPD) on behalf of Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer on November 26, 1962, together with Paul Lücke (CDU) . Since Guttenberg's party friends were initially not informed, Guttenberg was severely criticized in the CSU. These explorations turned into official coalition negotiations on December 1, 1962. However, they failed on December 5, because the CDU refused to discuss the question of Adenauer's further chancellorship. During his time in the Bundestag, Freiherr zu Guttenberg was the foreign policy spokesman for the CDU / CSU parliamentary group .

In 1965 Guttenberg was one of the main participants in the Huyn affair , which was preoccupying both parliament and the public .

Guttenberg also became known for his opposition to the Brandt government's Ostpolitik . For example, he violently opposed the government declaration of October 28, 1969, in which "two states in Germany" were mentioned for the first time. Guttenberg described this on the following day before the Bundestag as “a dark hour for this house, for our people”.

He gave his last speech to the Bundestag on May 27, 1970, and again he warned against the “recognition course” of the Brandt / Scheel government, which would enable the “Soviet Union to gain supremacy over all of Europe”. In 1972 he was one of the few CDU / CSU MPs who voted against the " Eastern Treaties " (the Moscow Treaty and the Warsaw Treaty ), while the majority of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag abstained, thereby ensuring ratification .

In 1969 Guttenberg took part in the development of the Stauffenberg Service , a private intelligence service that collected information and wrote reports for the CDU and CSU. Guttenberg was involved in his work until June 1972, shortly before his death. Werner Marx took over his duties in the service .

Public offices

In 1952 Guttenberg became district administrator of the Stadtsteinach district ; he held this office until his election to the Bundestag in 1957.

On April 17, 1967, he was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery and thus belonged to the Kiesinger cabinet . His office ended with the election of Willy Brandt as Federal Chancellor on October 21, 1969.

Honors

criticism

In their 1973 book Ihr da oben - we down there accused Bernt Engelmann and Günter Wallraff zu Guttenberg of the fact that his apprentices worked too long hours and criticized his dealings with the elected works councils.

Publications

  • Common Foreign Policy? One answer to Herbert Wehner. Bonn 1960.
  • If the west wants. A plea for courageous politics. Stuttgart 1964.
  • Germany in the Atlantic partnership. Düsseldorf 1965.
  • Paths to reunification. Do we need a new policy in Germany? Hamburg 1965.
  • The future of Europe. Economic, political and ideological aspects. Düsseldorf 1970.
  • In the interests of freedom. Stuttgart 1970.
  • Footnotes. With a foreword by Friedrich Torberg . Stuttgart 1971. (Memoirs of Guttenberg.)
  • The new Ostpolitik. Paths and wrong ways. Osnabrück 1972.

literature

  • Walter Henkels : 99 Bonn heads , reviewed and supplemented edition, Fischer-Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main 1965, p. 109f.
  • Peter F. Müller, Michael Mueller, Erich Schmidt-Eenboom: Against friend and foe - The BND: Secret politics and dirty business. Reinbek: Rowohlt 1st edition 2002. ISBN 3498044818 .

Web links

Commons : Karl Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg (1921-1972)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johannes Bischoff: Genealogy of the Ministerials von Blassenberg and Freiherrn von und zu Guttenberg 1148-1970 . Würzburg 1971, p. 182 ( Google Books );
    Ulrich Wirz: Karl Theodor von und zu Guttenberg and the formation of the grand coalition. Menzner 1997, p. 63 ( Google Books ).
    The main name Buhl goes back to the adoption of K. Th. Guttenberg by the widow of Franz Eberhard Buhl , s. there and in Oberrheinische Studien , Volume 2 (1973), p. 334, fn. 143 ( Google Books ). The son Enoch zu Guttenberg and the grandsons Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and Philipp Franz zu Guttenberg are also officially listed under the surname Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg , cf. ap / Die Welt November 1, 2008 and focus.de October 5, 2016 .
  2. ^ A b Karl Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg: footnotes , p. 13 f.
  3. ↑ Quotations and presentation after Guttenberg: footnotes. With a foreword by Friedrich Torberg. Stuttgart 1971, pp. 15-18.
  4. ↑ Bernt Engelmann , Günter Wallraff : You up there - we down there . rororo, Reinbek near Hamburg 1976, p. 131 ff .
  5. ↑ White sausage crowned. In: Der Spiegel 40/1959 of September 30, 1959.
  6. ↑ Hans Jürgen Brandt: Jerusalem has friends. Munich and the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, EOS 2010, page 98 f.
  7. ^ Elisabeth zu Guttenberg : Called by Name - Memories. Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-548-23260-4 , pp. 262-267.
  8. ^ Elisabeth zu Guttenberg: Called by Name - Memories. Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-548-23260-4 , p. 286.
  9. ↑ Manfred Berger: Guttenberg, Karl Theodor Maria Georg Eberhard Joseph Imperial Baron from and to( Memento of June 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 599-608.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive ) (Retrieved on January 14, 2010.)
  10. ^ History of the Reichsrat von Buhl winery ( memento from December 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). (Retrieved September 22, 2009.)
  11. ↑ Der Spiegel 51/1962: Treason in the Castle
  12. ↑ Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt: Declaration by the Federal Government of October 28, 1969 ("Even if two states exist in Germany, they are not foreign to one another; their relationships with one another can only be of a special kind." PDF; 162.51 kB)
  13. ↑ Reproduction of the speech in: In the interest of freedom . P. 155.
  14. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Guttenberg, Karl Theodor too
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Guttenberg, Karl Theodor Maria Georg Achatz Eberhart Joseph Buhl Freiherr von und zu
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CSU)
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Weisendorf Castle near Höchstadt an der Aisch
DATE OF DEATH 4th October 1972
Place of death Stadtsteinach