Karl Werkmeister

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Karl Werkmeister (born March 20, 1898 in Gütersloh ; † October 14, 1976 in Minden ) was a German diplomat .

Life

Karl Werkmeister attended the Real-Gymnasium in Minden. From August 1915 to April 1918 he was a soldier in the First World War and was promoted to lieutenant in March 1917 . Foreman studied law in Berlin from 1918 to 1920 and received his doctorate in 1921. From 1918 he did auxiliary work in the Foreign Office and in 1919 was assigned to the German Armistice Commission in the Department for Prisoner of War Issues.

Werkmeister joined the foreign service in May 1921 . He was initially deployed in Brussels, Barcelona, Kowno , New York, Budapest (1937–1938) and Paris. In 1934 he married Rachel van Laere from Belgium.

At the beginning of the Second World War he was briefly seconded to Army Group B , and on October 1, 1940, he joined the NSDAP . From November 1940 to March 1944 he was a member of the diplomatic mission, 1st class, at the embassy of the German Reich in Budapest in the allied Hungary. In one of his reports to the Foreign Office on September 26, 1942, Werkmeister suggested forcing the Hungarian government on the German side to take away the radios from the Jews in Hungary.

In 1944 he became head of department for Slovakia, Hungary and the Balkans in Berlin. In Hungary, Jews were ghettoized between March and July 1944 and 437,402 of them were deported to Auschwitz . In September 1944 he worked again in Budapest, where the German-launched coup of the Arrow Cross took place in October .

After the end of the war, Werkmeister headed the development of the German Economic Advisory Board (GEAB) from autumn 1945 . In January 1947 Werkmeister was deputy head of the Central Office for Economic Affairs (ZAW) and head of the personnel department.

From September 1950 he was deputy head of the Federal Ministry for Affairs of the Marshall Plan at the OEEC in Paris, from March 1951 in the rank of ministerial director, from April 1951 he headed the representation. In December 1957, this became the responsibility of the Foreign Ministry and Werkmeister received the title of ambassador. In April 1961 he became ambassador to Stockholm and in March 1963 he retired.

In 1954 Werkmeister was awarded the Great Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany.

literature

  • Johannes Hürter (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871 - 1945. 5. T - Z, supplements. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 5: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-71844-0 , pp. 241–243
  • Randolph L. Braham : The politics of genocide. The Holocaust in Hungary . Columbia University Press, New York 1981

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Braunbuch , Braunbuch: Diplomats Ribbentrops in the Foreign Service Bonn ( Memento from October 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Randolph L. Braham: The politics of genocide , New York 1981, p. 250, fn. 24
  3. ^ Federal Archives: Writings of the Federal Archives. Issue 12, H. Boldt Verlag, 1964, p. 102 ( digitized version )
predecessor Office successor
Hans Karl von Mangoldt-Reiboldt Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the OECD in Paris
1951–1961 		Carl-Hermann Müller-Graaf
Hans-Ulrich von Marchtaler Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Stockholm / Sweden
1961–1963 		Gustav von Schmoller
personal data
SURNAME Foreman, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ambassador
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Gutersloh
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 1976
Place of death Minden