Kurt-Fritz von Graevenitz

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Kurt Fritz von Graevenitz (* 31 August 1898 in Kreuth , † 20th November 1987 in Munich ) was a German diplomat in the era of National Socialism and the Federal Republic.

Life

The son of the Württemberg general Theodor von Graevenitz attended the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium in Stuttgart , was released as a soldier in the summer of 1916 and as a lieutenant in 1919. From 1919 to 1922 he studied law in Tübingen and Leipzig and received his doctorate in 1925. On February 1, 1942, he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 8,735,191).

In 1922 Graevenitz joined the Foreign Office as an attaché and was deployed in Istanbul , Baghdad , Budapest , Rome and Tunis . Since 1938 he was with the embassy in Athens and after the Balkan campaign returned there as embassy counselor 1st class in the "Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Reich for Greece". On October 21, 1943 he took over the management of the office from Günther Altenburg and was promoted to consul general. He reported to the “Special Representative of the Foreign Office for the Southeast” Hermann Neubacher , based in Belgrade, who was also the “Special Representative of the Reich for Economic and Financial Issues in Greece”.

At the deportation of Jews from Athens ordered by the HSSPF Walter Schimana , he protested because, in addition to stateless and Greek Jews, Jews of other nationalities were also deported without first consulting him as the responsible representative of the Foreign Office, especially after prior coordination between the Reich Security Main Office and Reich Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop had agreed: "On the night of March 24th to 25th, 1944, all Greek, stateless and foreign Jews were suspended" by BdS Walter Blume "without consultation with my office". The HSSPF apologized to him for not thinking about it. "All Jews - with the exception of the Turkish Jews and Jews from the enemy state - were transported away on April 2nd ... After all, freight wagons with inserted benches were used. . Graevenitz was worried about the diplomatic protests of Spain, Hungary and Turkey. On July 28, 1944, he reported to Neubacher about the atonement measures : “Atonement measures are not necessary for a long time. Recently, as reported, atonement measures in Attica and the Peloponnese. Observe guidelines here. Impact on the public cannot be determined. In contrast, the reported destruction of the village of Distomon had a poisonous effect. ” .

After the end of the war, von Graevenitz was interned for ten months and then tried to make a living as an editor for his family. Nothing is known about its denazification . Günther Altenburg was also spared prosecution. At the beginning of the 1960s, the Koblenz public prosecutor's office started again investigations into involvement in the war crimes in Greece, but closed without any results.

On July 17, 1951, he was reassigned to the Foreign Office and headed the diplomatic training center in Speyer for three years . From 1955 to 1959 he was consul general in Istanbul , then in Zurich . From 1961 to 1963 he was Richard Hertz's successor as ambassador to Mexico . After his retirement he was still a course director at the leadership academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg .

Works

  • The Tangier question. : A history of international law. Study , Berlin: F. Dümmlers Verlh., 1925.

literature

  • 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 .
  • Eckart Conze, Norbert Frei, Peter Hayes and Moshe Zimmermann: The Office and the Past. German diplomats in the Third Reich and in the Federal Republic . Karl Blessing Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-89667-430-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Graevenitz report to AA, April 3, 1944, in: Files on German foreign policy: 1918 - 1945 / from the archive of the German Foreign Office - Baden-Baden: Impr. Nationale. Ser. E, 1941 - 1945: Vol. 7:. October 1, 1943 to April 30, 1944. 1979, pp. 603f.
  2. ^ Report Graevenitz to Neubacher, July 28, 1944, in: Files on German foreign policy: 1918 - 1945 / from the archive of the German Foreign Office - Baden-Baden: Impr. Nationale. Ser. E, 1941 - 1945: Vol. 8:. May 1, 1944 to May 8, 1945. 1979 pp. 259f.
  3. ↑ Eckart Conze, Norbert Frei, Peter Hayes and Moshe Zimmermann: The office and the past. German diplomats in the Third Reich and in the Federal Republic . Munich 2010, p. 666.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Graevenitz, Kurt-Fritz from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Kreuth
DATE OF DEATH November 20, 1987
Place of death Munich