Kurt Josten

Conrad "Kurt" Hermann Hubertus Maria Apollinaris Josten , also known as CH Josten , (* July 7, 1912 in Neuss ; † July 10, 1994 ibid) (pseudonym: Anton Cordeis [an anagram of his real name]) was a German-British lawyer , Civil servants and resistance fighters. He later worked as a science historian in Oxford .

Life

Early life and resistance activity (1912–1945)

Josten came from a Catholic family from Neuss. In the early 1930s he studied law in Geneva, Freiburg and Bonn. Since his studies he has been a member of the Catholic student association KStV Frisia Bonn. His dissertation at the University of Erlangen for Dr. jur. on the topic On the Advance of the Surviving Spouse appeared in 1935.

In April 1934, Josten, then a court trainee , was hired by his friend Wilhelm Freiherr von Ketteler as a trainee in the press department of the Chancellor's office in the Hitler government , Franz von Papen . Together with his superior Herbert von Bose , the head of the press office as well as Ketteler, Papen's adjutant Fritz Günther von Tschirschky and the writer Edgar Julius Jung , Josten worked out a conservative coup d'état ("Action Plan Jung") as part of the Edgar-Jung-Kreis. . This envisaged overturning the as yet unsettled dictatorship of the National Socialists by taking advantage of the authority of the Reich President over the Reichswehr . To this end, the aged head of state Paul von Hindenburg was supposed to induce the Vice Chancellor and the Army Commander in Chief, General Werner von Fritsch , to declare the imperial state of emergency and, as a result, to draw government power from the Reich Chancellor and the Reich Cabinet to his person. Then the Hitler-friendly Reichswehr Minister Werner von Blomberg and the head of the military department Walter von Reichenau were to be eliminated, and the Reichswehr under the leadership of Fritsch was to be used to disarm the National Socialist SA and SS . Thereafter, a seven-member directorate to assist the president was to be formed from Fritsch, General Gerd von Rundstedt , Vice Chancellor Papen, ex-Chancellor Heinrich Brüning , Leipzig Mayor Carl Friedrich Goerdeler , as well as Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring . The admission of the last two was intended to calm the masses of Nazi supporters and to split the Nazi leader clique.

In addition to his involvement in the preparation of the group's putsch plans in the vice chancellery, Josten was primarily employed by his older colleagues as a liaison for the further expansion of their network of conspirators. According to Tschirschky, Josten was particularly suitable for this use because he "looked very young, almost childlike" and therefore did not attract the attention of the informers and observers who the Gestapo had assigned to the group in the vice chancellery. Accordingly, Josten was able to "carry out some dangerous missions".

The plan of the group around Jung finally did not materialize for a variety of reasons (premature departure of the Reich President from Berlin to his East Prussian estate Neudeck , which made him difficult to reach; Papen's hesitation; unconscious denunciation of the group near Blomberg by Hindenburg's son Oskar ) .

Instead, the Vice Chancellery located in Palais Borsig on Berlin's Vossstrasse was occupied by the SS on June 30, 1934. While Bose was shot in the office and Jung in the cellar of the Gestapo headquarters and Tschirschky was arrested by the Gestapo together with Walter Hummelsheim and Friedrich-Carl von Savigny , two other members of the group, Josten and Ketteler were able to leave the office flee and hide.

After the official completion of his doctoral procedure in 1935, Josten no longer practiced his learned profession as a lawyer. The New York Times according to which he based this decision later with the note, have that "[have] no longer exists the right in Germany at this time." Instead, this year Josten began to research ancient and medieval astronomical instruments. In the later years of Hitler's rule, Josten was again exposed to persecution by the regime and was therefore forced to live underground in France and Germany.

The science historian Stephen Mason (1923–2007), who researched alongside Josten at Oxford from 1947 to 1953, pointed out in a letter to the editor of July 20, 1994 to the Independent that the claim had been in circulation since 1944 that the date that the German military resistance for his attempt to eliminate Adolf Hitler through an assassination attempt - July 20, 1944 - Jostens was selected on the basis of an " astrological prognostication ". On the other hand, a few days before July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg intended to carry out the assassination attempt twice, but broke it off both times due to unfavorable conditions.

Career as a researcher and later years (1945–1994)

After the end of the Second World War, Josten appeared at the Nuremberg trials in 1946 as a witness (or author of an affidavit ) in the proceedings against Franz von Papen. He then moved to Great Britain, where he became a naturalized British citizen in 1954.

From 1949 at the latest, Josten did research at Oxford University. His greatest achievement as a researcher is the deciphering of the code in which the famous British antiquarian and scholar Elias Ashmole encrypted his diaries and personal notes in the 17th century. In the course of his work, Josten succeeded in developing the code in the University's Bodleian Library with which the ciphered writings of Ashmole could be opened up and translated into English. After years of deciphering and editing work, Josten published Ashmole's complete works, deciphered in this way, in five volumes in 1966 at Oxford University Press.

In recognition of his achievement of having "regained" Ashmole's work from the world, which was actually present but "sealed" due to the encryption, Josten was awarded an honorary doctorate in literary studies. In addition, in 1950, a year after his breakthrough performance, he was appointed curator of the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford to succeed F. Sherwood Taylor. As a researcher at Oxford, Josten was considered an expert on the early history of chemistry and astronomy and on early astronomical tools and on alchemy . Under Josten's leadership, the scientific collection of the Scientific Museum was able to expand considerably through acquisitions, but above all through the private collection of shipbuilder JA Billmeier - which included old astronomical and mathematical instruments - which Josten was able to acquire for the museum. His management style as head of the institute was considered to be "quietly imperious" ( quietly imperious ).

After his retirement in 1964, Josten returned to Germany, where he lived in his hometown Neuss until his death in 1994. Josten's wife Constanze (married in 1962) died in 1964 ( New York Times obituary) or 1968 ( Independent obituary ).

Fonts

• On the Advance of the Surviving Spouse , 1935. (Dissertation)
• Scientific Instruments (13th-19th Century). The Collection of JA Billmeir. Exhibited by Frank Partridge & Sons , 1954.
• A Translation of John Dee's "Monas Hieroglyphica" (Antwerp, 1564) , 1964.
• Elias Ashmole (1617-1692). His Autobiographical and Historical Notes, His Correspondence, and Other Contemporary Sources Relating to His Life and Work , Oxford 1966.
• Loosen and bind - on the trail of the hidden quality , 1971. (under the pseudonym Anton Cordeis)

literature

• Rainer Orth : "Kurt Josten", in: Ders .: "The official seat of the opposition" ?: Politics and state restructuring plans in the office of the Deputy Chancellor in the years 1933-1934 , Böhlau, Cologne 2016. ISBN 3412505552

• Simon Hopf: "A life between resistance and science - Conrad Josten (1912-1994) - the> English Neusser <". In: Novaesium. Neuss yearbook for art, culture and history. 2012, ISBN 9783922980483 , pp. 237-252.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Date of birth and first name according to Ian Lowe's obituary in The Independent dated July 12, 1994.
2. ^ ^{A b} Kurt Josten, 82, Headed the Museum of Science at Oxford (obituary in the New York Times, July 18, 1994).
3. ^ Fritz Günther von Tschirschky: Memories of a high treason , 1973, p. 120ff.
4. ↑ The Independent July 20, 1994
5. ↑ International Military Tribunal: Trials of the Major War Criminals Before The International Military Tribunal , 1948, VIII, p. 662 / IX, p. 773 and XVI, p. 320
6. ↑ See, [1] .
7. ^ British Academy: Proceedings of the British Academy Vol. 97, p. 257.