Martin J. Hillenbrand

Martin Joseph Anthony Hillenbrand (born August 1, 1915 in Youngstown , Ohio ; † February 2, 2005 in Athens , Georgia ) was an American diplomat and, among other things, between 1972 and 1976 the United States Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany and a long-time German State Department expert .

Life

Hillenbrand was of German-American origin. After attending school, he first studied at the University of Dayton , where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1937 . He then continued his studies at Columbia University and entered the diplomatic service in 1938 after graduating with a Master of Arts (MA) . After serving as Vice Consul in Rangoon between 1940 and 1942, he was then Vice Consul in Calcutta and then from 1944 to 1945 in Lourenço Marques . During his work as Foreign Service Officer (FSO) in Bremen from 1945 to 1949, he acquired a Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.) at Columbia University in 1948 and was then a visiting scholar in economics at Harvard University between 1949 and 1950 .

He then worked as an officer-in-charge for the government and administration of Germany in the US State Department , before he was first consul and first secretary from 1952 to 1953 and then until 1954 economic officer at the United States Embassy in France . He then moved in 1954 as Consul and First Secretary to the Permanent Mission of the USA to NATO , before he was political advisor at the Mission in Berlin from 1956 to 1958 . After another brief assignment as Consul General in Berlin, he was Director of the Office for German Affairs at the US State Department between 1958 and 1962.

He then returned to the Federal Republic of Germany and was ambassador ad interim between April and May 1963 and then from 1963 to 1967 representative of George C. McGhee , the then US ambassador in Bonn . In his function as chargé d'affaires, he spoke to the State Secretary in the Foreign Office , Karl Carstens , on January 31, 1964 and inquired about the involvement of the Bundeswehr in a peace force for Cyprus composed of NATO countries . In 1967 he was accredited as ambassador to Hungary before, after returning to the USA between February 1969 and April 1972, he was the successor of John M. Leddy as Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs in the State Department .

Hillenbrand returned to Germany again in June 1972 and was ambassador to Bonn until October 1976 during the term of office of Chancellor Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt . In 1973 he was guest of honor at the Bremen Schaffermahlzeit . During the Lockheed scandal warned at Lockheed hired lobbyist Christian Steinrücke against him in October 1975, the backgrounds of the Starfighter to explore procurement, as this trouble for Franz Josef Strauss could entail. The last time he opened an exhibition on Hesse and the American Revolution of 1776 during the Hessentag in 1976 .

After finishing his work there, he was Director General of the Atlantic Institute for International Affairs between 1976 and 1982 . Hillenbrand, who also worked for the Council on Foreign Relations , then acted as Professor of International Relations at the University of Georgia , where he taught until 1987.

Publications

Hillenbrand published some books, some of which were autobiographical , which dealt with economic policy issues, but also with Germany. His most famous publications include:

• Power and Morals (1949)
• The Future of Berlin (1980), German Die Zukunft Berlins (as publisher), Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1981
• Global Insecurity: A Strategy for Energy and Economic Renewal (1980, co-author Daniel Yergin )
• Germany in an Era of Transition (1983)
• Fragments of Our Time: Memoirs of a Diplomat (1998); limited preview in Google Book search

Individual evidence

1. ^ Minutes> 108th cabinet meeting on January 31, 1964> J. Cyprus question (Federal Archives 1964)
2. ^ PDF Records Electronic Telegrams, 1/1/1975 - 12/31/1975

Web links

• Martin J. Hillenbrand in the Notable Names Database (English)
• Martin J. Hillenbrand in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
• THE NEW YORK TIMES: Martin J. Hillenbrand, 89, Expert on European Affairs, Is Dead (February 18, 2005)
• Christine Elder and Elizabeth G. Sammis (eds.): The Berlin crisis. (1958-1962) . (Original title: A Vision Fulfilled. 50 Years of Americans on the Rhine. United States Embassy Bonn, 1949-1999 .).

predecessor	Office	successor
Richard W. Tims	U.S. Ambassador to Hungary October 30, 1967 - February 15, 1969	Alfred Puhan
Kenneth Rush	U.S. Ambassador to Germany June 27, 1972 - October 18, 1976	Walter John Stoessel