Oskar Trautmann

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Oskar Paul Trautmann (born May 7, 1877 in Stradow , † December 10, 1950 in Berlin ) was a German diplomat , active as an ambassador and publicist.

Life

Oskar Trautmann was born in Lower Lusatia as the son of the manorial landlord Friedrich Trautmann and his wife Elise, née Mielenz. The religious orientation in his parents' house was Protestant. In Spremberg and Cottbus he attended the secondary school and passed the Abitur at Easter 1895 at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Cottbus . After studying law at the universities in Halle / Saale and Berlin, he was accepted into the Prussian judicial service after the legal traineeship in March 1899. He passed the compulsory assessor exam in November 1903 and then took an informational job with the city administration in Berlin-Rixdorf. During this time he prepared for his doctorate, which he received on August 24, 1924 with the subject of the municipal debt deputation in Prussia and the ministerial instruction of June 26, 1811 as Dr. jur. completed.

In the Foreign Office

On the same day, Oskar Trautmann was drafted into the Foreign Service. He began a consular career here, which he took up on August 31 at the Foreign Office in Berlin in Department III. (Right) took over. His first assignment abroad took him to the Consulate General in Saint Petersburg in June 1905 . In July 1905 he was given the character of Vice Consul and this activity ended on May 13, 1906. Subsequently, a temporary employment followed, again in Department III. Here he was involved in the preparation of the Second Hague Peace Conference, in which he also took part from June 1906 to October 1907 as a member of the German delegation. Subsequently, a further assignment in the Consulate General was planned for him, which he also took up on January 11, 1908 in Saint Petersburg. During this time, he was appointed provisional management on site and provisional employment in the Foreign Office in Department III. He also took part in the Conference on the Law of the Sea in London, in the preparation of which he was involved from May 1908 to March 1909. As a result of his participation in both conferences, he published the article The Question of the Destruction of Neutral Prizes and Its Discussion at the Hague and London Conferences. After this special event, he was appointed Vice Consul on April 29, 1909. After three years, his period of service in Saint Petersburg ended in October 1911. He returned to Germany and in October 1911 moved to the IC department (consulates) in the Foreign Office. From here, in October of the following year, he was briefly called to act as acting head of the Consulate General in Zurich . After his return from Switzerland, from December 24, 1912, he was one of the permanent unskilled workers in the Foreign Office. On February 11, 1913, Trautmann was given the status of a legation councilor.

With the beginning of the First World War , Oskar Trautmann was first briefly assigned to the censorship department in the Foreign Office, then from November in Department IA (Politics) in the area of ​​press matters and from January 1915 in Department IV, in the Scandinavia and Russia department. It was here that the publication “The Russian State Idea” was published in 1916, also based on his experiences in Saint Petersburg. From January 1918 he worked alternately in Department IA and temporarily represented the Foreign Office in the German armistice negotiations in Spa. In July he became a Real Legation Councilor and Lecturing Council, and another publication of his with the title “The League of Nations” appeared.

Oskar Trautmann's takeover in the Foreign Office of the Weimar Republic took place seamlessly. From February 1920 he moved back to Department IV and was given management responsibility for the Scandinavia sub-department. During the peace negotiations in Spa as press officer for Department P (press), he took over the management of Department I (internal politics and internal press) from the end of September 1920. It was similarly eventful in 1921, where he was provisional head of Department IX (Culture) from May and from summer was already preparing for his next assignment abroad at the Consul General in Kobe . At the beginning of the coming year he traveled to Japan and started doing business in Kobe on March 1, 1922. During this time his publication “Diplomacy. Diplomatic Organizations ”for the Concise Political Dictionary. In October of the same year he was proposed for a move to the German embassy in Tokyo and then took up the position of the embassy council on January 10, 1923. The German ambassador and thus his direct superior at that time was Wilhelm Solf (1862–1936). On March 29, 1924, he was the Counselor appointed. During his vacation at the end of the year, he took part in the German-Japanese negotiations on the planned trade agreement between the two countries in Berlin. In June 1925 he returned to Berlin and was again employed in Department IV, this time as head of Sub-Department 2 (East Asia) with the powers of a conductor. At the same time he was given the title of Lecturing Legation Councilor from September 20th. In addition to these tasks, from October 1926 he was also responsible for the complex of disarmament issues. After three years in Berlin, he was appointed Head of Department IV on September 19, 1928, and in December he was appointed Ministerial Director.

In China

Oskar Trautmann's next assignment abroad took him to China in 1931. Here he replaced the German diplomat Herbert von Borch (1876–1961). On October 1st he took over the business as envoy in Beijing and on October 13th he handed over the credentials. After just four years in office, the legation in Beijing was converted into an embassy and at the same time the official seat was relocated to Nanjing . Trautmann now resided as an ambassador . He used the time of his presence in China, of course in addition to the upcoming official tasks, to pursue his interests in Chinese culture and art. He became a member of the board of the Sino-German cultural and business association. And from 1936 onwards, two of his publications appeared in quick succession, dealing with Chinese painting and preparing an exhibition of part of his collection of contemporary Chinese art at the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld. However, shortly after he took office, the Sino-Japanese War broke out, which made working conditions more difficult. In addition, the German East Asia policy at the time was also very fickle and not very strategically oriented, and so Trautmann commented on the Chinese government on January 27, 1937:

“Our East Asia policy cannot be reduced to one common denominator. It moves in pendulum strokes, sometimes on the Chinese side, sometimes on the Japanese side, and the strong swinging to one side creates disaffection on the other. "

When the political conflict over Nanjing came to a head, he tried to intervene at times and sometimes played a mediator role in the negotiations for the most non-violent surrender of the city. These failed, however, and on December 13, 1937, the Nanjing massacre occurred . Immediately thereafter, he was recalled from Nanjing in 1938 and had to leave China on June 26, 1938. Shortly after his departure, a textbook appeared in Berlin on the subject of “The Diplomat. The Consul ", which was mainly intended for the training of personnel in economic sectors planning activities abroad. Just one year later, on December 7, 1939, he was put into temporary retirement. His final retirement took place in mid-1942.

Return to Germany

After his return and due to the lack of current employment, Oskar Trautmann withdrew more and more from professional life after 1940. He and his family had taken up residence in Schlichow, near Cottbus. He and his father had already bought a small estate there in 1921. And from here he mainly continued his writing work. His book "The Singer Bridge, Thoughts on Russian Foreign Policy from 1870-1914" was published as early as 1940. Further publications, but also translations from Russian, followed after 1947.

Personal

On June 17, 1905, Oskar Trautmann married Hedwig Schulz. The marriage resulted in four children, two daughters and two sons.

Oskar Trautmann died on December 10, 1950 in Schlichow near Cottbus.

Honors

The former Cottbuss secondary school honored Oskar Trautmann as their former student, who had graduated from high school here in 1895, with a brief biographical description of his work on the website.

In 1999, the former village street of Schichow in his last place of residence was renamed "Oskar-Trautmann-Straße".

Publications

From the years 1905 to 1947 numerous documents and correspondence by Oskar Trautmann on foreign policy issues, including a. Relations with the Soviet Union, East Asia policy, economic and political situation in China; Speeches and essays by Trautmann; Private correspondence; He also translated texts from Russian. Above all, this includes:

  • The municipal debt deputation in Prussia and the ministerial instruction of June 26, 1811. In: Archives for Public Law , Tübingen 1905, pp. 536-589. Digitized
  • The question of the destruction of neutral prizes and its discussion at the Hague and London Conferences. In: Archive for Public Law , Tübingen 1910, pp. 513–562. Digitized
  • “The Russian State Idea” in: Prussian Yearbooks, No. 163, year 1916, p. 479ff.
  • "The League of Nations", Berlin 1918
  • "Diplomacy. Diplomatic Organizations ”, in: Politisches Handwörterbuch, Volume 1, Ed. Paul Herre, Leipzig, 1923, pp. 445ff.
  • Letter from Oskar Trautmann to Hans Jonas, April 30, 1930 [1]
  • “The Chinese painting. A chat ”, Berlin 1936
  • “Chinese Painting of the Present”, publication on the occasion of the exhibition in the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld. (From the collection of Ambassador Dr. Oskar Trautmann), Nanking, September / October 1937
  • The diplomat, the consul. DAF teaching materials center . Berlin 1938.
  • The Singer Bridge. Thoughts on Russian foreign policy from 1870–1914. Union, Stuttgart 1940.
  • Man in time. A breviary. Union, Stuttgart 1947.
  • “Ignatij Julianovic Krackovskij: Bent over Arabic manuscripts. Memories of Books and People ”(translation from Russian), Leipzig 1949
  • The return of God. A literary attempt on the relationship of modern man to religion. Koehler, Stuttgart 1949

literature

  • Gustav Ecke, Early Chinese bronzes from the Oskar Trautmann Collection, Beijing 1939
  • 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 .
  • John P. Fox: Germany and the Far Eastern Crisis, 1931-1938. A Study in Diplomacy and Ideology . Oxford 1982.
  • Bernd Ruland: German Embassy Beijing . Bayreuth 1973. * Theo Sommer : Germany and Japan between the powers 1935–1940. From the Anti-Comintern Pact to the Three Power Pact. Tubingen 1962
  • Biographical information and documentation on the work of Oskar Trautmann in: Files of the Reich Chancellery; in: https://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0000/adr/adrsz/kap1_2/para2_89.html
  • Short biography about Oskar Trautmann, Erich-Kästner-Gesamtschule Cottbus; in: http://erichkaestner-gs-cottbus.de/html/Oskar%20Trautmann.html

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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 .
  2. ↑ Biographical information and documentation on the work of Oskar Trautmann in: Files of the Reich Chancellery; in: https://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0000/adr/adrsz/kap1_2/para2_89.html
  3. ↑ Bernd Ruland: German Embassy Beijing . Bayreuth 1973. * Theo Sommer : Germany and Japan between the powers 1935–1940. From the Anti-Comintern Pact to the Three Power Pact. Tubingen 1962
  4. ↑ Theo Sommer , 1962, p. 56.
  5. ↑ 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 .
  6. ^ Catalogs of the German State Library and references to publications by Oskar Trautmann in bibliographies, archives and collections of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
  7. ↑ Short biography about Oskar Trautmann, Erich-Kästner-Gesamtschule Cottbus; in: http://erichkaestner-gs-cottbus.de/html/Oskar%20Trautmann.html
personal data
SURNAME Trautmann, Oskar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Trautmann, Oskar Paul (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Stradow
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1950
Place of death Berlin