Otto Langmann

Otto Langmann

Otto Langmann (* 1898 , † 1956 ) was a German theologian and later a German envoy in Uruguay .

Life

After finishing school, he became a soldier in November 1916 in the replacement battalion of the 89th Grenadier Regiment in Neu-Strelitz / Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In the spring of 1917 Langmann came to the front and stayed until February 1918 at the Infantry Regiment 266. In June 1918 now as a lieutenant of the reserve , he was ordered to Flanders and ended the hostilities as a company commander of the 3rd Infantry Company of the Reserve Rifle Battalion 22. He was discharged from military service on January 8, 1919. A short time later he began to study theology in Leipzig, but "because of the Spartacian unrest" reported back to the army and stayed with the 2nd State Rifle Brigade for a few months. According to Langmann's own statement, he took part in the Kapp Putsch in March 1920 as a "temporary volunteer". Langmann continued his theology studies in Leipzig, Berlin and Rostock.

In November 1923 he married Ilse Siefert. From this marriage there were four children. He became a pastor in Mecklenburg and in 1928 went to Colombia and Ecuador as a chaplain . In 1930 he traveled to Guatemala to support the young evangelical Epiphany community there as a pastor. In Guatemala, Langmann was particularly noticeable for his political activity. In 1931 he joined the NSDAP in Guatemala and in the summer of 1931 he founded Heinrich Gundelach, the party's first national group abroad. In 1933 he returned to the German Reich and became deputy district chairman of the German Christians in Hamburg. Otto Langmann became legal advisor of the German Evangelical Church . He was appointed to the church chancellery as a consultant for questions of theological training and further education.

Langmann became German envoy in Uruguay in 1937 . Neither Martin Bormann nor Joachim von Ribbentrop reported any reservations about Langmann's appointment, as is evident from the files of the Foreign Office. Langmann's career in National Socialist Germany culminated with his appointment as envoy in Uruguay.

As an envoy in Uruguay, Langmann was directly involved in the war activities of the German fleet and the fate of the armored ship Graf Spee. On 14 December 1939, ran at 1:30 am Admiral Graf Spee in the port of Montevideo one. Due to the military situation, Langmann recommended in a telegram of December 16, 1939 to the Foreign Office that the Graf Spee be demolished. In 1940 a committee of inquiry of the Uruguayan Congress found incriminating material against the NSDAP / AO and the dissolution of the NSDAP / AO and criminal proceedings against the leaders of the NSDAP / AO, such as the press attaché Julius Dalldorf, were intended. Otto Langmann announced the dissolution of the NSDAP / AO and the German Labor Front in Uruguay. The government arrested twelve Germans whose traces led directly to Langmann. Three gliders, a parachute and a radio system were identified as the property of the German embassy near Montevideo. In 1940 Otto Langmann threatened Alfredo Baldomir's Uruguayan government with breaking off diplomatic relations if leaders of the NSDAP / AO were deported.

At the end of 1940 Langmann protested against the fact that the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Carnarvon Castle , after being attacked by the auxiliary cruiser Thor , was repaired in the port of Montevideo with steel plates, which were intended for the Graf Spee.

On January 25, 1942, the government of Uruguay broke off diplomatic relations with the governments of the Axis powers .

After his diplomatic work in South America, Langmann worked in the Foreign Office in Berlin. He was allowed to wear the uniform of a resigned Gauamtsleiter, as he himself reported. Since 1943, Langmann made applications to be allowed to fight at the front again, but he was always denied. In the fighting for Berlin in 1945, Langmann was a member of the Volkssturm and was taken prisoner by the Soviets. Otto Langmann was probably known to the Russians as a staunch National Socialist and envoy in Uruguay. He spent ten years in a prison camp in Siberia. Walter Birnbaum, a friend of Langmann's, tells in a book how he was able to give the soldiers in captivity a great deal of spiritual comfort and how he was extremely popular among the prisoners. Otto Langmann died of cancer shortly after his return from captivity.

publication

• German Christianity at the turn of an era . Agency of the Rauen Haus, Hamburg 1933.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ This and other biographical information from Otto Langmann's curriculum vitae in the Political Archive of the Foreign Office in Berlin, call number: AA008566.
2. ↑ See the entry of Otto Langmann's matriculation in the Rostock matriculation portal
3. ↑ In: The Germans in Guatemala 1930-194. November 30th, 2009, A pastor for Guatemala  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ einestages.spiegel, Captain Hans Langsdorff (center) in conversation with the German ambassador from Montevideo, Otto Langmann (left), who recommended that the "Spee" be blown up.
5. ^ South America: Awake at Last. In: Time . June 24, 1940.
6. ^ Minister Ready to Ask for His Passports if Any Local Nazi Leaders Are Deported . In: The New York Times . June 20, 1940, Germany has now begun to exert tremendous political and economic pressure on the Uruguayan Government to halt what Berlin calls an unfriendly anti-German campaign here. The Reich has threatened to break off diplomatic relations if any Nazi leaders are deported.
7. ^ Nazis Protest Aid to Raider's Victim. Object in Uruguay to Giving Carnarvon Castle 72 Hours to Mend Battle Scars. In: The New York Times. December 10, 1940, The German Government, through its Minister in Montevideo, Otto Langmann, made a formal diplomatic protest this afternoon against ...
8. ^ Search For Raider. In: The New York Times. December 9, 1940, The British auxiliary cruiser Carnarvon Castle, hit twenty-two times in a battle with a German sea raider, was being repaired tonight with steel plates reportedly taken from the scuttled German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee.
9. ^ Actual Rupture Is Left to Congress of Each Signatory. In: The New York Times. January 22, 1942, Unanimous agreement by the twenty-one American republics on a resolution for severance of relations with the Axis powers was reached late today at a three-hour consultation in the office of Foreign Minister Oswaldo Aranha of Brazil, who is chairman of the Inter-American Conference.
10. ^ Uruguay, Peru Break Relations with Axis. In: Chicago Tribune . January 25, 1942, Uruguay and Peru severed diplomatic relations tonight with Germany, Italy, and Japan. putting into swift effect terms of a compromise anti-axis agreement ...
11. ↑ Walter Birnbaum: Witness of my time. Statements on 1912 to 1972. Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1973, ISBN 3-7881-1675-7 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Otto Langmann in the catalog of the German National Library

predecessor	Office	successor
	German ambassador in Montevideo 1937–1942	Eckard Briest