Otto von Erdmannsdorff

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Otto Bernhard Gustav von Erdmannsdorff (born October 22, 1888 in Dresden ; died December 30, 1978 in Starnberg ) was a German civil servant in the Foreign Service , became a member of the NSDAP and ambassador in Budapest , was a defendant in the Wilhelmstrasse trial , where he was classified as not Was discharged guilty .

Life

Otto von Erdmannsdorff was a son of the Saxon lieutenant colonel Hans von Erdmannsdorff (1858) and his wife Johanna, née von Schönberg (1867) from the Kreipitzsch family .

Von Erdmannsdorff studied law and was a trainee lawyer in the royal Saxon judicial service. During the First World War he was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross as well as the Knight's Cross II. Class of the Albrecht Order and the Order of Merit with Swords. Towards the end of the war, Erdmannsdorff was temporarily active as a chargé d'affaires in Riga . In the Foreign Service since 1919, he was deployed in Mexico , Beijing and Tokyo .

He joined the NSDAP in 1937 and on May 11, 1937 was envoy to Horthy in Hungary , which was closely allied with the National Socialist regime in Germany . During this period, Hungary's foreign policy successes in revising the Trianon Treaty fell : in the First Vienna Arbitration Award of November 2, 1938, parts of Slovakia were given to Hungary and, thanks to Hitler's mediation, Hungary received part of Transylvania from Romania in the Second Vienna Arbitration Award in 1940 . In 1940 Hungary joined the three-power pact of the Axis powers Germany, Italy and Japan . This also resulted in Hungary's participation in the attack on Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941.

After the beginning of the war against the Soviet Union on June 27, 1941, in which Hungary was also involved, Erdmannsdorff was replaced by Dietrich von Jagow in July 1941 and then worked in the Political Department of the Foreign Office in Berlin under Ernst Woermann .

At the end of 1942 the Waffen SS were planning to recruit new volunteer organizations in Bulgaria . However, Hitler refused because he needed the Bulgarian armed forces in full strength on the Turkish border. Erdmannsdorff then informed SS-Obergruppenführer Wolff .

The Foreign Office was not only represented at the Wannsee Conference , but was subsequently also involved in the deportation of the Jews, and Erdmannsdorff initialed such documents, so demanded "The Foreign Minister", here signed: Werner von Grundherr zu Altenthann and Weiherhaus , Erdmannsdorff and Andor Hencke , on September 17, 1943 from the Embassy in Copenhagen "on the method of transporting the Jews, which in principle has been decided to make precise suggestions" . Erdmannsdorff, like the Jewish advisor Franz Rademacher, was one of the officials in the Foreign Service who claimed a "Jewish apartment", that is, an apartment that had become vacant through deportation , according to his application of March 21, 1942 to the personnel department.

On April 8, 1944 Erdmannsdorff was involved in how the Foreign Office tried to prevent the departure of " 7,000 Romanian Jews, mostly children " on the ship "Tari" by diplomatic means.

process

At the end of the war he was imprisoned and charged in 1947 in the Wilhelmstrasse trial under point V:

War crimes and crimes against humanity : Atrocities and offenses against the civilian population. Persecution of Jews, Catholics and other minorities

“ The defendant did not appear on the witness stand and did not testify on his own behalf. “In the evidence presented by the prosecution ( Robert Kempner ) against Erdmannsdorff, the court found procedural errors on the part of the prosecution and therefore did not consider certain“ exhibits and testimony ”.

“ We consider it certain that Erdmannsdorff was… aware of the crimes against humanity that were committed against the Jews. But ... that is nowhere near enough to warrant conviction. "

" He was little more than an office manager ". This was not a flattering assessment for a career officer, but it saved him from conviction and further detention. Bernhard Vorwerk took over his defense, assisted by Friedrich Franz von Papen .

literature

  • Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 1: Johannes Hürter : A – F. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2000, ISBN 3-506-71840-1 .
  • Robert MW Kempner, Carl Haensel, Walter Galewski, Julia Kerr: The verdict in the Wilhelmstrasse trial. Bürger, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1950 ( DNB ).
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. 2nd Edition. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
  • Léon Poliakov , Joseph Wulf : The Third Reich and its servants. Fourier, Wiesbaden 1989, ISBN 3-925037-45-4 .
  • 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 .
  • Hans-Jürgen Döscher : The Foreign Office in the Third Reich. Diplomacy in the shadow of the final solution. Siedler Verlag Berlin 1987 ISBN 3-88680-256-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch des Adeligen Häuser. 1901. Second year, Justus Perthes, Gotha 1900, p. 287.
  2. ↑ Letter of the Ges. V. Erdmannsdorff (AA) to SS-Ogruf. Wolff (Personal Staff B.FSS) v. 12/23/1942 (NG-3665)
  3. ↑ Léon Poliakov, Joseph Wulf: The Third Reich and its servants. Fourier, Wiesbaden 1989, ISBN 3-925037-45-4 , p. 102.
  4. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Döscher, The Foreign Office in the Third Reich. Diplomacy in the shadow of the final solution. Berlin 1987, p. 215, note 13
  5. ↑ Léon Poliakov, Joseph Wulf: The Third Reich and its servants. Fourier, Wiesbaden 1989, ISBN 3-925037-45-4 , p. 17.
  6. ↑ all quotations: Robert MW Kempner u. a .: The verdict in the Wilhelmstrasse trial. Bürger, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1950, p. 134.
  7. ↑ Telford Taylor: Final Report to the Secretary of the Army on the Nuernberg War Crimes Trials Under Control Council Law No. 10. Washington, DC, August 15, 1949 (PDF; 15.8 MB).
personal data
SURNAME Erdmannsdorff, Otto von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Erdmannsdorff, Otto Bernhard Gustav von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ambassador to Hungary
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1978
Place of death Starnberg