Paul von Hintze

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Paul von Hintze, 1915

Paul Hintze , from 1908 von Hintze (born February 13, 1864 in Schwedt / Oder , † August 19, 1941 in Meran ) was a German rear admiral , envoy and 1918 State Secretary for Foreign Affairs .

Life

Hintze was the son of the tobacco manufacturer Julius Hintze from Schwedt and his wife Anna Hartmann.

He first went through a military career in the Navy. Joined the Imperial Navy as a cadet in 1882 . From December 1885 to September 1886 he attended the naval school and then went to sea until 1888 as a sub-lieutenant in the East African cruiser squadron , which was deployed off Zanzibar. 1888 lieutenant at sea , in 1898 he was flag lieutenant of the German East Asia cruiser squadron ; on July 10, 1898, he managed to defuse a confrontation with US Admiral Dewey in the so-called Manila incident . From August 15, 1903 to September 9, 1908, Hintze was naval attaché for the Nordic empires in St. Petersburg , and from September 10, 1908 to January 11, 1911, Plenipotentiary in St. Petersburg. On April 10, 1911 Hintze was with the character as a rear admiral for disposition made to pass into the diplomatic service. In the meantime he had been raised to hereditary nobility on January 27, 1908 by Wilhelm II .

He became German envoy to Mexico (1911/17), envoy extraordinary to Beijing (1914/17) and Norway ( Christiania , 1917). In these three explosive posts he achieved extraordinary things: the historian Johannes Hürter sees him as the most important diplomat in Mexico from 1911 to 1913. In Beijing he managed to keep China out of the war against Germany for three years , despite strong pressure from the Entente . In 1917, months after the USA entered the war, he was allowed to cross the United States as an “honored guest” on his return to Germany - according to the telegram from US Secretary of State Robert Lansing . Incidentally, this telegram proves Hintze's wise, US-friendly diplomacy in Mexico and refutes Barbara Tuchman's statements in her book Zimmermann Telegram . In June / July 1917, as an envoy on an extraordinary mission in Christiania, he prevented Norway from entering the war.

At the end of the First World War , Hintze was State Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Foreign Minister) from July 9 to October 7, 1918 . On September 26, 1918 department heads in the General Staff informed Foreign Minister Hintze about the hopeless military situation. On September 29, 1918 at 10 a.m., the crucial conversation between Hintze and the OHL ( Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff ) took place in the Hotel Britannique in Spa. Hintze developed a concept for the "revolution from above" . In 1921, as "Herr Hartwig", he conducted secret talks with People's Commissar Karl Radek in Moscow on behalf of the Reich government ; he informed Lenin of this and suggested further meetings with Trotsky and Chicherin (November 27, 1921).

For his services Hintze was awarded the Red Eagle Order III. Class with ribbon and crown, the Order of the Crown II. Class, the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern , the Iron Cross II. Class on the White Ribbon and the Commander First Class of the Order of the Zähringer Löwen .

In the post-war years, Hintze was probably the only German who was considered a “ persona grata ” at all international conferences . Stresemann , according to the historian Johannes Hürter , saw in him the coming Chancellor.

Paul von Hintze married Helene v. Schierstaedt (1871–1953), daughter of the Mecklenburg captain Adolf von Schierstaedt and his wife Johanna nee von Bülow . Helene von Hintze was married to George Carl von Rauch in her first marriage. This marriage comes from u. a. Paul von Hintze's stepdaughter Elisabeth von Rauch, widow of the Colonel in the General Staff and resistance fighter from July 20, 1944, Wessel Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven .

Paul von Hintze died on August 19, 1941 in Merano and is buried in Rome on Campo di Verano .

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (eds.), Hans H. Hildebrand, Ernest Henriot: Germany's Admirals 1849-1945. The military careers of naval, engineering, medical, weapons and administrative officers with admiral rank. Volume 2: HO. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1989. ISBN 3-7648-1499-3 . Pp. 99-101.
  • Hans Wolfram von Hentig:  Hintze, Paul von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 196 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Johannes Hürter (Ed.): Paul von Hintze: naval officer, diplomat, state secretary. Documents of a career between the military and politics. 1903-1918. Boldt in the Oldenbourg publishing house. Munich 1998. ISBN 3-486-56278-9 .
  • Gustav Graf von Lambsdorff: The military plenipotentiaries of Kaiser Wilhelm II at the Tsar's court. Schlieffen publishing house . Berlin 1937. dnb

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dermot Bradley (ed.), Hans H. Hildebrand, Ernest Henriot: Deutschlands Admirale 1849-1945. The military careers of naval, engineering, medical, weapons and administrative officers with admiral rank. Volume 2: HO. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1989. ISBN 3-7648-1499-3 . P. 99
  2. ↑ Heiko Herold: Imperial power means sea power. The cruiser squadron of the Imperial Navy as an instrument of German colonial and world politics 1885 to 1901 (Contributions to Military History, Vol. 74, also Phil. Diss. Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf), Munich (Oldenbourg Verlag) 2012. ISBN 978-3- 486-71297-1 . Page 77.
  3. ↑ Federal Archives / Military Archives Freiburg, I / 1b-6, II / 5e-21
  4. ↑ Erich Ludendorff: My War Memories 1914-1918. Berlin 1919. p. 583.
  5. ↑ Handbook on the Royal Prussian Court and State for the year 1918. Decker's publishing house. Berlin 1918. p. 69.
personal data
SURNAME Hintze, Paul from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hintze, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwedt / Oder
DATE OF DEATH August 19, 1941
Place of death Meran