Rudolf von Wistinghausen

Rudolf Eduard Michael von Wistinghausen (born January 11, 1905 in Riga ; † May 29, 1981 in Bad Honnef ) was a German diplomat who was last ambassador to Togo from 1966 to 1970 . He later served as chairman of the German-Baltic Landsmannschaft in Germany between 1973 and 1980 .

Life

Coat of arms of Wistinghausen, who moved from Westphalia to Reval via Lübeck

origin

Rudolf von Wistinghausen 's fatherly ancestors were Reval councilors before they belonged to the Russian service aristocracy. He was a son from the marriage of Walter von Wistinghausen (stage name Willibald Wickel ( Dollarid )) and Isolde von Ungern-Sternberg , as well as a nephew of Theophile von Bodisco, from 1903 to 1910 . After the divorce, the mother lived with the imperial Russian approved title of baroness and her maiden name Ungern-Sternberg from 1912 with her children in Helsingfors , from 1919 in Heidelberg . A brother of her father Rudolf was Eduard von Ungern-Sternberg .

Career

After attending school, Rudolf began studying agricultural sciences , which he completed in 1928. After working for an insurance company for a year, he was managing director of the Society for the Promotion of the Herder Institute in Riga between 1929 and 1931 and then studied agricultural science and economics in the USA from 1931 to 1933 . After his return he worked for the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Berlin between 1933 and 1939 . On February 1, 1934, he had joined the NSDAP and the SA , in which he achieved the rank of SA storm leader in 1942 . In this context, the BdV President Erika Steinbach announced in a press release in 2006 that Rudolf von Wistinghausen was part of the resistance against Adolf Hitler .

In 1939 von Wistinghausen joined the diplomatic service and initially worked at the embassy in the Netherlands and briefly as vice consul at the consulate general in Amsterdam , before he was head of the cultural policy department of the Foreign Office in Berlin between 1940 and 1945 and provided political support to Eastern workers .

After the end of the war he worked as an interpreter for the US Army in Ludwigsburg and then between 1946 and 1948 in the private sector, whereupon he worked as a consultant at the German Farmers' Association (DBV) in Bonn from 1948 to 1949 .

After the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany was of Wistinghausen 1,949 employees in the Federal Ministry for Affairs of the Marshall Plan , from the October 1953 Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and was for this at the German Mission to the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) in Paris working . In 1956 he moved to the Federal Ministry of Labor , where he was in sub-department II b (job placement, vocational advice, training and promotion) of department II (workers) until 1960 head of department II b 4 and from 1959 of divided department II b 4 b (German workers abroad and foreign workers in Germany).

In 1960 von Wistinghausen moved to the Foreign Office and was initially employed at the headquarters in Bonn, before he worked at the embassy in the Soviet Union from 1961 to October 1966 . His last position as Legation Councilor, First Class, was in November 1966, succeeding Karl Gerhard Seeliger as Ambassador to Togo . He held this post until he retired in 1970, after which he was replaced by Gerhard Söhnke . He joined the CDU in 1970 .

As the successor to Erik von Sivers , he took over the position of chairman of the German-Baltic Landsmannschaft in Darmstadt in 1973 , which he held until 1980. His successor was Klas Lackschewitz . In 1978 the city of Darmstadt awarded him the undoped Johann Heinrich Merck honor .

In 1979 Helmut Kohl invited the presidia of the CDU and the Federation of Expellees (BdV) to Bonn for a detailed discussion of common issues . Wistinghausen took part as a member of the executive committee of the BdV.

Von Wistinghausen is buried in Holzschwang with his wife .

family

Together with Ursula, geb. Breyer, he had the son Henning von Wistinghausen (born November 26, 1936 in Copenhagen ), ambassador a. D. and author.

literature

• 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 , p. 308f.

Web links

• Baltic Historical Commission (Ed.): Entry on Rudolf Eduard Michael von Wistinghausen. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital
• Short biography in the Federal Archives (page accessed on September 14, 2016)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Johannes Hürter: Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871 - 1945. Volume 5, 2014, pp. 308f.
2. ↑ Genealogisches Handbuch der Baltic Ritterschaften (1930), p. 277 ( Memento of the original from September 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Lexicon of German-Language Literature of the Baltic States (2007), p. 1350
4. ↑ ^{a b} Lexicon of German-Language Literature of the Baltic States (2007), p. 1418
5. ↑ ^{a b} GHdA , Noble Houses B, Volume IX, 1970
6. ↑ Der Spiegel 33/2006, Contemporary History: Inconvenient Truths
7. ↑ Press release Erika Steinbach dated September 12, 2006, Bund der Vertrieben: We want to break the ground for half-truths and assumptions through scientific research
8. ^ Occupation of a German mission abroad, AA. 42nd cabinet meeting on September 7, 1966 (Federal Archives)
9. ^ The Ostpreußenblatt , vol. 30, vol. 19, on May 12, 1979, Confession to Germany

predecessor	Office	successor
Karl Gerhard Seeliger	Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Lomé 1966–1970	Gerhard Söhnke