Theodor Hornbostel

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Theodor von Hornbostel (born January 9, 1889 in Vienna , † June 8, 1973 in Gmunden ) was an Austrian politician and diplomat .

Diplomatic service and foreign office

Hornbostel was one of three children born to his parents Max Georg von Hornbostel and Helene von Hornbostel nee. Filtsch. His grandfather was the industrialist Theodor von Hornbostel . After graduating from Theresianum , he attended the Consular Academy and when he graduated in 1912 he received the Imperial Prize, which is only awarded every five years, for the best pupil of the year. In December 1912 he was assigned to the Criminal and Inheritance Law Department at the Consulate in Constantinople . In June 1913 he was posted to the Albanian port of Durres as a consul , where he also witnessed the outbreak of the First World War. After assignments in Ioannina and Athens , he returned to Vienna in February 1917, where he was personally awarded the Military Merit Cross for his services by Emperor Karl.

Tasks as part of the Austro-Hungarian prisoner of war mission took him to St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1917/18.

In 1919 he began his service in the German-Austrian representation in Budapest and became consul extra statum . From 1926 he worked as Vice Consul in Constantinople.

In 1930 he returned to the Foreign Office under the government of Chancellor Schober . He negotiated the Concordat with the Vatican, had to calm the entanglements over the customs union agreement with Germany and took part in numerous League of Nations meetings. In April 1933 he became head of the Political Department (13) of the Foreign Office under Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß and is also one of the few who was able to give a detailed report on what happened in the Federal Chancellery during the attempted coup and the murder of Chancellor Dollfuss on July 25, 1934. In October 1933 he was promoted to extraordinary envoy and minister plenipotentiary . After the resignation of Vice Chancellor Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg in July 1936, it was surprisingly not Hornbostel but Guido Schmidt who became State Secretary for Foreign Affairs under Chancellor Schuschnigg . Hornbostel was the diplomat who, on the eve of the German troops marching into Austria, took care of interventions in London, Paris and Rome by telephone because of his excellent relations.

1938-1945

On the night of March 11th to March 12th, 1938, Hornbostel was initially placed under house arrest by the SS as an opponent of the National Socialists, arrested on March 13th and taken to the Dachau concentration camp on April 1st, 1938 on the so-called transport of celebrities . He was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp in September 1939 and released in May 1943. After he was banned from working in the (then) Danube and Alpine Gauzes, he took a job in Berlin. Due to his contact with the Austrian resistance there, he was transferred to Groß-Behnitz (approx. 80 km northwest of Berlin) to the economics department of IG Farben. After the invasion of the Soviet troops, he became mayor there due to his language skills, but took the opportunity of the Potsdam Conference in summer 1945 to get to Gmunden (Upper Austria) by transport.

The post-war period and the idea of ​​Central Europe

After the war, Hornbostel officially withdrew from diplomacy and politics, but remained active behind the scenes in both Gmunden and Vienna.

In 1947 and 1948 he testified twice at the Nuremberg trials in the IG Farben trial and in the Wilhelmstrasse trial and in 1947 contributed significantly to the acquittal of Guido Schmidt in his high treason trial. In 1949 Hornbostel arranged the meeting of leading representatives of the ÖVP with former National Socialists, which became known as the Oberweiser Conference .

He was also politically involved in the negotiations for the Austrian State Treaty and in restitution issues.

As early as 1946 he revived the idea of ​​Central Europe with his article Organization of the Danube Region in Die Furche , in 1953 he was co-founder and first chairman of the Research Institute for Issues relating to the Danube Region (today the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe ). He only resigned from this position in 1970. Hornbostel died on June 8, 1973 and is buried in Gmunden.

literature

  • Christian Dörner, Barbara Dörner-Fazeny: Theodor von Hornbostel, 1889-1973 , Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-205-77499-X
  • Erich Bielka: Short biography Theodor Hornbostel . In: New Austrian Biography . Volume XXI, Amalthea-Verlag, Vienna 1982, pp. 37-46

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Austrian State Archives, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Z.47884 / 10, July 16, 1912
  2. ^ Austrian State Archives, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 31545/10, May 13, 1913
  3. ^ Austrian State Archives, State Office for Foreign Affairs, Z.4.817 / 6, January 4, 1919
  4. ^ Austrian State Archives, State Office for Foreign Affairs, Z. II-4321/6, May 7, 1919
  5. ^ Christian Dörner, Barbara Dörner-Fazeny: Theodor von Hornbostel, 1889-1973 , Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-205-77499-X
  6. ^ Austrian State Archives, Federal Chancellery, Z. 226.668-13 pers / 33, October 20, 1933
  7. ^ Christian Dörner, Barbara Dörner-Fazeny: Theodor von Hornbostel, 1889-1973 , Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-205-77499-X
  8. ^ Christian Dörner, Barbara Dörner-Fazeny: Theodor von Hornbostel, 1889-1973 , Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-205-77499-X
  9. ^ Theodor Hornbostel, Organization of the Danube Region . In: Die Furche , Vienna November 16, 1946, leading article
personal data
SURNAME Hornbostel, Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hornbostel, Theodor von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH June 8, 1973
Place of death Gmunden