Walter Kotschnig

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Walter Maria Kotschnig (born April 9, 1901 in Judenburg , Cisleithanien , † June 23, 1985 in Newtown , Pennsylvania ) was an American political expert who was active for several decades as an advisor in US foreign policy and especially in UN bodies.

Youth and Studies

Walter Kotschnig was born to the Jewish couple Ignaz and Therese Huber Kotschnig. His father was a teacher at the boys' elementary school Judenburg and its director from 1919 to 1934. Walter Kotschnig attended primary school in Graz and graduated from secondary school there in 1919 . In 1920 Kotschnig began studying in Graz, which he later continued at the University of Kiel , where he graduated in political science with a doctorate in 1924 . During his studies in Graz, Kotschnig fell ill with tuberculosis , American aid organizations in the Netherlands took over his accommodation and treatment at short notice, which Kotschnig claims to have made clear the importance of international cooperation. On December 10, 1924, Kotschnig married the Welsh psychologist Elined Prys, with whom he had three children.

Academic and political career

In 1925 Kotschnig became an employee of the International Student Service (ISS) in Geneva and was Secretary General of the organization from 1927 to 1934. Together with his wife, he published the volume The University in a Changing World for the ISS in 1933 . In 1934/35 Kotschnig worked in Geneva for the League of Nations in the role of director of the High Commission for German Refugees under High Commissioner James Grover McDonald . Kotschnig presented estimates according to which the number of German refugees is significantly lower than claimed by some receiving countries and only around 25,000 refugees can still be integrated into Europe.

In 1936 , Kotschnig and his family emigrated to the United States. There Kotschnig was a visiting professor at Smith College in Northampton and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley , teaching and publishing on issues of educational planning and policy. In 1942 he obtained American citizenship.

In 1943 Kotschnig published the book Slaves Need no Leaders. An Answer to the Facist Challenge on Education , which is dedicated to the question of how education can / should be used to establish democratic principles in the liberated countries after a victory over fascism and to enable people to make rational decisions instead of wishful thinking and to follow irrational promises. A just peace and intercultural understanding are, in Kotschnig's view, a prerequisite for this. As early as 1933, Kotschig had explained the rise of Adolf Hitler and his popularity in Germany by stating that the German population had the irrational assumption that the country would continue to be an undefeated military superpower and that the Weimar Constitution had been linked to the Treaty of Versailles . The idea of ​​democracy therefore never really took hold and Hitler took up the people's ideas and repeated them for them.

From 1944 Kotschnig worked for the United States Department of State as an expert on international organizations. In this capacity he was involved in the preparation and implementation of the Dumbarton Oaks Conference (1944), which laid the foundation for the establishment of the United Nations , and represented the USA in 1945 at meetings of the International Labor Organization . In 1947 Kotschnig became head of the Department of International Organizational Affairs at the US State Department. He took part in numerous conferences in connection with the establishment of UN organizations, in particular UNESCO , and was an advisor to the US delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations . From 1949 to 1961 he was Director of the Office of International Economic and Social Affairs in the State Department and from 1965 to 1971 Deputy Assistant Secretary of State . In 1971 he retired from office and worked as a UN advisor on the fight against drug trafficking for two more years.

In total, Kotschnig served in the administration of five different US presidents , from Harry S. Truman to Richard Nixon . John F. Kennedy awarded him the diplomatic rank of envoy (minister) in 1962 .

death

Walter Kotschnig died on June 23, 1985 of complications from his Alzheimer's disease , two years after the death of his wife.

Works

  • The University in a Changing World: A Symposium . Oxford University Press, 1932.
  • Unemployment in the Learned Professions: An international study of occupational and educational planning . Oxford University Press, 1937.
  • Slaves need no leaders . Oxford University Press, 1943.
  • The United Nations and Economic and Social Co-operation . Brookings Institution, 1957.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ SCHOOL. Journal of the State of Styria, No. 251, March 2013, p. 16
  2. ↑ Walter M. Kotschnig; Career UN Official . Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1985.
  3. ^ Greg Burgess: The League of Nations and the Refugees from Nazi Germany: James G. McDonald and Hitler's Victims . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016, pp. 139ff.
  4. ^ R. Russell Munn: Slaves Need No Leaders: An Answer to the Fascist Challenge to Education. Walter M. Kotschnig . The Library Quarterly 13, No. 3 (July 1943). P. 269.
  5. ↑ HITLER'S POPULARITY IS EXPLAINED BY KOTSCHNIG . The Harvard Crimson, December 12, 1933.
  6. ↑ WALTER M. KOTSCHNIG DEAD; LONGTIME US AIDE TO UN . New York Times, June 25, 1985.
personal data
SURNAME Kotschnig, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kotschnig, Walter Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American political expert
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Judenburg , Cisleithanien
DATE OF DEATH June 23, 1985
Place of death Newtown , Pennsylvania