Walter Reichhold

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Walter Reichhold (also Walther Reichhold ; born March 27, 1904 in Landau in the Palatinate ; † October 3, 2001 in Speyer ) was a German diplomat who was ambassador to Senegal between 1960 and 1963 . In addition, he was ambassador to Mauritania from 1960 to 1963 . He was then ambassador to Ghana between 1963 and 1964 and ambassador to the Republic of the Congo from 1964 to 1965 .

Life

Study and consul in Dakar

Reichhold, son of a lawyer, studied law and political science at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg , Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich , University of Geneva and the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg , which he did in 1927 graduated with the first state examination in law. In 1927 he finished his doctorate as Dr. jur. at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg with the dissertation The revision for procedural reasons in the Imperial Criminal Procedure Code . After completing the legal clerkship , he passed his second state examination in law in 1930. In 1930 he became a consultant at the International Labor Office in Geneva , where he worked until 1939.

In 1939, Reichhold moved to the Foreign Office and was a research assistant in the personnel department and until 1945 deputy head of the language service. On April 1, 1940, he joined the NSDAP . He also dealt with espionage matters in 1943 and was commissioned in 1944 at the embassy in Spain to set up a branch of the language service.

After the end of the Second World War , Reichhold worked as a translator and interpreter, before he became head of the language service of the Federal Foreign Ministry after the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany and the re-establishment of the Foreign Office in 1950 and held this position until 1955. In 1953 he was promoted to First Class Legation Councilor .

On December 15, 1955, Reichhold was consul and, most recently, consul first class, head of the consulate in Dakar in French West Africa . He was responsible for Togo , Gambia and Guinea-Bissau . On October 20, 1958, he went to the President of Guinea , Ahmed Sékou Touré , to officially tell him how lucky the German people would consider themselves to be able to participate in Guinea's development. On October 31, 1958, Konrad Adenauer sent a telegram to Conakry in which the Republic of Guinea was recognized and the establishment of diplomatic relations was announced. In this function, Reichhold also maintained, without being contradicted, at a conference of the ambassadors of the Federal Republic of Germany in Africa that "the Negro-Africans are completely indifferent to the idea of ​​individual freedom". At this conference he further explained that there is definitely a “Negro-African culture” represented by the “young intellectuals” of Africa. It would be "extremely dangerous" to try again at a paternalistic policy. "And on the other hand, these people know that we or our ancestors did not come here to sow culture and spread Christianity, but to look for silver and gold and other things."

Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany

After independence in June 1960, he became the first ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Mali Federation or, after the collapse in August 1960, in Senegal and remained in this post until he was replaced by York Alexander von Wendland in 1963. At the same time he was accredited as an ambassador to Mauritania between November 1960 and his replacement by Walter Schmid in May 1963 .

He then became the successor of Carl-Heinz Lüder's ambassador in Ghana on April 25, 1963 , with the rank of first-class legation councilor , but was replaced by Hans-Georg Steltzer in 1964 .

He himself was then appointed ambassador to the Republic of Congo on May 14, 1964 and remained in this post until his replacement by Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg in 1965. He then acted as permanent representative of the ambassador in Canada between 1965 and 1967 and resigned afterwards into retirement.

Reichhold then dealt with field studies in Senegal and Mauritania and in 1993 became an honorary member of the Association for African Studies in Germany (VAD).

Publications

  • The revision for procedural reasons in the Reich Criminal Procedure Code , Landau in der Pfalz 1927
  • The only party as the political institution of the new regime , translation by Mihail Manoilescu, Berlin 1941
  • French West Africa , Bonn 1958
  • Islamic Republic of Mauritania , Bonn 1964
  • The Senegal Current, the lifeline of three nations. An economic geographic study on the utilization of the Senegal River and its environment , Munich 1978, ISBN 3-8039-0163-4

literature

  • Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 3: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: L – R. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-506-71842-6 , pp. 599f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nazis in the FRG 18 , in: Nazis Braunbuch , online version, p. 357
  2. ↑ BONN / GUINEA: The elephant . In: Der Spiegel from March 16, 1960
  3. ↑ Philipp Rock: Power, Markets and Morals: on the role of human rights in the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany in the sixties and seventies , 2009, ISBN 3-631-59705-3
  4. ↑ Torben Gülstorff: The white man's burden? The Federal Republican Africa policy around 1960 between “moral responsibility” and “real interests” , fn. 133 with further references, October 2010
  5. ^ Occupation of German diplomatic missions abroad (cabinet minutes of June 10, 1960 in the Federal Archives )
  6. ^ Franz Ansprenger: Politics in Black Africa: The modern political movements in Africa with French characteristics , 2013, p. 9, ISBN 3-322-98464-8
  7. ↑ Series of pictures of the former ambassadors in Mauritania ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the homepage of the embassy in Nouakchott @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nouakchott.diplo.de
  8. ^ Occupation of German diplomatic missions abroad (cabinet minutes of May 2, 1963 in the Federal Archives )
  9. ↑ Horst Möller, Gregor Schöllgen, Andreas Wirsching: Files on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany 1963 , 1993, p. 1752, ISBN 3-486-71829-0
  10. ^ Occupation of German diplomatic missions abroad (Cabinet minutes of May 27, 1964 in the Federal Archives )
  11. ↑ Felix Brahm: 40 Years Association for African Studies in Germany (VAD), 1969–2009 , p. 15
personal data
SURNAME Reichhold, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reichhold, Walther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat and author
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Landau in the Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 2001
Place of death Speyer