Wilhelm Knothe (diplomat)

Wilhelm Knothe (* 13 December 1883 in Marshall Hagen / Holtheim ; † 15. April 1963 in Baden-Baden ) was a German diplomat in the Nazi era .

Life

After attending the commercial school in Cologne , Knothe completed a commercial apprenticeship at the savings and loan bank in Cologne and became a commercial employee. From 1907 he was employed in the Foreign Service with administrative activities at the Consulate General in Antwerp , in Valona , Durazzo and, during the First World War, in Sofia . In 1920 he left the Foreign Service and was an independent businessman in Sofia until 1934. On May 1, 1933, he joined the NSDAP . From 1935 Knothe worked for Joseph Goebbels in the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (RMVP) and became Reich Commissioner for Film in the Balkans in the “Islamic World Department” . Knothe was promoted to senior government councilor in 1938 and in 1941 delegated to Cautio Treuhand GmbH as ministerial advisor .

On January 26, 1942, Knothe was reassigned to the diplomatic service with the rank of consul general and in February was transferred to the German embassy in Paris , initially under Gerhard Krüger , then under his successor Werner Gerlach . There he was supposed to transfer the propaganda activities from the responsibility of the propaganda squadron Paris of the military commander in chief West to the cultural department of the embassy and to preserve the influence of the RMVP. He was responsible for the propaganda in the fields of film, theater, music, exhibitions, literature, radio, lectures and record archives. Alfred Greven , who headed the French production company Continental Films SA in France , suspected his activity because of the delimitation of competencies . Knothe became vice-president of the Franco-German newsreel company France Actualités on May 4, 1942 .

In 1944, Knothe was briefly assigned to the special representative of the AA for the south-east in Belgrade and Skopje .

Nothing is known about his denazification after the end of the war.

literature

• Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 2: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: G – K. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2005, ISBN 3-506-71841-X .
• Kathrin Engel, German cultural policy in occupied Paris 1940-1944: Film and Theater , Munich: Oldenbourg 2003, ISBN 3-486-56739-X Google Books

Individual evidence

1. ^ Kathrin Engel, German cultural policy in occupied Paris 1940-1944: Film and Theater , Munich 2003, pp. 128, 134.