Willy Noebel

Willy Eduard Noebel (born November 11, 1887 in Zittau ; † January 8, 1965 in Munich ) was a German diplomat , deployed in Bulgaria, Japan and Lima and an actor in the League of Nations.

Life

Willy Noebel was born in Zittau as the son of the physician Hermann Noebel and his wife Ida Wilhelmine nee Dederer. The upbringing in the parental home took place in accordance with the Evangelical Lutheran faith. He finished his school attendance in 1906 at the grammar school in Zittau with the Abitur. He then did his military service until the end of the year. In the same year he began to study law at the University of Freiburg / Breisgau and continued it in Munich and Leipzig. He passed his first state legal examination on June 12, 1909 and was employed as a trainee lawyer in the royal Saxon justice service from July. He submitted his doctoral thesis on the subject of "The blank endorsement when changing before expiry" to the University of Leipzig and graduated in 1910 as Dr. jur. from. He passed his assessor examination in 1914 and was then employed in the administrative service of various offices in Saxony. After the First World War and the disputes as a result of the post-war development, he worked as a government assistant from 1919, including as a representative of the local government in Auerbach in Vogtland. He then moved to the Saxon Ministry of the Interior in Dresden. Here he also met Ulrich Rauscher (1884–1930), who had worked as a press officer in the Foreign Office since 1920. In 1920 Noebel moved to Berlin, where he worked as the legation secretary in the Saxon legation in Prussia. His superior in Berlin was the chargé d'affaires of the embassy Walter Koch (1870–1947).

In the foreign service

In the following year, Willy Noebel began working in the Foreign Office on Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin on February 3. He was entrusted here in Department IX, Section A - General Conditions of Germans Abroad until 1923. From August 1921 he took over the management of the department and was appointed flying secretary of the legation on November 8th. In the autumn of 1923 he moved to Division II with responsibilities for Western and Southeastern Europe, in Division F - Disarmament. His first assignment abroad led him to take over the business in 1924 when a delegation councilor to Bulgaria Sofia was deployed. Ambassador to the German embassy in Sofia at this time was Eugen Rümelin (1880–1947). It was here that he was appointed Legation Council II class in 1926. Returning from Bulgaria with important experience of diplomatic work on site, he was deployed in the Foreign Office in 1927 as Head of Division in Section IV - responsible for Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and East Asia - in Section Po. He was responsible for the Poland and Gdansk areas . Here his relationship with Ulrich Rauscher, who had been deployed as envoy in Warsaw since 1922, was strengthened. Every year he visited the events of the League of Nations as a member of the German delegation . From 1928 onwards, Noebel took part in thematic meetings of the government cabinet and ministerial meetings that dealt with German-Polish issues. Among other things, for the preparation of the German-Polish trade treaty in 1928, on issues relating to minorities in 1929, and chaired the German-Polish talks on minority issues. During these years he took a very principled stance on the relationship between the two countries, which, in his opinion, should ostensibly be friendly. He shared this clear stance with Ulrich Rauscher, but often met with rejection from leading employees in his work environment. In 1931 Noebel was appointed representative of the Legation.

Immediately after Adolf Hitler came to power as Reich Chancellor in 1933, Willy Noebel belonged to the group of people in the Foreign Office who had not been accused of having taken a clear stance on National Socialism. And he had appeared several times through particularly loyal attitudes towards other population groups, Polish citizens and minorities. Therefore he was asked by the State Secretary in the Foreign Office Bernhard Wilhelm von Bülow (1885-1936) for a personal interview, the result of which was a transfer to a post in another country in order to keep him “out of the line of fire” extremely attuned executives of the Foreign Office.

In Japan

Immediately after the incumbent German ambassador to Japan Ernst Arthur Voretzsch (1868–1965) was retired, Willy Noebel took over his office in Tokyo . But this effort did not last long. In the fall of 1933, coming from Moscow ambassador was Herbert von Dirksen (1882-1955), the there under the conditions laid down came to power, Adolf Hitler and his provocative anti-Soviet hysteria no sphere of activity looked at this post for himself, as German ambassador to Japan used . Noebel remained as counselor in Tokyo. But here, too, the encroachments and interference by extreme representatives of the NSDAP, especially the party's foreign organization operating in Tokyo, increased more and more from 1934 onwards. For himself he drew personal conclusions from this and became a member of the NSDAP in 1935 . He found it particularly embarrassing how the legation secretary of the embassy Wilhelm Haas (1893–1981) was treated, whose wife was a Jew and who left the embassy in 1937 because of the associated humiliation. Noebel then changed country and embassy a year later.

In Peru

His journey took him to Peru in 1938 and Willi Noebel took over the office of outgoing ambassador Ernst Schmitt (1879–1948) here in Lima . When he arrived in Lima, he found a stable German community, mainly entrepreneurs from Germany. Establishing personal relationships with people of other regional origins was made easier for him, above all, because his wife, Inge Stein-Noebel (born in 1908) was a US citizen. Nevertheless, he quickly came into conflict with representatives of the NSDAP's foreign organization (NSDAP / AO). His relationship with the country manager of the AO for Peru, Carl Dedering, was shaped in a particularly negative way. Numerous attempts to interfere in the ambassador's responsibilities were prevented. Above all, Dedering's efforts were aimed at building a "fifth column" among the Germans living in Peru. On January 26, 1942, the embassy in Lima was closed because of the severance of diplomatic relations. Noebel was briefly interned in the USA before he was able to leave on April 14, 1942.

In Germany again

After his release, Willy Noebel was seconded to the German international broadcasting company Interradio AG from September 1942. This institution was subordinate to the Foreign Office and had its headquarters in Berlin-Wannsee. Their task consisted in gathering news for political, military and ideological propaganda, especially by listening to foreign stations and installing camouflaged radio stations in selected other countries. After a brief interlude in this extremely shielded area, he returned to the Foreign Office at the end of 1943. Here he worked in the special department for foreign policy information and from July 19, 1944 was appointed head of department in this area. Since the impending defeat of Germany in World War II was already becoming apparent at this time, and the structures created by the Nazi state were already showing signs of disintegration, the NSDAP, the security service of the SS and the Gestapo repeatedly carried out "cleansing operations" in certain areas and population groups carried out. As a result of such an action, Noebel was removed from office and removed from the Foreign Office in October 1944. From then on he lived without employment, as a private citizen. On May 5, 1945 he was captured by the Americans and was interned in the Ludwigsburg POW camp until 1946. After his release he took up residence in Kreuth, Upper Bavaria.

From here Willy Noebel moved to the USA and from 1951 worked for the Society for the Promotion of German-American Trade (GFDAH) in the US state of Texas. He headed the correspondence office in this organization based in Antonio. From April 25, 1955, he was employed in Dalles, Texas, USA as the German electoral consul. This assignment lasted until the beginning of 1961. In the same year he returned to Germany and took up residence in Munich.

Personal

Willy Noebel was married to the US citizen Inge Stein-Noebel (born 1908) since 1934. The marriage resulted in 3 children.

Willy Noebel died on January 8, 1965 in Munich.

literature

• Biographical sketch about Willy Noebel, Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945, ed. From the Foreign Office, Paderborn 2000, Volume 1, pp. 102ff.
• Foreign Office, Festschrift for the 125th anniversary of the Foreign Office, Bonn 1995
• Reinhardt bedding, on post. Memories from 50 years of German foreign policy, Munich 1997
• Biographical information and documents about Willy Noebel (Eduard Wilhelm) , files of the Reich Chancellery from 1919 to 1933.
• Conze, Frei, Haymes, Zimmermann, The Office and the Past, Karl Blessing Verlag, Munich 2010
• Documents, minutes and hearing minutes on the person of Willy Noebel , Institute for Contemporary History Munich, 1947.
• Hans Jürgen Döscher, The Foreign Office in the Third Reich, Berlin, 1987

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Biographical information and documents about Willy Noebel (Eduard Wilhelm) , files of the Reich Chancellery from 1919 to 1933.
2. ^ Biographical sketch of Willy Noebel, Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945, ed. From the Foreign Office, Paderborn 2000, Volume 1
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} documents, minutes and hearing minutes on the person of Willy Noebel , Institute for Contemporary History Munich, 1947.
4. ^ Roland G. Foerster: Operation Barbarossa. 1993 p. 28f.
5. ^ Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 1: Johannes Hürter: A – F. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2000, ISBN 3-506-71840-1 , Volume 1, pp. 102f.