No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Herbert Blankenhorn in the Third Reich
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 May 2009
Extract
The early career of Herbert Blankenhorn (1904–1991) illustrates important trends in the transition from Nazi Germany to the Federal Republic. During the 1930s and 1940s he served as a diplomat in the German Foreign Office and also joined the Nazi Party in 1938. After 1945 he would play a very public role in the creation of a new political culture in West Germany. Konrad Adenauer thought that the exceptional political sense of his young personal assistant, who also served as Secretary General of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the British Zone, helped him become chancellor of the Federal Republic in 1949. Through the mid-1950s Blankenhorn remained one of Adenauer's most intimate advisors, especially on matters concerning foreign policy. From late 1949 to mid-1950, he also oversaw the creation of what became the West German Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office), and thereafter he was the head of its Political Division and deputy to State Secretary Walter Hallstein until 1955. He went on to serve as West German ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (1955–1958), France (1958–1963), Italy (1963–1965), and the United Kingdom (1965–1970). After retiring from the diplomatic service in 1970, Blankenhorn functioned as the West German representative in the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Executive Council until 1976.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 2009
References
1 Ferdinand, Horst, “Herbert Blankenhorn,” in Baden-Württembergische Biographien, ed. Ottnad, Bernd (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1999), vol. 2, 48–54, here 49Google Scholar.
2 For two outstanding examples, see Herbert, Ulrich, Best. Biographische Studien über Radikalismus, Weltanschauung und Vernuft, 1903–1989 (Bonn: Dietz, 1996)Google Scholar, and Frei, Norbert, ed., Hitlers Eliten nach 1945 (Munich: DTV, 2003)Google Scholar.
3 Garner, Curt, “Public Service Personnel in West Germany in the 1950s: Controversial Policy Decisions and Their Effects on Social Composition, Gender Structure, and the Role of Former Nazis,” Journal of Social History 29, no. 1 (Fall 1995): 25–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also, however, Gassert, Philipp, Kurt Georg Kiesinger 1904–1988. Kanzler zwischen den Zeiten (Franfurt am Main: DVA, 2006)Google Scholar.
4 Hayse, Michael R., Recasting West German Elites: Higher Civil Servants, Business Leaders, and Physicians in Hesse Between Nazism and Democracy, 1945–1955, Monographs in German History (New York: Berghahn Books, 2003)Google Scholar; Lockenour, Jay, Soldiers as Citizens: Former Wehrmacht Officers in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1945–1955, Studies in War, Society, and the Military (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2002)Google Scholar; Wiesen, S. Jonathan, West German Industry and the Challenge of the Nazi Past, 1945–1955 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2001)Google Scholar; Wagner, Patrick, Hitlers Kriminalisten. Die deutsche Kriminalpolizei und der Nationalsozialismus zwischen 1920 und 1960 (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2002), 152–185Google Scholar; Searle, Alaric, Wehrmacht Generals, West German Society, and the Debate on Rearmament, 1949–1959 (Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2003)Google Scholar.
5 Döscher, Hans-Jürgen, Das Auswärtige Amt im Dritten Reich. Diplomatie im Schatten der “Endlösung” (Berlin: Siedler Verlag, 1987)Google Scholar, and Döscher, , Verschworene Gesellschaft. Das Auswärtiges Amt unter Adenauer zwischen Neubeginn und Kontinuität (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1995)Google Scholar.
6 Frei, Norbert, Vergangenheitspolitik. Die Anfänge der Bundesrepublik und die NS-Vergangenheit (Munich: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1996)Google Scholar.
7 Ramscheid, Birgit, Herbert Blankenhorn (1904–1991). Adenauers außenpolitischer Berater, Forschungen und Quellen zur Zeitgeschichte 49 (Düsseldorf: Droste, 2006)Google Scholar.
8 Ibid., 65.
9 Blankenhorn's personnel file in the Auswärtiges Amt will not be available for researchers until 2021. According to information kindly provided by Dr. Gerhard Keiper of the ministry's Politisches Archiv [hereafter cited as PA/AA] to the author on September 5, 2005, only his pay records (Besoldungsakten) survived an Allied bombing attack on Berlin in November 1943. Curiously, no substitute questionnaire (Fragebogen) is in his files, either (or in the microfilmed captured records of the German Foreign Ministry in the National Archives in Washington), even though the Auswärtiges Amt in 1944 had its employees fill one out to replace destroyed Personalakten.
10 Blankenhorn, Herbert, Verständnis und Verständigung. Blätter eines politischen Tagebuchs 1949–1979 (Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein, 1980), 30–43Google Scholar. Bundestag, Deutscher, Untersuchungsausschuß-47, Schriftlicher Bericht des Untersuchungsauschusses (47. Ausschuß) gemäß Antrag der Fraktion der SPD betreffend Prüfung, ob durch die Personalpolitik Mißstände im Auswärtigen Dienst eingetreten sind, June 18, 1952, 1Google Scholar. Wahlperiode 1949, Drucksache Nr. 3465, reprinted in Haas, Wilhelm, Beitrag zur Geschichte der Entstehung des Auswärtigen Dienstes der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Bonn: H. Köllen, 1969), 282–423Google Scholar, here 291–294. See also Ferdinand, “Herbert Blankenhorn,” 48–51, who relies heavily on these sources, and the entry for Blankenhorn in Maria Keipert and Peter Grupp, eds., Biographisches Handbuch des deutschen Auswärtigen Dienstes 1871–1945 (hereafter cited as Handbuch), vol. I (A-F), ed. Johannes Hürter, Martin Kröger, Rolf Messerschmidt, and Christiane Scheidemann (Paderborn: F. Schöningh, 2000), 173–175.
11 Schetter was commissioned by the ministry in late 1951 to review its personnel policy in response to a critical series of articles in the Frankfurter Rundschau authored by Michael Hinze-Mansfield. On the controversy surrounding the Auswärtiges Amt's personnel policy in 1951–52, see Döscher, Verschworene Gesellschaft, and Thomas W. Maulucci, Jr., “The Creation and Early History of the West German Foreign Office, 1945–1955” (Ph.D. diss, Yale University, 1998), 258–270.
12 Haas, Beitrag zur Geschichte, 294.
13 Blankenhorn, Verständnis, 38–41.
14 Rolf Pauls (Blankenhorn's personal assistant in the Foreign Office during the early 1950s), interview with the author, May 7, 1993, Bonn.
15 On the need to learn more, see Jarausch, Konrad H. and Geyer, Michael, Shattered Past: Reconstructing German Histories (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), 176Google Scholar.
16 Schwarz, Hans-Peter, Adenauer. Der Aufstieg, 1876–1952 (Stuttgart: DVA, 1986), 565–569Google Scholar, quotes 566, 569.
17 Thomas, Michael, Deutschland, England über alles. Rückkehr als Besatzungsoffizier (Berlin: Siedler, 1984), 183Google Scholar; Gerstenmaier, Eugen, Streit und Friede hat seine Zeit. Ein Lebensbericht (Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein, 1981), 294, 607Google Scholar.
18 Baring, Arnulf, Außenpolitik in Adenauers Kanzlerdemokratie. Bonns Beitrag zur Europäischen Verteidigungsgemeinschaft, Schriften des Forschungsinstituts der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik 28 (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1969), 15–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
19 Blankenhorn, Verständnis, 30–38; Ferdinand, “Herbert Blankenhorn,” 49–50; Keipert and Grupp, eds., Handbuch, vol. I, 174; Ramscheid, Herbert Blankenhorn, 25–36.
20 Herbert Blankenhorn, “Autobiography of Herbert Blankenhorn, German Diplomat and Attaché at German Embassy, Washington, from 1935 to 1939,” May 9, 1945, 9 pages, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, D.C., RG 56, FBI HQ: Investigative Reports, Classified Subject Files Released Under the Nazi and Japanese War Crimes Disclosure Acts, Classification 105: Foreign Counterintelligence, 105–7863-sec. 1 (Herbert Blankenhorn) (hereafter cited as Blankenhorn FBI files).
21 Ibid. See also “Vernehmungsniederschriften Dr. Schwarzmann und Blankenhorn” (Schetter investigation), October 4, 1951, PA/AA, NL Haas, vol. 1, 5 pages, here 3–5, and Theo Kordt's statement for Blankenhorn's de-Nazification, which claims that the Auswärtiges Amt's Personalabteilung defended Blankenhorn against Hildebrand's accusations; “Zeugnis des früheren Botschaftsrates in London Theodor Kordt,” May 4, 1946, Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Bestand 221-11 Staatskommissar für die Entnazifierung und Katagorizierung, Misc 5154: Blankenhorn, Herbert (geboren 15.12.1904).
22 NARA, Berlin Document Center Records.
23 Keipert and Grupp, eds., Handbuch, vol. I, 174.
24 The document is reprinted in Sahm, Ulrich, Rudolf von Scheliha, 1897–1942. Ein deutscher Diplomat gegen Hitler (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1990), 44–45Google Scholar.
25 “Vernehmungsniederschriften.”
26 Blankenhorn, “Autobiography”; Thomas, Deutschland, England über alles, 182.
27 Blankenhorn, “Autobiography.” On Scholz, see Döscher, Das Auswärtige Amt, 47, 141–144.
28 His membership number was 6,997,147. NARA, Berlin Document Center Records.
29 “Vernehmungsniederschriften”; Haas, Beitrag zur Geschichte, 291–292.
30 Blankenhorn, “Autobiography”; “Personaldaten Herbert Blankenhorn,” 1949, 2 pages, Stiftung-Bundeskanzler-Adenauer-Haus, Rhöndorf (StBKAH), 07.04.
31 “Daten aus dem Lebenslauf Blankenhorn,” apparently composed by Blankenhorn, Feb. 2, 1946, 1 page, and a five-page text entitled “Lebenslauf,” in Archiv für Christlich-Demokratische Politik, St. Augustin (ACDP), I-210 NL Eugen Gerstenmaier, vol. 35, 1; on Erich Blankenhorn, Ramscheid, Herbert Blankenhorn, 38.
32 Ferdinand, “Herbert Blankenhorn,” 51.
33 The U.S. State Department reached this conclusion after analyzing the captured German personnel files. Walter J. Mueller, Lucille M. Petterson, and John A. Conway, “Personnel Policy and Politics in the Foreign Office under the Third Reich,” 3 pages, enclosure one to HICOG (Frankfurt) report 672 to State Department, Aug. 31, 1951, NARA, RG 466, Records of the Executive Director, Security-Segregated General Records, 1949–52, 361.2 General 1949–1952. Jacobsen, Hans-Adolf, Nationalsozialistische Aussenpolitik 1933–1938 (Frankfurt am Main: A. Metzner, 1968), 465–477Google Scholar, confirms the increasing pressure exercised on the ministry after 1936.
34 Information provided to the author by Dr. Gerhard Keiper, PA/AA, September 2, 2005.
35 On his talks with Meyer in Washington, see Blankenhorn, “Autobiography,” and Blankenhorn, “Lebenslauf.” En route to Helsinki in August 1939, Blankenhorn spoke with his friend Kordt in London. Both men shared a gloomy view of “European crisis”; Blankenhorn, “Autobiography.”
36 MacDonogh, Giles, A Good German: A Biography of Adam von Trott zu Solz (Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, 1992), 276Google Scholar.
37 Blankenhorn, “Autobiography”; Blankenhorn, “Lebenslauf.”
38 Ramscheid, Herbert Blankenhorn, 45–46.
39 State Department (Stettinius) tel. 1595 to Robert Murphy/Paris, April 19, 1945, 1 page, NARA, RG 59, Decimal Lot File 862.00, 4–1945.
40 See Kurt Rheindorf's notes on Blankenhorn's BDC records in BA Koblenz, NL 263 Rheindorf, vol. 78, 123–124.
41 U.S. Congress, House Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States. Appendix—Part II: A Preliminary Digest and Report on the Un-American Activities of Various Nazi Organizations and Individuals in the United States, Including Diplomatic and Consular Agents of the German Government, 76 Congress, 3rd sess., 1940 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1940), 968–1382Google Scholar, here 977, 1035–36, 1131, 1264–1266.
42 Hans Thomsen to Dieckhoff, December 29, 1938, 3 pages, PA/AA, NL Dieckhoff, vol. 5, 004–007; Dieckhoff to Thomsen, January 16, 1939, 5 pages, ibid., 012–014.
43 Thomsen to Dieckhoff, July 28, 1939, 2 pages, ibid., 105–106.
44 Ramscheid, Herbert Blankenhorn, 42–43; Taschka, Sylvia, Diplomat ohne Eigenschaften? Die Karriere des Hans Heinrich Dieckhoff (1884–1952), Transatlantische Historische Studien 25 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2006), 162–191Google Scholar.
45 Thomas, Deutschland, England über alles, 182.
46 Herman Hoffman (Chairman) and James H. Sheldon (Administrative Chairman) to Harry S. Truman, December 5, 1949, 4 pages plus enclosures, NARA, RG 59, 740.00119 Control (Germany), 12–549.
47 John J. McCloy to Sheldon, March 25, 1952, 2 pages, NARA, RG 466, McCloy Classified General Records 1949–1952, D(52)769.
48 J. Edgar Hoover to John W. Ford (Director, Office of Security, State Department), May 18, 1953, 2 pages, Blankenhorn FBI files.
49 Heinz Krekeler, interview with the author, May 15, 1993, in Bad Salzuflen-Holzhausen.
50 Blankenhorn, Verständnis, 40–41; Blankenhorn, “Autobiography”; Keipert and Grupp, eds., Handbuch, vol. I, 174.
51 For this story, see Deutsch, Harold C., The Conspiracy Against Hitler in the Twilight War (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1968), 43–44Google Scholar, esp. footnote 8, and Klemperer, Klemens von, German Resistance Against Hitler: The Search for Allies Abroad, 1938–1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992)Google Scholar, 68 note 52, 268, 299 note 16.
52 N.a., “Report on Dr. Otto Koecher,” August 30, 1945, 3 pages, NARA, RG 59, Special Interrogation Mission to Germany, 1945–1946 (Poole) (Microfilm Publication 679), reel two, frames 380–382.
53 On Bibra, see Keipert and Grupp, eds., Handbuch, vol. I, 151–152, and Günther Lachmann, “Der Nationalsozialismus in der Schweiz, 1931–1945. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Auslandsorganisation der NSDAP” (Ph.D. diss., Free University of Berlin, 1962), 66–91 passim.
54 Blankenhorn, “Autobiography”; X-2 Branch, HQ and HQ Department, OSS, European Theater of Operations, “Interrogation of Mr. Blankenhorn, Attaché of the German Embassy in Washington, D.C.,” May 14, 1945 (the document is incorrectly dated March 14), 9 pages, Blankenhorn FBI files; Blankenhorn, “Lebenslauf.”
55 Sahm, Rudolf von Scheliha, 139.
56 “Zeugnis des früheren Botschaftsrates in London Theodor Kordt.”
57 See the correspondence from spring 1947 on Bibra's denazification in Institut für Zeitgeschichte, ED 157 NL Erich und Theo Kordt, vol. 6.
58 AA telegram 122/2 to Berne (signed Schroeder), Feb. 23, 1940, “Dienstanweisung für die Kulturreferenten bei den Deutschen Missionen im Ausland,” 5 pages, copy in PA/AA, Gesandtschaft Bern, vol. 3390.
59 See “Personal- und Gehaltliste der Informationsstelle in Bern,” 2 pages, enclosure to Köcher's Report A 1199, “Verzeichnis der Beamten und Angestellten des Kulturreferats,” Dec. 30, 1941, 1 page, ibid.
60 Köcher report 5630 to AA, “Kulturpropaganda in der Schweiz,” Nov. 26, 1940, 15 pages, PA/AA, Gesandtschaft Bern, vol. 3232.
61 Köcher report 5891 to AA, “Deutsche Propaganda in der Schweiz,” Dec. 21, 1940, 2 pages, PA/AA Gesandtschaft Bern, vol. 3231; Köcher report 5891/II to AA, “Deutsche Propaganda in der Schweiz,” Jan. 8, 1941, 1 page, ibid.
62 Köcher memo to Blankenhorn, April 1, 1941, 1 page, PA/AA, Gesandtschaft Bern, vol. 3533.
63 Blankenhorn, “Referat über die politische und kulturpolitische Lage in der Schweiz,” copy in PA/AA Gesandtschaft Bern, vol 3236; Köcher report 4765 to AA, “Propagandalage in der Schweiz,” Aug. 6, 1942, 7 pages, PA/AA, Gesandtschaft Bern, vol. 3390.
64 Karl Klingenfuß report Kult Nr. 1950/II to AA, “Kulturpolitische und auslands-informative Lage in der Schweiz,” Aug. 13, 1943, 41 pages, ibid.
65 Arber, Catherine, “Frontismus und Nationalsozialismus in der Stadt Bern. Viel Lärm, aber wenig Erfolg,” Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde 65, no. 1 (2003): 3–62Google Scholar.
66 “Aufstellung der zur Unterstützung der schweizerischen Nationalsozialisten vom Referat D III beantragten und bewilligten Gelder,” n.d., 2 pages, PA/AA, Inland II g, vol. 17 d. Ashton's Report D P 5 to the Foreign Office's Referat D III, April 5, 1941, 7 pages plus attachments, PA/AA, Gesandtschaft Bern, vol. 5818, 331062–331068, provides details on the Swiss “renewal” organizations he had contact with. Officer, Lawrence H., “Exchange Rate between the United States Dollar and Forty Other Countries, 1913–1999,” Economic History Services, EH.Net, 2002Google Scholar <www.eh.net/hmit/exchangerates/> (September 7, 2005); Sahr, Robert C., Inflation Conversion Factors for Years 1665 to Estimated 2015, 2005Google Scholar, <http://oregonstate.edu/Dept/pol_sci/fac/sahr/infcf16652007.pdf> (September 7, 2005).
67 Köcher to the Foreign Office, March 17, 1942, Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen Politik (ADAP) Series E: II (1. März bis 15. Juni 1942) (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1972), 77–79, quote 79; Köcher to the Foreign Office, September 1, 1942, ADAP Series E: III (16. Juni bis 30. September 1942) (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1974), 443–444.
68 See Weizsäcker's October 4, 1942, letter to Köcher, ADAP Series E: IV (1. Oktober bis 31. Dezember 1942) (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1975), 18–19, and Under State Secretary Ernst Woermann's November 26, 1942, memo responding to the proposals, ibid., 390–393.
69 See note two in Köcher's report to the Foreign Office, September 1, 1942, ADAP Series E: III, 444. In November 1942, Ashton was implicated in illegal German purchases of industrial diamonds from Swiss nationals. See MacQueen, Michael, “The Conversion of Looted Jewish Assets to Run the German War Machine,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 18, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 27–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 36–37.
70 Arber, “Frontismus und Nationalsozialismus,” 47.
71 See the materials in PA/AA, Inland II g, vol. 17d, including Aston's July 17, 1941, memo to AA Referat D III, 1 page.
72 Ashton report D P 5 to Referat D III, April 5, 1941, 7 pages plus attachments, PA/AA, Gesandtschaft Bern, vol. 5818.
73 AA report 5567 to Berne, April 29, 1942, PA/AA, Gesandtschaft Bern, vol. 3390.
74 See the memo “Kulturreferat,” n.d. but probably mid-1943, 1 page, ibid.
75 Köcher to the German missions in Switzerland, Jan. 13, 1943, ibid.
76 Arber, “Frontismus und Nationalsozialismus,” 46–47. On Klingenfuß, see Keiper, Gerhard and Kröger, Martin, eds., Handbuch, vol. II (G-K) (Paderborn: F. Schöningh, 2005), 556Google Scholar; and Browning, Christopher, The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office (New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers, 1977)Google Scholar.
77 Blankenhorn, “Autobiography.”
78 Drahterlaß Multex 633 from the Foreign Office (signed State Secretary Martin Luther) to Berne, August 18, 1941, 1 page, PA/AA, Gesandtschaft Bern, vol. 2909.
79 “Diktiertes Protokoll über die 31. Sitzung des 47. Ausschusses am 5. Mai 1952 (nachmittags),” initialed “Gu/Co,” May 5, 1952, 9 pages, Parlamentsarchiv des Deutschen Bundestages (Berlin), Deutscher Bundestag, 1. Wahlperiode, 47 Ausschuß, Untersuchungsausschuß zur Prüfung der Personalpolitik im Auswärtigen Amt (hereafter cited as Parlamentsarchiv, UA-47), 25–40 Sitzung, 21.4.52–8.10.52; Haas, Beitrag zur Geschichte, 292. In 1961 the German Democratic Republic would twist this episode to attack him. Its Foreign Ministry put out a book entitled From Ribbentrop to Adenauer that asserted “this secret inspection mission was aimed at organizing the looting of the occupied territories.” Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the German Democratic Republic, From Ribbentrop to Adenauer: A Documentation on the West German Foreign Office (Erfurt: Druckerei Fortschritt, 1961), 20.
80 Ramscheid, Herbert Blankenhorn, 56 ff.
81 Joschka Fischer, “Rede von Bundesaußenminister Fischer anlässlich der Gedenkveranstaltung zu Ehren von Fritz Kolbe (1900–1971),” September 9, 2004, <www.auswaertiges-amt.de/www/de/ausgabe_archiv?archiv_id=6111> (August 22, 2005). French journalist Delattre, Lucas, A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich: The Extraordinary Life of Fritz Kolbe, America's Most Important Spy in World War II, trans. Holoch, George A. Jr. (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005), 209–211Google Scholar, 221–224, 226–27, 282, 287–88, first raised these charges in 2003. Blasius, Rainer, “Ministerielle Erhebung. Das Auswärtige Amt gedenkt des Hitler-Gegners Fritz Kolbe,” Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung, Sept. 9, 2004Google Scholar, points out that there is no concrete evidence for these charges beyond testimony by one of Kolbe's associates. Brassel-Moser, Ruedi, “Das Schweizerhaus muss sauber sein.” Das Kriegsende 1945 im Baselgebiet, Quellen und Forschungen zu Geschichte und Landeskunde des Kantons Basel-Landschaft 69 (Liestal: Verlag des Kantons Basel-Landschaft, 1999), 101Google Scholar, 115–121, 150, 211, writes that in summer 1945, the Swiss public put tremendous pressure on the government to expel Köcher and other prominent representatives of fascist states in Switzerland.
82 Blankenhorn, “Daten”; Blankenhorn, “Lebenslauf”; “Vernehmungsniederschriften.”
83 Keipert and Grupp, eds., Handbuch, vol. I, 174; Blankenhorn, “Autobiography.”
84 ADAP Series E: VIII (1. Mai 1944 bis 8. Mai 1945) (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1979), 652.
85 Blankenhorn, “Autobiography”; “Lebenslauf”; Keipert and Grupp, eds., Handbuch, vol. I, 174.
86 X-2 Branch, OSS, “Interrogation”; “Vernehmungsniederschriften.”
87 Blankenhorn, “Daten”; Blankenhorn, “Lebenslauf.”
88 Blankenhorn, “Autobiography”; Blankenhorn, “Personaldaten.”
89 Blankenhorn, “Lebenslauf”; Blankenhorn, “Personaldaten.” In “Daten,” he claims that Ambassador Ulrich von Hassel, one of the conservative resistance's candidates to become foreign minister, told him of the pending assignment.
90 State Department (signed Green) tel. 2039 to Murphy (Paris), May 12, 1945, NARA, RG 59, Decimal Lot File 862.00, 5–1245. This seems to have been part of a much larger skeptical reaction in 1945 by American diplomatic and military circles against individuals identified by the OSS as participants in the German resistance. See Mauch, Christof, The Shadow War Against Hitler: The Covert Operations of America's Wartime Secret Intelligence Service (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 208–209Google Scholar.
91 X-2 Branch, OSS, “Interrogation.”
92 Sahm, Rudolf von Scheliha, 174–175.
93 Gerstenmaier, Streit und Friede, 294; see also his comments at the Rhöndorfer Gespräch of April 18, 1979, in Morsey, Rudolf, ed., Konrad Adenauer und die Gründung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Rhöndorfer Gespräche 3 (Stuttgart: Bessler Verlag, 1979), 41Google Scholar; “Kurzprotokoll der 31. Sitzung des Untersuchungsausschusses Nr. 47 am 5. Mai 1952,” signed Helmut Becker (chair), May 6, 1952, 4 pages, Parlamentsarchiv, UA-47, 25–40 Sitzung, 21.4.52–8.10.52.
94 He dated the start of these contacts variously from 1940, 1941, or 1942. Blankenhorn, “Autobiography”; Blankenhorn, “Lebenslauf”; Blankenhorn, “Personaldaten.” See also Klemperer, German Resistance, 68, note 52. Blankenhorn claims to have meet Trott and Haeften for the first time in Washington; Blankenhorn, “Lebenslauf.”
95 Blankenhorn, “Autobiography”; Blankenhorn, “Lebenslauf.”
96 H. Ehrenström and H. Schönfeld (secretaries, Section d'études, World Council of Churches, Geneva), “Gutachten,” May 1, 1946, 1 page, ACDP, I-210 NL Eugen Gerstenmaier, vol. 35, 1.
97 Quoted in Blankenhorn, “Autobiography”; see also Blankenhorn, “Lebenslauf.”
98 Blankenhorn, “Autobiography.” Gisevius, Hans Bernd, To the Bitter End, trans. Richard and Winstone, Clara (London: Jonathan Cape, 1948)Google Scholar, however, does not mention this channel.
99 X-2 Branch, OSS, “Interrogation.”
100 Blankenhorn, “Autobiography.”
101 Vassiltchikov, Marie, Berlin Diaries 1940–1945, reprint edition (New York: Vintage, 1988), 181Google Scholar. On the problems with this source, see Turner, Henry A. Jr., “Two Dubious Third Reich Diaries,” Central European History 33, no. 3 (2000): 415–422CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
102 SD report of September 5, 1944, on the July 20 movement, in Jacobsen, Hans-Adolf, ed., “Spiegelbild einer Verschwörung.” Die Opposition gegen Hitler und der Staatsstreich vom 20. July 1944 in der SD-Berichterstattung. Geheime Dokumente aus dem ehemaligen Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Stuttgart: Seewald Verlag, 1984), vol. I, 350–356Google Scholar, here 356.
103 MacDonogh, A Good German, quote 272.
104 On Krummhübel, see Bloch, Michael, Ribbentrop (London: Abacus, 1992), 425Google Scholar.
105 Ramscheid, Herbert Blankenhorn, 66–67.
106 See the materials in PA/AA, Protokoll, vols. R 119144 and R 119153a.
107 On his career through 1952, see Haas, Beitrag zur Geschichte, 319–320.
108 “Stenographisches Protokoll über die 11. Sitzung des 47. Ausschusses am 22. Februar 1952,” signed “Dr. Gü/L,” February 22, 1952, 47 pages, Parlamentsarchiv, UA-47, 7.–11. Sitzung, 14.2.52–22.2.52, here 37.
109 Wilhelm Melchers, “Darstellung der Teilnahme von Dr. Melchers an der Widerstandsbewegung,” February 28, 1946, attachment 2/XIV to UA-47's report, in Haas, Beitrag zur Geschichte, 388–408, here 403.
110 Blankenhorn, “Autobiography.”
111 Melchers, “Darstellung,” 405–406; “Stenographisches Protokoll über die 11. Sitzung des 47. Ausschusses,” 40.
112 “Kurzprotokoll der 31. Sitzung des Untersuchungsausschusses Nr. 47 am 5. Mai 1952,” here 3.
113 Blankenhorn, Verständnis, 42.
114 British Liaison Staff of Zonal Advisory Commission, Special Branch, “Fragebogen/Action Sheet,” January 8, 1947, Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Bestand 221–11 Staatskommissar für die Entnazifizierung und Katagorizierung, Misc 5154: Blankenhorn, Herbert (geboren 15.12.1904).
115 Blankenhorn, Verständnis, 42–43, quote 43.
116 Adenauer to Günther Gereke, January 26, 1948, in Adenauer, Konrad, Briefe 1945–1949, ed. Mensing, Hans-Peter, Ausgabe, Rhöndorfer, ed. Rudolf Morsey and Hans-Peter Schwarz (Berlin: Siedler, 1984), 160–161Google Scholar.
117 Hoffmann, Peter, The History of the German Resistance 1933–1945, 3rd English ed., trans. Barry, Richard (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996), 54Google Scholar.
118 Vassiltchikov, Berlin Diaries, 141.
119 X-2 Branch, OSS, “Interrogation,” 6–8.
120 On the views of Blankenhorn's colleagues through 1950, see Maulucci, “The West German Foreign Office,” 368–372.
121 On the “rewriting of curriculum vitae” in postwar Germany, see Jarausch and Geyer, Shattered Past, 355–356.
122 Hayse, Recasting West German Elites, 250.
123 X-2 Branch, OSS, “Interrogation.”
124 Blankenhorn, Verständnis, 597.
125 Jarausch and Geyer, Shattered Past, 354.