Ernst Achenbach
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Ernst Achenbach (9 April 1909, in Siegen, Westphalia – 2 December 1991, in
Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...
) was a German lawyer, diplomat and politician of the liberal
Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party is the name of several political parties around the world. It usually designates a party ideologically based on liberalism. Current parties with that name include: *Free Democratic Party (Germany), a liberal political party in ...
(FDP), who served as a member of the Bundestag (1957–1976), as a Member of the European Parliament (1964–1977), as Vice Chairman of FDP (1971–1972) and as Vice President of the Liberal group in the European Parliament. Achenbach was a member of the Nazi Party prior to 1945 and served in the German Embassy in Paris during World War II, where he was responsible for rounding up 2,000 Jews as hostages.


Early life and World War II

Achenbach, a Protestant by faith, attended High School in
Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it lies ...
. Subsequently, he studied law in Paris, Berlin, Hamburg and Bonn. After the first state examination in 1931, he pursued further studies and graduated in 1936, and began working as Managing Director of the Adolf Hitler Fund, involved with the collection of donations. He became a formal member of the Nazi party in 1937. Achenbach joined the German foreign service in 1939 and served at the German Embassy in Paris. During the German occupation of France (1940–1944), he was from June 1940 to May 1943, head of the embassy's Political Department, and a close collaborator of German ambassador
Otto Abetz Heinrich Otto Abetz (26 March 1903 – 5 May 1958) was the German ambassador to Vichy France during the Second World War and a convicted war criminal. In July 1949 he was sentenced to twenty years' hard labour by a Paris military tribunal, he was ...
. In that framework, Achenbach was also responsible for implementing the deportation of the Jews. In 1944/45 he was a soldier and after the war he led American investigators to believe that the German embassy in France had been a stronghold of the conspiracy against Hitler.


Post-war


Law practics

From 1946, Achenbach worked as a lawyer in Essen, and successfully defended both Alexander von Falkenhausen and
Eggert Reeder SS-'' Gruppenführer'' Eggert Reeder (22 July 1894, Poppenbüll – 22 November 1959, Wuppertal) was a German jurist, civil servant, and district president of several regions. Reeder served as civilian administrator of Wehrmacht occupied B ...
at their trial for war crimes in Belgium in 1951. In the early 1950s, Achenbach advocated for the amnesty of the German war criminals. Towards this goal, in 1951, he organized a lobby group which employed Werner Best, former deputy chief of the SD, and
Franz Six Franz Alfred Six (12 August 1909 – 9 July 1975) was a Nazi official, promoter of the Holocaust and convicted war criminal. He was appointed by Reinhard Heydrich to head department Amt VII, Written Records of the Reich Security Main Office ( ...
, one of the leader of mobile killing units in the Soviet Union and a convicted war criminal. These activities led to a scandal in 1970 when he initially failed to make it as a Commissioner in the
European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...
because of public pressure. In 1974, Achenbach's involvement in the Holocaust became public knowledge and he was forced to resign from this position.


Political career

After the war, Achenbach joined the Free Democratic Party, and served as a foreign affairs spokesman until April 1953. Within the FDP in North Rhine-Westphalia, he was considered the right hand of the State Chairman
Friedrich Middelhauve Friedrich Middelhauve (17 November 1896 – 14 July 1966) was a German publisher and a politician of the Free Democratic Party (Germany), Free Democratic Party (FDP). From 1947 until 1956 he served as FDP state chairman for North Rhine-Westphali ...
and was responsible for fundraising from industry donations. He was assisted by his contacts from his time as CEO of the Foundation Adolf Hitler Fund, including Hugo Stinnes, Jr., Heinz Wilke,
Wolfgang Diewerge Wolfgang Diewerge (12 January 1906 in Szczecin, Stettin – 4 December 1977 in Essen) was a Nazi propagandist in Joseph Goebbels, Joseph Goebbels' Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Reich Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and P ...
, etc., all of whom were former Nazis. From 1953 to 1959 he was Chairman of the FDP Ruhr District Association and from 1970 to 1973 of the Ruhr District Association West. He also belonged for several years to the Landtag of the North Rhine-Westphalia. From 1957 to 1976 he was a member of the Bundestag and from December 7, 1971 to 1972, Achenbach served as Vice Chairman of the FDP. Throughout much of the 1960s and 1970s he was involved in foreign policy and defense. From 1969 to 1974 for instance he was Chairman of the Committee on Relations with African Countries and Madagascar, and then until 1976, a member of the Committee on Development and Cooperation. As an active member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag until 1976, he was responsible for the Franco-German Supplementary Agreement to Transition signed in 1971, and successfully prevented its ratification until 1974 when he was discredited by the campaigns of
Beate Beata or Beate is a female given name that occurs in several cultures and languages, including Italian, German, Polish, and Swedish, and which is derived from the Latin ''beatus'', meaning " blessed".''Behind the Name''"Given Name Beate" Retrie ...
and Serge Klarsfeld.Moisel, Claudia (2013). Frankreich und die deutschen Kriegsverbrecher : Politik und Praxis der Strafverfolgung nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag. pp. 224-226


Honours

* Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1968) * Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1971)


References


Citations


Bibliography

*


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Achenbach, Ernst 1909 births 1991 deaths People from Siegen People from the Province of Westphalia German Protestants Nazi Party politicians Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Bundestag 1972–1976 Members of the Bundestag 1969–1972 Members of the Bundestag 1965–1969 Members of the Bundestag 1961–1965 Members of the Bundestag 1957–1961 Holocaust perpetrators in France Lawyers in the Nazi Party Members of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia 20th-century German lawyers Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany) German military personnel of World War II