Ernst Achenbach (9 April 1909 – 2 December 1991) was a German lawyer, diplomat and politician of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), who served as a member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

(1957–1976), as a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(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 The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

prior to 1945 and served in the German Embassy in Paris during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, where he was responsible for rounding up 2,000 Jews as hostages.

Early life and World War II

Achenbach, a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

by faith, attended High School in

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 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, Emscher River (a tribu ...

. Subsequently, he studied law in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

and

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

. 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 Otto Friedrich Abetz (26 March 1903 – 5 May 1958) was a German diplomat, a Nazi official and a convicted war criminal during World War II. Abetz joined the Nazi Party and the SA in the early 1930s later becoming a member of the SS. Abetz pla ...

. 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 practices

From 1946, Achenbach worked as a lawyer in Essen, and defended both

Alexander von Falkenhausen Alexander Ernst Alfred Hermann Freiherr von Falkenhausen (29 October 187831 July 1966) was a German general and military advisor to Chiang Kai-shek. He was an important figure during the Sino-German cooperation to reform the Chinese army. In ...

and Eggert Reeder at their trial for war crimes in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

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, one of the leaders 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 organisation 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 Lisbo ...

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, served as its foreign affairs spokesman and was elected to the ''

Landtag A ''Landtag'' (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence ...

'' of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. He was considered the right hand of the FDP State Chairman Friedrich Middelhauve 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. Achenbach supported admitting former Nazis into the FDP and, together with Middelhauve, advocated a "National Collective" of all right wing parties. He was a close associate of

Werner Naumann Werner Naumann (16 June 1909 – 25 October 1982) was a German civil servant and politician. He was State Secretary in Joseph Goebbels' Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during the Nazi Germany era. He was appointed head of th ...

, the head of the

Naumann Circle The Naumann Circle (), also sometimes referred to as the Circle or the Naumann Affair, was an organization of former German adherents of the Nazi Party that was formed in the German Federal Republic (West Germany) several years after the end o ...

, a clandestine group of former Nazis who were actively infiltrating the FDP. After the organization was exposed and Naumann was arrested in January 1953, Achenbach served for a time as his attorney. In the aftermath, the national party leadership forced Achenbach to step down from his post as foreign affairs spokesman in April 1953, though an attempt to expel him from the party did not succeed. From 1953 to 1959 Achenbach was Chairman of the FDP Ruhr District Association and from 1970 to 1973 of the Ruhr District Association West. From 1957 to 1976 he was a member of the

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 or Portuguese surname 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'' ...

and

Serge Klarsfeld Serge Klarsfeld (born 17 September 1935) is a Romanian-born French activist and Nazi hunter known for documenting the Holocaust in order to establish the record and to enable the prosecution of war criminals. Since the 1960s, he has made notable ...

.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 The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

(1968) *

(1971)

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Achenbach, Ernst 1909 births 1991 deaths Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany German military personnel of World War II German Protestants Holocaust perpetrators in France Diplomats in the Nazi Party Lawyers in the Nazi Party Nazi Party politicians People from Siegen People from the Province of Westphalia Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany) 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 Members of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia MEPs for Germany 1958–1979 Naumann Circle members