Theodor Kordt ( German: Theodor Kordt ; October 8, 1893 , Düsseldorf - January 27, 1962 , Bad Godesberg ) - German diplomat in the Third Reich and German ambassador to Greece .
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Biography
Theodor Kordt studied at the gymnasium in Dusseldorf and continued his education in 1912. In 1914-1920, Kordt was in military service, rising to the rank of lieutenant , in 1921 he passed the state exam for law and defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Bonn . In December 1921 he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . Trained in Naples and Bern , then in 1931 he worked in Berlin , and in 1934 - in Athens . In March 1938, he was an adviser to Ambassador Dirksen in London . On August 1, 1939, he joined the NSDAP . During World War II, he served at the German Embassy in Bern and returned to his homeland in May 1946.
On September 6, 1938, Theodore Kordt held a secret meeting with British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax , in which he announced the possibility of a coup in Germany in the event of a German attack on Czechoslovakia . Theodor Kordt was commissioned by State Secretary Ernst von Weizsacker and his own brother Erich Kordt , who in turn represented the circle of military leaders led by Hans Oster . British diplomats did not take into account this streamlined information and chose to resolve the situation around the Sudetenland with the help of a policy of conciliation in the Munich Agreement . Before the outbreak of World War II , the Kordt brothers made several more attempts, while transmitting information about successfully advancing negotiations on a German-Soviet non-aggression pact , but did not find understanding with Robert Wansitart . In 1948, he also expressed doubts about the seriousness of the conspiratorial intentions of the faithful members of the NSDAP and the SS , which in the next six years did not manifest themselves in any way in the Resistance movement .
In 1947, Kordt was invited to teach international law at the University of Bonn . In July 1948, he witnessed the defense of Ernst von Weizsacker in the trial of the Wilhelmstrasse in Nuremberg . There is no information about the denazification of Kordt. In August 1948, Kordt took part in the work of the constitutional commission on Herreninsel as the authorized state of North Rhine-Westphalia .
In May 1950, Kordt returned to the foreign policy service under the Office of the Federal Chancellor and headed the 3rd department of countries in the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, while keeping silent about his membership in the NSDAP. On November 23, 1953, Theodor Kordt was appointed Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Athens and retired in 1958.
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Literature
- Kordt, Theodor . In: Wilhelm Kosch: Biographisches Staatshandbuch. Lexikon der Politik, Presse und Publizistik . Fortgeführt von Eugen Kuri. Zweiter Band. A. Francke Verlag, Bern und München 1963, S. 693.
- Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographisches Handbuch des deutschen Auswärtigen Dienstes 1871-1945. Herausgegeben vom Auswärtigen Amt, Historischer Dienst. Band 2: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: GK. Schöningh, Paderborn ua 2005, ISBN 3-506-71841-X .
- Eckart Conze, Norbert Frei, Peter Hayes, Moshe Zimmermann: Das Amt und die Vergangenheit. Deutsche Diplomaten im Dritten Reich und in der Bundesrepublik , Karl Blessing Verlag, München 2010, ISBN 978-3-89667-430-2 .
- Erich Kordt, Nicht aus den Akten ...: Die Wilhelmstraße in Frieden und Krieg. Erlebnisse, Begegnungen und Eindrücke 1928-1945 , Stuttgart: Union 1950.