Rolf Friedemann Pauls

Rolf Friedemann Pauls (26 August 1915 – 4 May 2002) was a German diplomat. He was the first ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Israel, from 1965 to 1968, and was German Ambassador to the United States from 1968 to 1973.

Rolf Pauls
West German Ambassador to NATO
In office
1976–1980
PresidentWalter Scheel
Karl Carstens
Preceded byFranz Krapf
Succeeded byHans-Georg Wieck
West German Ambassador to China
In office
1973–1976
PresidentGustav Heinemann
Walter Scheel
Preceded byHeinrich Röhreke
Succeeded byErwin Wickert
West German Ambassador to the United States
In office
1968–1973
PresidentHeinrich Lübke
Gustav Heinemann
Preceded byKarl Heinrich Knappstein
Succeeded byBerndt von Staden
West German Ambassador to Israel
In office
1965–1968
PresidentHeinrich Lübke
Preceded byNone
Succeeded byErwin Wickert
Personal details
Born(1915-08-26)26 August 1915
Eckartsberga, Germany
Died4 May 2002(2002-05-04) (aged 86)
Bonn, Germany
Civilian awardsKnight Commander's Cross
of the Order of Merit (1966)
Military service
Allegiance Germany
Branch/serviceGerman Army
Years of service1934–1945
RankMajor
Battles/warsWorld War II
Military awards Knight's Cross
Iron Cross 1st Class
Iron Cross 2nd Class

Life

Rolf Friedemann Pauls was born in 1915 in Eckartsberga the son of a Protestant clergyman. He graduated from the Naumburg Domgymnasium in 1934.

He was a career officer in the infantry of the Wehrmacht. Due to a serious injury, suffered as a company commander in Russia, he lost his left arm. Before he received a General Staff Officer Course, in 1942, he was the military attaché in Ankara, Turkey. In 1944, he was on the staff of the 363rd Volksgrenadier Division. In December 1944, Paul was awarded the Knight's Cross.

Pauls (right) speaking with Meyer Weisgal on the occasion of Konrad Adenauer's visit in Israel in 1966

According to a later report of General Hans Speidel, Rolf Friedemann Pauls was in the plans to assassinate Hitler on 20 July 1944, and was only on the basis of silence by others that he escaped arrest.[1]

After the end of World War II in 1946, he studied law, graduating with a doctorate on the political system of the Bonn Basic Law in 1949. Before Pauls began to act as a diplomat in the Foreign Service, he worked at the Federal Chancellery, at the junction of the Allied High Commission as a personal assistant to Walter Hallstein, State Secretary and Vice Consul in Luxembourg.

He was married twice and had two sons.

Ambassador

In establishing diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel (only about 20 years after the Shoah) of parts of Israeli society, and his inauguration on 19 August 1965, was accompanied by violent counter-demonstrations. In addition to that of Pauls because of his past as an officer of the armed forces of Nazi Germany in World War II, where he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, and as deputy military attaché at the German Embassy in Turkey, also during the period of National Socialism of the Israeli public appeared inappropriate for this office. But his three-year tenure as the first Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Israel was generally judged as successful.

Pauls was also Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United States from 1968 to 1973,[2] the People's Republic of China from 1973 to 1976, and to NATO from 1976 to 1980. From 1956 to 1960 he served as Counsellor in the United States, and from 1960 to 1963 he was Deputy Head of Mission in Greece. From 1963 to 1965, he was a department manager at the headquarters in Bonn.[3]

Works
  • Die atlantische Allianz: Zukunftsaufgaben, Möglichkeiten, Gefährdungen J.P.Bachem, 1982, ISBN 978-3-7616-0662-9
  • Rettet uns die Rüstungspolitik? Edition Interfrom, 1982, ISBN 978-3-7201-5152-8
  • Deutschlands Standort in der Welt: Beobachtungen eines Botschafters, Seewald Verlag, 1984, ISBN 978-3-512-00693-7
gollark: Seems entirely unrelated, thus confirming my impression that this is incomprehensible and poorly organized.
gollark: Hmm, this contains an actually sane-seeming and published-looking paper on crystal growth methods for some reason?
gollark: What even *is* this?
gollark: Why is there a folder labelled "Crystals" containing "NASA REPORTS"?
gollark: Also, morbid curiosity.

References
  1. "Group Captain Peter Drury Bird". The Times. 13 January 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  2. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v40/d5
  3. https://www.bundesarchiv.de/cocoon/barch/0000/z/z1961z/kap1_4/para2_12.html
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