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Ernst Werner Techow (12 October 1901 — 9 May 1945) was a German right-wing terrorist. In 1922, he took part in the assassination of the Foreign Minister of Germany Walther Rathenau. After his release from prison Techow initially joined the Nazi party, but soon fell out with the movement and dropped into obscurity. Late in World War II he joined the Volkssturm. He was killed after being captured by the Soviet Red Army near Dresden on May 9th, 1945. Legend has it that Techow changed his political beliefs after his release from prison, joined the French Foreign Legion under the name of "Tessier" and later embarked on helping Jews escape from occupied France. This completely unfounded narrative can be traced back to hearsay that American journalist George W. Herald had turned into a story for Harper's Magazine in 1943.

Early life

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Techow came from a distinguished magistrate's family in Berlin; his grandfather had been one of the heroes of the liberal revolution of 1848.[1] In 1918 Techow volunteered for the German navy. After the German revolution of November 1918 he came into contact with counter-revolutionary forces. He joined Marinebrigade Ehrhardt and participated in the Kapp Putsch. After the dissolution of the Free Corps he connected himself with the Organisation Consul, the secret follow organization of the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt. Like many of his comrades he was also a member of the the violently antisemitic Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund.[2]

Assassination of Walther Rathenau

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On June 24, 1922, two months after the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo, 1922, Rathenau was assassinated by two members of the Organisation Consul, Erwin Kern and Hermann Fischer. On that morning, he was driving from his house in Grunewald to the Foreign Office in the Wilhelmstraße, as he did nearly daily. During the trip his car was passed by another in which three men were sitting. While passing Kern shot Rathenau with a submachine gun and Fischer threw a hand grenade into the car, before Techow quickly drove them away.[3] A memorial stone in the Koenigsallee in Berlin-Grunewald marks the scene of the crime. Rathenau was fervently mourned in Germany. The news of his death lead to violent turmoil in the Reichstag and brought millions of Germans out on the streets in protest.[4]

Arrest and Trial

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Since a confidant bragged about the plot in public, the assassins were identified within days. Techow was turned in by relatives on June 29th. Kern and Fischer managed to escape their pursuers until they were cornered in the Thuringian castle Saaleck on July 17th. After Kern was killed by a stray bullet, Fischer took his own life. So at the murder trial in October 1922 Techow was the only defendant indicted for murder. He narrowly escaped capital punishment, when in a last-minute confession he convinced the court that he had acted under duress, as Kern threatened to kill him when he tried to withdraw from the murder plot. Thus he got away with 15 years in prison for accessory to murder. He also may have benefitted by a letter which had been written by Mathilde Rathenau, the victim's mother, to Techow's mother[5][6]:

In grief unspeakable, I give you my hand. You, of all women, the most pitiable. Say to your son that in the name and spirit of him who was murdered, I forgive, even as God may forgive, if before an earthly judge he makes a full and frank confession of his guilt, and before a heavenly one repent. Had he known my son, the noblest man earth bore, he had rather turn the weapon on himself than on him. May these words give peace to your soul....

Techow's sentence was reduced by an amnesty in 1928. Upon his release from prison in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt on January 7th, 1930 he was welcomed by delegations of the local chapters of the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten, the German National People's Party and the NSDAP.[7] Techow himself joined the Nazi party, the SA and the editorial staff of the Berlin Nazi newspaper Der Angriff in early 1931. Alienated by Hitler's politics he took part in the Stennes Revolt and was expelled from the party in April 1931. His last noted public appearance was in October 1933, when a monument for his fellow assassins Fischer und Kern was unveiled in Saaleck. In 1934 he published an apologetic pamphlet about Rathenau's assassination.[7]

During the following years Techow worked for the Deutsche Umsiedlungs-Treuhand-Gesellschaft.[8] In May 1941 he enlisted in the German navy. He was a war correspondent, until he was severely injured while the ship he was on was sunk in October 1942. Shortly before the end of the war he joined the Volkssturm. He was taken prisoner of war at the military training ground of Königsbrück near Dresden and allegedly killed by a Soviet soldier because of a misunderstanding. The certified date of his death is May 9th, 1945.[7]

The legend of "Tessier"

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In April 1943 the American journalist George W. Herald published the story "My favorite Assassin". He claimed to have met a captain of the French foreign legion with the name of Tessier in 1940. This captain, Herald claimed, turned out to be Ernst Werner Techow. He had been deeply moved by Mathilde Rathenau's letter, abtained from antisemitism and joined the French foreign legion.[9] In 1941, Herald further reported, Techow-Tessier helped save hundreds of Jews in Marseilles.[10]

Although this story was soon called into question because of its complete implausibleness, it took on a life of its own.[11] By reconstructing Techow's biography historian Martin Sabrow proved the story to be completely unfounded.[10]

Martin Sabrow (1998), "Die Tessier-Legende oder von der Güte der Klio", Die Macht der Mythen: Walther Rathenau im öffentlichen Gedächtnis: sechs Essays, Berlin: Das Arsenal, pp. 117–130, ISBN 978-3-931109-11-0, retrieved 27 July 2012


Assassination and aftermath

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Haus Rathenau (2008)

On June 24th, 1922, two months after the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo which renounced German territorial claims from WWI, Rathenau was assassinated. On this Saturday morning, Rathenau had himself chauffeured from his house in Grunewald to the Foreign Office in Wilhelmstraße. During the trip his NAG-Convertible was passed by a Mercedes-Touring car with Ernst Werner Techow behind the wheel and Erwin Kern and Hermann Fischer on the backseats. Whereas Kern opened fire with a MP 18-submachine gun at close range, killing Rathenau almost instantly, Fischer threw a hand grenade into the car before Techow quickly drove them away.[12] Also involved in the plot were Techow's younger brother Hans Gerd Techow, future writer Ernst von Salomon, and Willi Günther (aided and abetted by seven others, some of them schoolboys). All conspirators were members of the ultra-nationalist secret Organisation Consul (O.C.).[13] A memorial stone in the Koenigsallee in Berlin-Grunewald marks the scene of the crime.

Hermann Ehrhardt (left, sitting in the car) during the Kapp-Putsch in Berlin 1920.

Rathenau's assassination was but one in a row of terrorist attacks by the O.C.. Most sensational among them had been the assassination of former finance minister Matthias Erzberger in August 1921. While Fischer and Kern prepared their plot, former chancellor Philipp Scheidemann barely survived an attempt on his life by O. C. assassins on June 4th, 1922.[14] Historian Martin Sabrow points to Hermann Ehrhardt, the undisputed leader of the O.C., as the one who ordered the murders. Ehrhardt and his men believed that Rathenau's death would bring down the government and prompt the Left to act against the Weimar Republic, thereby provoking civil war, in which the O.C. would be called on for help by the Reichswehr. After an anticipated victory Ehrhardt hoped to establish an authoritarian regime or a military dictatorship. In order not to be completely delegitimized by the murder of Rathenau, Ehrhardt carefully looked to it, that no connections between him and the assassins could be detected. Thus although Fischer and Kern connected with the Berlin chapter of the O.C. to use its resources, they mainly acted on their own in planning and carrying out the murderous attack.[15]

State memorial ceremony with Rathenau's laid out coffin in the Reichstag, 27 June 1922.

The terrorists' hopes were in vain, however. Civil war did not come. Instead millions of Germans gathered on the streets to express their grief and to demonstrate against counter-revolutionary terrorism.[16] When the news of Rathenau's death became known in the Reichstag, the session turned into turmoil. DNVP-politician Karl Helfferich in particular became the target of attacks, because he had just recently uttered a vitriolic attack upon Rathenau.[16] During the official memorial ceremony the next day Chancellor Joseph Wirth from the Centre Party held a soon to be famous speech, in which, while pointing to the right side of the parliamentary floor, he used a well known formula by Philipp Scheidemann: "There is the enemy - and there is no doubt about it: This enemy is on the right!"[17]

The crime itself was soon cleared up. Willi Günther had bragged about his participation in public. After his arrest on June 26th he confessed to the crime without holding anything back. Hans Gerd Techow was arrested the following day, Ernst Werner Techow, who was visiting his uncle, three days later. Fischer and Kern, however, remained on the loose. After a daring flight, which kept Germany in suspense for more than two weeks, they were finally spotted at the castle of Saaleck in Thuringia, whose owner was himself a secret member of the O.C.. On July 17th they were confronted by two police detectives. While waiting for reinforcerments during the stand-off one of the detectives fired at a window, unknowingly killing Kern by a bullet in the head. Fischer then took his own life.[18]

Memorial service for Rathenau, June 1923

So when in October 1922 the crime was brought to court, Ernst Werner Techow was the only defendant charged with murder. Twelve more defendants were arraigned on various charges, among them Hans Gerd Techow and Ernst von Salomon, who had spied out Rathenau's habits and kept up contact with the O.C., as well as the commander of the O.C. in Western Germany, Karl Tillessen, a brother of Erzberger's assassin Heinrich Tillessen, and his adjutant Hartmut Plaas. The prosecution left aside the political implications of the plot, but focused upon the issue of antisemitism.[19] Ahead of his assassination Rathenau had indeed been the frequent target of vicious antisemitic attacks, and the assassins had also been members of the violently antisemitic Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund. But the defendants vigorously denied that they had killed Rathenau, because he was Jewish.[20] Neither was the prosecution able to fully uncover the involvement of the O.C. in the plot. Thus Tillessen and Plaas were only convicted of non-notification of a crime and sentenced to three and two years in prison, respectively. Salomon received five years imprisonment for accessory to murder. Ernst Werner Techow narrowly escaped the death penalty, because in a last-minute confession he managed to convince the court that he had only acted under the threat of death by Kern. Instead he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for accessory to murder.[19]

Unveiling of the first Commemorative Plaque at the scene of the crime in June 1929. Former chancellor Joseph Wirth and Defence Minister Wilhelm Groener in the first row

For the time being the reactions upon Rathenau's assassination strengthened the Weimar Republic. The most notable reaction was the enactment of the Republikschutzgesetz (Law for the Defense of the Republic) taking effect on July 22nd, 1922. The Deutschlandlied was made the German national anthem. As long as the Weimar Republic existed, the date June 24th remained a day of public commemorations. In public memory Rathenau's death increasingly appeared to be a martyr-like sacrifice for democracy.[21]

Things changed with the Nazi seizure of power. The Nazis systematically wiped out public commemoration of Rathenau by destroying monuments to him, closing the Walther-Rathenau-Museum in his former mansion, and renaming streets and schools dedicated to him. Instead a memorial plate to Kern and Fischer was solemnly unveiled at Saaleck castle in July 1933 and in October 1933 a monument was erected on the assassins' grave.[22]

References

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  1. ^ Martin Sabrow (1998), "Die Tessier-Legende oder von der Güte der Klio", Die Macht der Mythen: Walther Rathenau im öffentlichen Gedächtnis: sechs Essays, Berlin: Das Arsenal, p. 117, ISBN 978-3-931109-11-0, retrieved 27 July 2012
  2. ^ Martin Sabrow (1996), "Mord und Mythos. Das Komplott gegen Walther Rathenau 1922", in Alexander Demandt (ed.), Das Attentat in der Geschichte, Cologne: Böhlau, pp. 328, 334, ISBN 978-3-412-16795-0, retrieved 27 July 2012
  3. ^ Martin Sabrow (1996), "Mord und Mythos. Das Komplott gegen Walther Rathenau 1922", in Alexander Demandt (ed.), Das Attentat in der Geschichte, Cologne: Böhlau, pp. 321–322, ISBN 978-3-412-16795-0, retrieved 27 July 2012
  4. ^ Martin Sabrow (1996), "Mord und Mythos. Das Komplott gegen Walther Rathenau 1922", in Alexander Demandt (ed.), Das Attentat in der Geschichte, Cologne: Böhlau, p. 323, ISBN 978-3-412-16795-0, retrieved 27 July 2012
  5. ^ Martin Sabrow (1996), "Mord und Mythos. Das Komplott gegen Walther Rathenau 1922", in Alexander Demandt (ed.), Das Attentat in der Geschichte, Cologne: Böhlau, pp. 329–331, ISBN 978-3-412-16795-0, retrieved 27 July 2012
  6. ^ Theodore H. Wohl; Amiel Wohl (May 2005), He Really Had Something to Say: The Ideas of Rabbi Samuel Wohl : a Biographical Presentation and World Perspective of Scope and Compassion, KTAV Publishing House, Inc., p. 137, ISBN 978-0-88125-877-6, retrieved 27 July 2012
  7. ^ a b c Martin Sabrow (1996), "Mord und Mythos. Das Komplott gegen Walther Rathenau 1922", in Alexander Demandt (ed.), Das Attentat in der Geschichte, Cologne: Böhlau, p. 341, ISBN 978-3-412-16795-0, retrieved 27 July 2012
  8. ^ Martin Sabrow (1998), "Die Tessier-Legende oder von der Güte der Klio", Die Macht der Mythen: Walther Rathenau im öffentlichen Gedächtnis: sechs Essays, Berlin: Das Arsenal, p. 129, ISBN 978-3-931109-11-0, retrieved 27 July 2012
  9. ^ Martin Sabrow (1996), "Mord und Mythos. Das Komplott gegen Walther Rathenau 1922", in Alexander Demandt (ed.), Das Attentat in der Geschichte, Cologne: Böhlau, pp. 338–339, ISBN 978-3-412-16795-0, retrieved 27 July 2012
  10. ^ a b Martin Sabrow (1996), "Mord und Mythos. Das Komplott gegen Walther Rathenau 1922", in Alexander Demandt (ed.), Das Attentat in der Geschichte, Cologne: Böhlau, p. 340, ISBN 978-3-412-16795-0, retrieved 27 July 2012
  11. ^ Martin Sabrow (1998), "Die Tessier-Legende oder von der Güte der Klio", Die Macht der Mythen: Walther Rathenau im öffentlichen Gedächtnis: sechs Essays, Berlin: Das Arsenal, pp. 119–125, ISBN 978-3-931109-11-0, retrieved 27 July 2012
  12. ^ Martin Sabrow (1994), Der Rathenaumord. Rekonstruktion einer Verschwörung gegen die Republik von Weimar, Munich: Oldenbourg, pp. 86–88, ISBN 978-3-486-64569-9, retrieved 27 July 2012
  13. ^ Martin Sabrow (1994), Der Rathenaumord. Rekonstruktion einer Verschwörung gegen die Republik von Weimar, Munich: Oldenbourg, pp. 146–149, ISBN 978-3-486-64569-9, retrieved 27 July 2012
  14. ^ Martin Sabrow (1994), Der Rathenaumord. Rekonstruktion einer Verschwörung gegen die Republik von Weimar, Munich: Oldenbourg, p. 7, ISBN 978-3-486-64569-9, retrieved 27 July 2012
  15. ^ Martin Sabrow (1994), Der Rathenaumord. Rekonstruktion einer Verschwörung gegen die Republik von Weimar, Munich: Oldenbourg, pp. 149–151, ISBN 978-3-486-64569-9, retrieved 27 July 2012
  16. ^ a b Martin Sabrow (1996), "Mord und Mythos. Das Komplott gegen Walther Rathenau 1922", in Alexander Demandt (ed.), Das Attentat in der Geschichte, Cologne: Böhlau, pp. 323–324, ISBN 978-3-412-16795-0, retrieved 27 July 2012
  17. ^ Heinrich Küppers (1997), Joseph Wirth: Parlamentarier, Minister Und Kanzler Der Weimarer Republik, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, p. 189, ISBN 978-3-515-07012-6, retrieved 27 July 2012
  18. ^ Martin Sabrow (1994), Der Rathenaumord. Rekonstruktion einer Verschwörung gegen die Republik von Weimar, Munich: Oldenbourg, pp. 91–103, ISBN 978-3-486-64569-9, retrieved 27 July 2012
  19. ^ a b Martin Sabrow (1994), Der Rathenaumord. Rekonstruktion einer Verschwörung gegen die Republik von Weimar, Munich: Oldenbourg, pp. 103–112, 139–142, ISBN 978-3-486-64569-9, retrieved 27 July 2012
  20. ^ Martin Sabrow (1999), Die verdrängte Verschwörung: der Rathenau-Mord und die deutsche Gegenrevolution, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, p. 184, ISBN 978-3-596-14302-3, retrieved 28 July 2012; Martin Sabrow (1998), "Die Macht der Erinnerungspolitik", Die Macht der Mythen: Walther Rathenau im öffentlichen Gedächtnis: sechs Essays, Berlin: Das Arsenal, pp. 75–76, ISBN 978-3-931109-11-0, retrieved 28 July 2012
  21. ^ Martin Sabrow (1996), "Mord und Mythos. Das Komplott gegen Walther Rathenau 1922", in Alexander Demandt (ed.), Das Attentat in der Geschichte, Cologne: Böhlau, pp. 336–337, ISBN 978-3-412-16795-0, retrieved 27 July 2012
  22. ^ Martin Sabrow (1998), "Erstes Opfer des "Dritten Reichs"?", Die Macht der Mythen: Walther Rathenau im öffentlichen Gedächtnis: sechs Essays, Berlin: Das Arsenal, pp. 90–91, ISBN 978-3-931109-11-0, retrieved 28 July 2012
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