Carl Jacob Burckhardt

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Carl Jacob Burckhardt (September 10, 1891 – March 3, 1974) was a Swiss diplomat and historian. His career alternated between periods of academic historical research and diplomatic postings; the most prominent of the latter were League of Nations High Commissioner for the Free City of Danzig (1937–39) and President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (1945–48). While serving as High Commissioner for Danzig, Burckhardt sought to avoid escalation of tensions between Nazi Germany and Poland into open military conflict. Unlike his predecessor, who had been removed as High Commissioner at Germany's insistence because he sought to protect Danzig's Jewish community, Burckhardt tried to cultivate relations with the "moderate" Nazi leaders of Danzig while blaming the Polish government for taking too uncompromising a stand against German demands that Danzig be returned to Germany. Those efforts, which had reflected the attitudes of the League, the United Kingdom and France, failed with Germany's invasion of Poland and seizure of Danzig on 1 September 1939. Burckhardt fled Danzig after being told by the Nazi Gauleiter for Danzig that he would be executed if he did not. Burckhardt was a Germanophile with a visceral hatred of Bolshevism. Under his leadership following World War…Citește mai mult

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Historian Burckhardt was born in Basel to Carl Christoph Burckhardt, a member of the patrician Burckhardt family, and attended gymnasium in Basel and Glarisegg (in Steckborn). He subsequently studied at the universities of Basel, Zürich, Munich, and Göttingen, being particularly influenced by professors Ernst Gagliardi and Heinrich Wölfflin. He gained his first diplomatic experience in the Swiss legation in Austria from 1918 to 1922, a chaotic period following the collapse of Austria-Hungary. While there, he became acquainted with Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Burckhardt earned his doctorate in 1922, and then accepted an appointment with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which posted him to Asia Minor, where he assisted in the resettlement of Greeks expelled from Turkey following Greece's 1922 defeat. He subsequently returned to Switzerland to pursue an academic career. In 1926, he married Marie-Elisabeth de Reynold (1906–1989), a daughter of Swiss writer, historian, and right-wing political activist Gonzague de Reynold (1880–1970). One year later he was appointed Privatdozent at the University of Zurich and in 1929 extraordinary professor of contemporary history. From 1932 to 1937 he was ordinary professor at the recently created Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. While there, he published in 1935 the…Citește mai mult

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Background to appointment Burckhardt returned to a diplomatic career in 1937, serving as the final League of Nations High Commissioner for the Free City of Danzig from 1937 to 1939. In that position, he aimed to maintain the international status of Danzig guaranteed by the League of Nations, which brought him into contact with a number of prominent Nazis as he attempted to stave off increasing German demands. The precise legal status of Danzig in the interwar era was, as the American historian Elizabeth Clark has noted, ambiguous: "...few experts, whether Polish, French or German, agreed on a legal description of the city, whether it was a sovereign state, a state without sovereignty, a Polish protectorate or a League of Nations protectorate". The Free City had some of the markers of sovereignty, such as its own police force, national anthem, flag, currency and stamps, but the Polish government had been granted certain rights in Danzig, such as control of the customs service and the right to represent the Free City of Danzig abroad. The Treaty of Versailles declared the Free City to be a demilitarized zone, but made an exception by allowing the Polish Army to maintain a Military Transit…Citește mai mult

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Arrival in Danzig Before leaving to take up his new post as High Commissioner, Burkhardt met with the Secretary-General Joseph Avenol, the British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, and the French Foreign Minister Yvon Delbos, who all told him that they did not want a repeat of Lester's conflict with the Danzig Nazis. The Polish Foreign Minister, Colonel Józef Beck—one of the leaders of the triumvirate that ran the Sanation military dictatorship—saw Germany and the Soviet Union as potential threats, but of the two the Soviet Union was considered to be "the enemy" with which no understanding was possible while Nazi Germany was seen as a potential ally against the Soviet Union. The Polish historian Anita Pražmowaska wrote: "It was unfortunate that the Polish government concluded that the best way forward was to continue building stronger links with Germany while trying to reduce—what Beck considered to be—the League's irksome interference in Danzig". Upon first meeting Colonel Beck, Burchkhardt was informed in no uncertain terms that Poland wanted better relations with Germany as a potential ally against the Soviet Union and that Burckhardt should expect no help from Poland if he should come into conflict with the Danzig Nazis in the same…Citește mai mult

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First crises Burckhardt's first major crisis occurred with the murder of Hans Wiechmann, the leader of the Danzig Social Democratic Party, by the Nazis. The fact that the trail of evidence for the responsibility for Wiechmann's murder led to Forster made for highly difficult relations as Burckhardt had to find various excuses for not ordering the arrest of Forster, which would have provoked a major incident with Germany. The fact that Forster kept pressing to change the flag of the Free City along with plans to introduce anti-Semitic laws made for further difficulties. Upon first meeting him in March 1937, Forster greeted Burckhardt by saying: "So, you're the representative of that Jewish-Masonic talking shop in Geneva!" Foster told Burckhardt in April 1937 that he planned to introduce the Nuremberg Laws into the Free City, which would violate the Danzig constitution. The World Jewish Congress had complained to the League of Nations that Forster's plans were a violation of the Danzig constitution, which Burckhardt as League High Commissioner had a duty to uphold. In a report to the League Council, Burckhardt stated that he was attempting to solve the problem in a "realistic" way by negotiating and lashed out at the…Citește mai mult

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Reaction to Nazi laws In February 1938, Burckhardt's hopes were raised when Baron Ernst von Weizsäcker was appointed the State-Secretary at the Auswärtiges Amt. Weizsäcker had been the long-time German minister-plenipotentiary to Switzerland and was an old friend of Burckhardt, whose views were very close to his own. Burckhardt saw Weizsäcker as a moderating force who would secure the restoration of Germany as a great power without a world war. As the Sudetenland crisis gathered pace in 1938, Hitler wished to maintain good relations with Poland. In July 1938, Burckhardt secured a triumph when Hitler finally ordered Foster to cease his plans to change the flag of the Free City, which Burckhardt believed was due to pressure from himself. In August 1938, Alfred Duff Cooper, the First Lord of the Admiralty, visited Danzig, where he met with Burckhardt. Burckhardt described himself as "a ghost representing the League of Nations", but told Cooper that he had "grown most optimistic and is beginning to believe that the Nazi regime will come to a good end". Burckhardt concluded "it is possible that gradually the more violent and dangerous elements in the [Nazi] Party might be eliminated and give way to more modest and…Citește mai mult

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Involvement in Nazi factionalism In December 1938, Burchkhardt found himself caught up in the Nazi infighting as Erich Koch, the gauleiter of East Prussia, told him in a meeting in the antechamber of the Auswärtiges Amt that there was a "radical" group of Nazis that consisted of Forster along with the Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Reichsführer-SS Henrich Himmler, the Propaganda minister Josef Goebbels, and SS Gruppenführer Hermann Behrends who were pressing for war against Poland. Opposed to the "radical" group were a "moderate" group of Nazis led by Hermann Göring of the Four Year Plan Organisation who wanted Germany to be a greater power, but not at the price of causing a world war. Koch told Burckhardt: "We need the Poles, they need us. Göring will support you since you have arrived to calm the lunatics...an European war would be the end of everything, a madness. Colonies, what nonsense!...You will see how difficult it is to create animosity against the British; these are criminals who influence the Führer in this direction...never an European war, never! It is against Asia that one must fight!" Göring and his ally Koch favored a "large solution" to the Danzig question under which…Citește mai mult

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Conflicts with British diplomats In early 1939, Burckhardt came into conflict with Gerald Shepherd, the new British Consul-General in Danzig. Shepherd complained that the Jewish community of the Free City was being subjected to increasingly severe persecution, and that Burckhardt's role was limited to making protests. During the Danzig crisis, Shepherd became convinced that Germany was aiming to start a war with Poland. Burckhardt for his part in his reports to the British delegation at the League of Nations painted Shepherd as a man suffering from mental health problems, and stated that Shephard's personal dislike of Nazism had led to take an unduly grim view of German foreign policy. Contra Shepherd, Burckhardt argued that Hitler did not want a war with Poland, and that his goals were limited to securing the peaceful return of Danzig to Germany. The British Foreign Office and the prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, tended to put more faith in Burckhardt's reports than in Shepherd's. In January 1939, Burckhardt told the British diplomat Roger Makins that he believed that "Hitler was guided by the prejudices of a middle class Austrian". Burckhardt argued that Hitler as an Austrian was a Polonophile under the grounds that King Jan Sobieski…Citește mai mult

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Heated meeting with Ribbentrop After visiting Warsaw and Berlin, Burckhardt met with Matkins to present his assessment of the Danzig crisis. Burckhardt stated that he trusted Weizsäcker, and that Weizsäcker had told him that Hitler would take no action against Poland until after the annual Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, which occurred every September. Burckhardt stated that, based upon his contacts in Berlin and Warsaw, he believed that neither side wanted to see the Danzig crisis escalate into war. However, Burckhardt went on to say that the Sanation military dictatorship in Poland was unpopular, and the Sanation regime might be overthrown if its prestige was damaged too much in the crisis. Burckhardt depicted the Polish people as the primary problem in the crisis, saying that during his visit to Warsaw he had "detected certain symptoms of Polish imperialism and formed the impression that Polish aims were of a wide scope." The Foreign Office wrote that Burckhardt had strong prejudices against the Poles, but stated it did not affect his "impartiality". Per the request of Colonel Beck, Burkhardt visited Berlin where he met Ribbentrop. The Burckhardt-Ribbentrop meeting was described as "heated" as Ribbentrop tried to bully Burckhardt. Burckhardt was normally described…Citește mai mult

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Final mediations On 3 June 1939, Greiser handed a note to the Polish high commissioner to Danzig, Marian Chodacki, accusing the Polish customs inspectors of "bad behavior" and asked for all of the Polish customs inspectors to leave the Free City forever, a demand that was rejected by the Poles. As usual, Burckhardt, as the High Commissioner, was called upon to mediate the dispute. Later in June 1939, Burckhardt complained that Nazi "extremists" were trying to provoke the Poles, complaining that the "Week of German Culture" launched in the last week of June 1939 was intentionally outrageous. The "Week of German Culture" was intended to emphasise the German character of Danzig and some of the claims made during the Week of German Culture, such as that Danzig had never been the Polish city of Gdańsk and always been Danzig, were considered highly offensive in Poland. Dr. Josef Geobbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda was the guest of honor for the Week of German Culture. In his speech at the conclusion of the Week of German Culture, Goebbels stated that Danzig would soon "come home to the Reich" and that: "I have come to fortify you in your resolution. Germany is…Citește mai mult

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German gun-running In his reports from July 1939, Burckhardt noted that Danzig officials were bringing in arms from Germany in violation of the Treaty of Versailles which had declared the Free City to be a demilitarized zone. However, Burckhardt stated that Forster had assured him that the gun-running was only a defensive measure, as he feared that the Poles would attempt to annex the Free City, and that Hitler did not want war with Poland. On 20 July 1939, Forster, as a part of a deception effort, stated to Burckhardt that the crisis was not that serious, and that Germany was willing to wait for the next two years for Poland to give permission for the Free City to rejoin Germany. As intended, Burckhardt reported this statement to the governments of Poland, France and the United Kingdom, which gave the impression the Danzig crisis was only a minor issue that could be settled sometime over the next two years. The Danzig issue was a pretext for Germany to invade Poland, and the last thing the German government wanted was for Poland to give its assent for Danzig to rejoin Germany. During the Danzig crisis, the negotiations between the Free City…Citește mai mult

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Kehlsteinhaus meeting with Hitler On 10 August 1939, Forster told Burckhardt that Hitler wanted to see him at the Berghof high up in the Bavarian Alps and that he was not to tell the Poles, the French and the British about the secret invitation. At 9 am the next day, Burckhardt was picked up at Danzig airport in Hitler's personal air plane, a Fokker-Wolff Condor 200 named Immelmann III. During the flight to Berchtesgaden, Forster told Burckhardt about his supposed exploits as a "street fighter" before he came to Danzig as he stated that he was not just a high school teacher, but a successful "street fighter". Burckhardt stated that he found Forster's behavior very "strange", as Forster looked and sounded very much like the middle class teacher that he was, and he found Forster's accounts of being a macho "street fighter" hard to believe. On 11 August 1939, Burckhardt held his secret meeting with Hitler. Hitler praised Burckhardt for his work in trying to peacefully resolve the crisis and claimed that the crisis would have been settled had it not been for the Polish "ultimatum" of 4 August 1939, which Hitler claimed had escalated the crisis to a dangerous…Citește mai mult

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Visit of the Schleswig-Holstein On 15 August 1939, Burckhardt was informed that the old German battleship Schleswig-Holstein would be sailing from the German naval base at Kiel to Danzig for a "friendship visit" later that month, a report that Burckhardt did not see as an escalation of the crisis. He noted that the Poles were unhappy about the prospect of a German battleship weighing its anchors in Danzig harbour, but were willing to accept the Schleswig-Holstein making its "friendship visit" to Danzig. On 30 August 1939, Forster led a group of Nazis that kicked in the door to Burckhardt's house and told Burckhardt at gunpoint that he had only two hours to leave Danzig or else he would be executed. Forster stated to Burckhart that the swastika would soon fly over Danzig as the Free City was about to "go home to the Reich in the next day or two, and he already arrested all of the Polish commissioners. Forster assured Burckhardt that despite the way he was pointing his gun at him: "Personally, I have nothing against you". Burckhardt then fled to Lithuania, and Nazi Germany would subsequently annex Danzig.

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Legacy Burckhardt despite his limited powers as the League of Nations high commissioner played a major role in the Danzig crisis. He was well regarded in London and the Chamberlain cabinet always paid close attention to Burckhardt's statements during the crisis. By contrast, Burckhardt was seen as a tool in Berlin by which Britain might be detached from its commitment to defend Poland. The American historian Herbert Levine wrote that Burckhardt was a victim of his colossal ego as he "...seems to have fallen victim to the conceit that he could almost single-handedly stop an Anglo-German conflict". Levine wrote that Burckhardt's anti-Polish views which led him to cast Poland as the aggressor in the Danzig crisis and his repeated statements that "the Nazi regime might yet come to a good end" played a major in the "hesitancy" of British policy during much of the crisis. Following this period as High Commissioner, he returned to his professorship in Geneva for the rest of World War II (1939–1945). While in that position, he was also active in a leading role in the ICRC, traveling to Germany several times to negotiate for better treatment of civilians and prisoners, in part using the contacts…Citește mai mult

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Involvement with Nazism After the war, he became President of the ICRC, serving from 1945 to 1948. Organizationally, he increased the integration of the international Red Cross institutions and the national Red Cross Societies. Politically, his term was controversial as he maintained the ICRC's existing policy of strict neutrality in international disputes, which led to the ICRC refusing to condemn the Nazis as their atrocities came to light officially. His strong anticommunism even led him to considering Nazism the lesser evil. He meanwhile simultaneously served from 1945 to 1949 as the Swiss envoy in Paris, with residence at the Hôtel de Besenval. He opposed the Nuremberg trials, calling them "Jewish revenge." On his watch, the ICRC provided documents that helped many high-level Nazis, including Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele, escape Europe and evade justice for their war crimes in World War II.The Red Cross' stance during the war did not fully come to light until it opened its archives from the period in 1994. After 1949, he returned to his academic career, publishing a number of books on history over the next several decades. In 1954, he was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. He died in…Citește mai mult

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Sources Clark, Elizabeth (Autumn 2017). "Borderland of the Mind: The Free City of Danzig and the Sovereignty Question". German Politics & Society. 35 (3): 24–37. doi:10.3167/gps.2017.350302. Levine, Herbert S. (September 1973). "The Mediator: Carl J. Burckhardt's Efforts to Avert a Second World War". The Journal of Modern History. 45 (3): 439–455. doi:10.1086/241023. S2CID 154745560. Praźmowska, Anita (2011). "Poland, the 'Danzig Question', and the Outbreak of the Second World War". In Frank McDonough (ed.). The Origins of the Second World War: An International Perspective. London: Continuum. pp. 394–408. Overy, Richard; Wheatcroft, Andrew (1989). The Road to War. London: Penguin. Rothkirchen, Livia (2006). The Jews of Bohemia and Moravia: Facing the Holocaust. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-0502-4. Roland Ruffieux: "Burckhardt, Carl Jacob" in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, 2005-02-16. Watt, Donald Cameron (1989). How War Came The Immediate Origins of the Second World War 1938-1939. London: Heinemann. Weinberg, Gerhard (1980). The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany Volume 2 Starting World War Two 1937-1939. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.