Ernst Werner Techow was a member of a far-right political group in Germany and harboured anti-Semitic views. In 1922, he was convicted for taking part in the assassination of Walther Rathenau

Walther Rathenau

Walther Rathenau was a German Jewish industrialist, politician, writer, and statesman who served as Foreign Minister of Germany during the Weimar Republic...

, the Jewish Foreign Minister of Germany during the Weimar Republic

Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...

. Following the assassination he changed beliefs and after his release from prison in 1927, he joined the French Foreign Legion

French Foreign Legion

The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...

 and later embarked on helping Jews escape from occupied France.

Early life

He came from a distinguished magistrate's family; his grandfather had been one of the heroes of the liberal revolution of 1848.

Assassination

Ernst Werner Techow had joined the Organisation Consul

Organisation Consul

Organisation Consul was an ultra-nationalist force operating in Germany in 1921 and 1922. It was formed by members of the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, a Freikorps unit which disbanded after the Kapp Putsch failed to overthrow the German Weimar Republic...

 and was its Berlin agent. Organization Consul was a right-wing anti-Semitic organization who killed their opponents and Germans who took part in the capitulation of the German Empire.

On June 24, 1922, two months after the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo, 1922

Treaty of Rapallo, 1922

The Treaty of Rapallo was an agreement signed at the Hotel Imperiale in the Italian town of Rapallo on 16 April, 1922 between Germany and Soviet Russia under which each renounced all territorial and financial claims against the other following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and World War I.The two...

, Rathenau was assassinated in a plot led by two ultra-nationalist army officers, Erwin Kern and Hermann Fischer (aided and abetted by others) linked to Organisation Consul

Organisation Consul

Organisation Consul was an ultra-nationalist force operating in Germany in 1921 and 1922. It was formed by members of the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, a Freikorps unit which disbanded after the Kapp Putsch failed to overthrow the German Weimar Republic...

. On that morning, he was driving from his house to Wilhelmstraße

Wilhelmstraße

The Wilhelmstrasse is a street in the center of Berlin, the capital of Germany. Between the mid 19th century and 1945, it was the administrative centre, first of the Kingdom of Prussia and then of the unified German state, housing in particular the Reich Chancellery and the Foreign Office...

, as he did daily. During the trip his car was passed by another in which three men were sitting. Kern used a pistol to shoot Rathenau while Fischer threw the grenade into the car before Techow quickly drove them away. A memorial stone in the Koenigsallee in Berlin-Grunewald

Grunewald

Grunewald is a locality within the Berliner borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Famous for the homonymous forest, until 2001 administrative reform it was part of the former district of Wilmersdorf.-Geography:The locality is situated in the western side of the city and is separated from...

 marks the scene of the crime. Rathenau was fervently mourned in Germany, with flags officially at half mast, although this was not compulsory.

Arrest

Within five days, Erwin Kern and Hermann Fischer were cornered by police in the Saaleck castle, near Koesen, and committed suicide. Techow, who drove the car, was turned in by relatives and sentenced to 15 years in prison. At his trial he claimed that he had acted under duress, as Kern threatened to kill him when he tried to withdraw from the murder plot.

Release

Following Techow's arrest, Mathilde Rathenau, the victim's mother, wrote to Techow's mother:

In grief unspeakable, I give you my hand... Say to your son that...I forgive [him], even as God may forgive [him], if before an earthly judge your son makes a full and frank confession...and before a heavenly judge repents... May these words give peace to your soul....

Techow later told Rathenau's nephew that his transformation had been triggered by Mathilde Rathenau’s letter. Upon his release from prison for good behavior in 1927, he volunteered for the French Foreign Legion

French Foreign Legion

The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...

.

World War II

During the Second World War he helped save hundreds of Jews in Marseilles. On the Tunisian front, he single handedly captured a German unit by shouting orders to them in German.

Death

Although no certain knowledge of his death has been confirmed, it is likely that Techow died in the 1980s or 90's; an estimate not unreasonable, considering his birth in 1901.

In popular media

• Conspiracy against the Republic: Der Mord an Walther Rathenau The assassination of Walther Rathenau directed by Heinrich Billstein

External links

• Conspiracy against the Republic: Der Mord an Walther Rathenau The assassination of Walther Rathenau