Some, like Frank Aitken and Joseph Walsh in External Affairs, actively hoped for a German victory, or at the least a negotiated peace which would leave Britain substantially weakened and give them a lever on partition (and that was all they cared about). DeV’s attitude is more difficult to determine. Partly his action was calculated to rile the American Minister, Gray, whom De Valera had conceived a personal animus against.
It’s already been addressed, but that was in the links previously posted in the thread. I can’t tell if you were being sarcastic or not, so I won’t take offense.
He visited the ambassador at his home, not at the embassy. It was an official visit, not a state visit. The visit by the President the following day was a private visit, not an official or state visit.
The Irish Parliament adjourned as a mark of respect on Roosevelt’s death which, diplomatically speaking, is several degrees higher than a visit to the ambassador’s residence.
UDS can you please explain how an official visit and a state visit are interpreted by other countries? Although they are both formal visits, a state visit I would assume would carry greater significance than an official visit. But I would like your explanation please.
Didn’t know that. Does either source say what they sought to extradite him for? If the extradition request was even half-way serious, he must have been charged with something.
A state visit involves a head of state visiting another head of state (so de Valera could not make a state visit to anybody, and Hempel could not receive one from anybody). It’s attended with an elaborate degree of formality, and a variety of public and formal functions - military reviews, state banquets, artillery salutes, that kind of thing.
(I once saw the President of Ireland setting off on a state visit to the UK. The only bit of the journey I saw was her travelling from her residence to the airport - she passed me as I was on my way to work. It was just her, her husband, a vintage Rolls Royce, 64 military motorcycle outriders, five other limousines with assorted Irish dignitaries who were either seeing her safely onto the plane or travelling with her, and a few police motorcyclists whose job it was to go ahead and block traffic from the side streets so that her retinue wouldn’t have to stop at red lights.)
An official visit is for the conduct of official business - discussions about matters of mutual interest or intergovernmental relations. It would usually involve a team of officials, headed perhaps by a Minister or, if the business is very significant, by the Prime Minister. It wouldn’t involve the head of state unless the head of state is also the head of the executive department (as in the US) and the business concerned is very signficant indeed.
De Valera’s visit to Hempel was an official visit because of it’s diplomatic character, but a very low-key one because it was just Dev and his permanent secretary, and because it took place at the ambassador’s home rather than at the embassy.
According to the Wikipedia article the Allies wanted Hempel to be detained in the Nuremberg witness prison. They cite: John P. Duggan: Neutral Ireland and the Third Reich, p. 251. The Spiegel article claims that the Allies demanded his extradition “continually” (dauernd). My interpretation is that they didn’t necessarily want to charge him with anything (after all, he wasn’t really a war criminal) but rather thoroughly debrief him. The allies were also looking for Hempel’s deputy, Henning Thomsen, who was active in German intelligence activities (→ Henning Thomsen – Wikipedia ).
There would be no prospect of any government with pretensions to independence acceding to such a request, though, would there? You can’t have somebody arrested in a foreign country just because you’d like to talk to him.
Was this also for debriefing, or did they have a specific complaint of an extraditeable offence against him?
De Valera would never have passed up such a golden opportunity to stick it to the English. Did he genuinely regret Hitler’s passing? In the sense that the enemy of my enemy is my friend I think he did.
One would have to find out what happened to German diplomats in other neutral countries after the surrender and this is an interesting topic in itself. As far as I know, the Allies interned a large number of senior government officials after the war. The ones who were detained as witnesses in Nuremberg certainly weren’t free to leave.
The Spiegel article also says that Hempel was able to sell off the assets of the German mission in Dublin and that the proceeds were used to pay for damages caused by the German air force during accidental bombings of Irish territory.
Was Eduard Hempel technically head of the German embassy or legation in Dublin?
I see many references to Eduard Hempel as being head of the German Legation in Dublin. A legation is defined as “A diplomatic mission in a foreign country ranking below an embassy” .
"Legation as used in International law refers to the act or practice of sending a diplomat to another country. It is a diplomatic mission in a foreign country ranking below an embassy. It could also refer to a body of diplomats sent to a foreign country and headed by an envoy extraordinary or a minister plenipotentiary. The official residence of a diplomatic minister in a foreign country is also termed legation.
A legate refers to a person who is often sent as a representative of a state or of some high authority. A legate could be a member of a legation or diplomatic embassy."
I see that the 1950 article from Spiegel gets it wrong when it says de Valera appeared at the Legation rather than his home in Dun Laoghaire. But it does say that according to proper diplomatic custom he could receive condolences from the Irish Republic.
“Als in den letzten Kriegstagen Hitlers Verbrennungstod von den Feinden jubelnd und von den Freunden gleichmütig aufgenommen wurde, erschien Irlands Regierungschef de Valera zum offiziellen Kondolenzbesuch in Dr. Hempels Dubliner Gesandtschaft. Unter korrekter Wahrung alten diplomatischen Brauchtums durfte Hempel noch für die Nachfolgeregierung Dönitz des irischen Staates und Volkes Beileid zum Tode des Führers und Reichskanzlers entgegennehmen.”
Correction: I meant to say Irish State since it wasn’t a republic yet.
I believe this is a misunderstanding. We know the Irish government provided various forms of assistance to Britain during the war (intelligence, return of downed airmen, weather reports, firefighting). They were not so stupid or bloody-minded as to wish for a German victory (although it may be that they hoped, by maintaining neutrality, to be in a slightly more favourable position to treat with a victorious Germany, and some indulged the fantasy of recovering the north from a defeated Britain). There is no reason to believe de Valera admired Hitler or personally regretted his death.
Neutrality - at least the form and protocol - became something of an obsession for de Valera, principally as an assertion of independence from Britain. This is, I believe, key to understanding the actions of the Irish government during the war, up to and including de Valera’s visit to Hempel.
He was the Envoy Extraordinary Minister Plenipotentiary and thus the head of the German Legation. That was at the time the highest form of diplomatic representation between Ireland and countries outside the British Empire. No country had an embassy or an ambassador in Dublin.
That was because of the ambiguity in Ireland’s constitutional position. George VI was technically still the King of Ireland and just about the only power he retained was the right to appoint and receive diplomats, although he was required to do so under instructions from the Irish government. Not exchanging full ambassadors reduced the possible protocol pitfalls. But in practical terms, the ministers plenipotentiaries of the various legations in Dublin functioned as ambassadors.
Thank you all. Very helpful
Not really helpful, but the “real” Taoiseach Jack Lynch at one stage contemplated an invasion of Northern Ireland. He was told his army would get 20 miles before the British would wipe it out. So there was no great love.
It really sounds like the visit was more about Hempel than it was about Hitler or even Germany in any kind of broader sense.
Kinda like, “So… your government’s being dismantled. We’re still cool with you, though, so just chill until this all gets sorted out. No worries.”
It was Hempel, and it was about Ireland. Hitler was never flavour of the month with any Irish government, and there was hardly any Germany left to be concerned about.