His father served in the Berlin bunker, was tried and acquitted by an English military court. But Warsaw does not give the go-ahead. The German ambassador didn’t receive approval from Polish authorities for the last 3 months
German ambassador’s father in Poland served Hitler
The old biblical admonition “the faults of the fathers do not fall on the children” is not welcomed in Catholic Poland.
Not even if this means a half diplomatic crisis with an allied and neighboring country.
For more than three months now Warsaw has not given the new German ambassador the approval, leaving him in a limbo that irritates the Berlin government.
It is another negative chapter in the turbulent relations between the two countries, marked in recent months and years by a wave of anti-German rhetoric and new demands for war reparations, which Germany has long paid for.
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Arndt Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven, the German ambassador in Poland
Yet Arndt Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven, the diplomat designated to represent the Federal Republic in Poland, seemed to have the cards in order.
He had served as head of NATO intelligence, keeping an eye on the activities of Russia, the eternal nightmare of the Poles.
A former ambassador appreciated in Prague, as well as an experienced jazz guitarist.
But from the very beginning, the Polish authorities have been camping out every excuse to delay approval, normally a formality that takes a maximum of two weeks.
The excuses of the Polish authorities in order to delay of the approval for the German ambassador
They first invoked the delays caused by the Covid-19 emergency.
Then there was the election campaign for the presidency won by Duda and characterized by furious attacks against the German media.
He was accused of wanting to influence the election against the president in office, then re-elected.
For the same reason, just a few days before the vote, the German business representative in Warsaw had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry.
And last week, there was the resignation of the Foreign Minister, Jacek Czaputowicz, which would have slowed down the bureaucratic machine.
The real reason of the approval delay
The real fault of the diplomat would actually be in his family album.
His father was an officer of the Wehrmacht, commanded an armored division in Stalingrad and served as an assistant in Hitler’s bunker in recent months.
He was responsible for the Führer’s personal briefings. He was acquitted by an English military court and was integrated into the Federal Army after the war.
The anti-Hitler uncle
Although not officially confirmed, the reason is now mentioned in the Polish media and confirmed by anonymous government sources.
“I do not like that the Germans send us an ambassador with this past, not only for his father but also because he worked in the secret service,” said Tomasz Sommer, director of the conservative periodical Najwy szy Czas.
According to an official, quoted by the Times of London, “it is strange that in Berlin he did not sound any alarm, as if no one paid attention to his biography”.
Attention for attention, the family tree of the designated ambassador has not only shadows.
He can boast of another close relative, Uncle Wessel, also in the Wehrmacht, who procured the explosive for the failed attack on Hitler on July 20, 1944.
And after the failure of Operation Walkiria he committed suicide.
Excellent diplomats without problems
According to Peter Loew, director of the German-Polish Institute in Darmstadt, the recurring voice in Warsaw is that to block the approval of von Loringhoven is Jaroslaw Kaczinski.
He is a strong man of Poland and leader of the PiS, the ultra-nationalist party in government.
For another anonymous Polish source, quoted by the Financial Times, “no one is responsible for their fathers, but Germany has excellent diplomats who do not have these problems”.
However, “the matter will soon be resolved”. In what way is not known. Which of the two countries will lower their eyes first?
