Hans Georg von Mackensen

Mackensen came from an established military family. His father, August von Mackensen (1849–1945), was eventually, in 1915, promoted to the rank of Field Marshall: Even after 1918, August von Mackensen would remain an unapologetic high-profile monarchist traditionalist[5] who in 1941, despite his advanced age and the difficulties of travelling in war time, made his way to Doorn (near Utrecht) where, dressed in his full military uniform from the imperial years, he attended the funeral of the former German emperor. Hans Georg von Mackensen's mother, born Dorothea von Horn (1854–1905), also came from a family of minor aristocrats.[6] His younger brother, Eberhard von Mackensen became an army general. As a child Hans Georg grew up as a companion to Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, one of the emperor's younger sons. The two men became life-long friends.[7] In 1902 he entered the army as a trainee officer in the 1st Foot Guards regiment. He continued to serve after completing his training in 1907. However, in 1911 he withdrew from active service, becoming a reserve officer, in order to complete his study of Jurisprudence, after which he entered the Prussian legal service.[1]

During the First World War von Mackensen returned to the army, serving between 1914 and 1917 as adjutant to his friend Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, and ending up with the rank of "Hauptmann" (Captain). After the war ended he took a job with the Prussian Ministry of Justice, staying till May 1919, the month in which he accepted an invitation to switch to the Foreign Ministry.[1] In 1923 he was posted as a diplomatic envoy ("Gesandtschaftsrat II. Klasse") to the embassy in Rome between 1923 and 1926, which was followed by a posting to Brussels between 1926 and 1931.[3]

On 10 August 1926 von Mackensen married Winifred Christine Helene Baroness of Neurath (1904 - 1985) at the Leinfelder Hof just outside the little town of Vaihingen (near Stuttgart). He thereby acquired as a father-in-law Konstantin von Neurath (1873 - 1956), a long-standing friend of his father's and now a rising star in the diplomatic service: Baron von Neurath would later become Germany's Foreign Minister. Back in 1916, at the height of the First World War, when she was aged just eleven, Winifred had presented a bunch of flowers to the glamorous young hussar Hans Georg von Mackensen, on his return from a mission to Constantinople. The glamour and extent of the celebrations in 1926, along with the presence of various members of the pre-1918 traditionalist-monarchist elite, hinted at a political or dynastic dimension to the union.[8]

Close family links on various sides to the aristocratic-military elite from the days of empire continued to prove no bar to von Mackensen's career progression in the diplomatic service of the German Republic. Despite his relative inexperience and youth, in 1929 he was given temporary charge over the German diplomatic mission to Tirana, at what was an exceptionally critical time for the developing relationship between Albania's ambitious new king and the rest of Europe.[4][9] In July 1931, a couple of months after republican government replaced the Spanish monarchy, von Mackensen was transferred again, to be appointed "first diplomat councillor" (Botschaftsrat) at the embassy in Madrid.[1][4][10]

Following months of political deadlock, everything changed in January 1933 when the Hitler government, spotting a power vacuum, filled it: they lost no time in transforming Germany into a one-party dictatorship. There are no indications that Hans Georg von Mackensen had taken much interest in the party politics of the German Republic up to this point. Nevertheless, in May 1933 he signed up as a member of the National Socialist ("Nazi") Party. In September 1933 his transfer to Budapest was announced,[4] and in December he took up a posting as the new government's "first councillor" (Botschaftsrat) in the Hungarian capital. Ambassador-level diplomatic relations having at this stage not been established with former component states of the Austro-Hungarian empire, that made him Germany's senior "permanent diplomatic representative" in Budapest.[3]

Four years later von Mackensen was recalled to Berlin where, on 16 April 1937, he took over as first Secretary of State at the Foreign Ministry. The appointment had been announced less than a month earlier, on 24 March 1937.[11] He thereby became the senior non-politician at the Foreign Ministry. It was a position that had been vacant since the death the previous summer of the former incumbent, Bernhard von Bülow, possibly from natural causes.[12][13] As first Secretary of State von Mackensen's political boss was the German Foreign Minister, Konstantin von Neurath, who also happened to be his father-in-law. Von Neurath had been in post since 1932, but on 4 February 1938 he was removed from office and replaced a short notice by Joachim von Ribbentrop, reflecting a determination on the part of the leader to take a more "personally hands-on" approach to Germany's foreign policy.[14] As part of the ensuing reshuffle at the top of the diplomatic service, Hans Georg von Mackensen was appointed Ambassador to Rome in succession to Ulrich von Hassell,[5] who had been recalled at short notice in the aftermath of the so-called Blomberg–Fritsch affair.[2][15] Von Macksensen might no longer be first Secretary of State, but the Rome embassy was, in the context of the diplomatic developments of the time, an exceptionally important posting. There were suggestions within and beyond the diplomatic establishment that his unusually rapid rise through the ranks of the German diplomatic service had been both the result of his inherited family connections[16] and a direct reflection of von Mackensen's uncritical and unhesitating execution of every order he received from his superiors, combined with an apparent reluctance to feed any ideas of his own back to Berlin.[17][18] Someone else who declined to be dazzled by von Mackensen's diplomatic cachet was the French ambassador to Berlin, André François-Poncet: "J’ai visité l’Auswärtiges Amt; j’ai vu le père, et j’ai vu le fils, mais je n’ai pas vu le Saint Esprit".[16][lower-alpha 1] On 30 January 1942 the German ambassador to Rome nevertheless received the considerable honour of being appointed an SS Group Leader ("Gruppenführer") on the staff of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler.[5][19]

The Anglo-American invasion of Sicily in July 1943 brought forward various crises for Benito Mussolini, including a crisis in his relationship with his dictator-ally in Berlin. On 25 July 1943, following a (completely unprecedented) overnight vote of no confidence by the Grand Council of Fascism, the king found the courage to dismiss Mussolini and, four days later, had him arrested. The king told Pietro Badoglio that he would shortly be sworn in as the new prime minister, but in the event it would be around six weeks before Badoglio took formal control over what remained of Italy: in the intervening weeks confusion and uncertainty reigned in Rome. Around Adolf Hitler there was consternation, even before Mussolini's dismissal, over the disastrous performance and poor morale of the Italian army. The German army could, they believed, defend the Italian peninsular successfully, but for that they would need Mussolini's support. Mussolini failed either to galvanised his own generals or to provide his ally with clear answers and a group of advisors around Hitler, led by the army chief, General Alfred Jodl urged him to send an ultimatum to Mussolini, insisting on the need for agreement before 15 July 1943. Failing that, Mussolini needed to take drastic and immediate steps himself to arrest and reverse the deteriorating military situation. The German ambassador in Italy, Hans Georg von Mackensen, was naturally involved in theses discussions, and suggested that the hugely admired Field Marshal Rommel might be given military command over Italy. The crisis culminated in a hastily arranged meeting at Feltre (near Belluno in northern Italy) between Hitler and Mussolini which took place on 19 July 1943, less than a week before Mussolini's dismissal by his king. The meeting was not a success, in that the dictators were evidently both surprised and disappointed by one another. Most of the time together was taken up with a furious two hour harang by Adolf Hitler. Since the facts on the ground and reactions to them in Rome and Berlin were highly fluid over the next few days, the details of the differing opinions between Adolf Hitler and Hans Georg von Mackensen that the crisis drew out are not entirely clear. What is clear is that on 2 August 1943, following a talk with Hitler, von Macksensen was relieved of his post.[20][21]

He nevertheless retained his position as a general in the SS. That was the capacity in which he participated at the Group Leaders' congress, held during the first week of October 1943 in the city hall at Posen (as Poznań was known till) 1944/45). He was thereby able to hear for himself the first of the subsequently infamous Posen speeches delivered by Reichsführer-SS Himmler.[21][22]

In May 1945 he was captured by French forces, held as a prisoner of war till April 1946. Following his release he remained in the French occupation zone, dying in a Konstanz hospital on 28 September 1947.[2] He had been a top official at the German Foreign Ministry in 1938, at the time of the German invasion of Czechoslovakia. He had been scheduled to appear at a forthcoming trial as a witness on German-Italian negotiations during the build up to that invasion. His death from lung cancer meant that he was spared the court appearance.[23]