Otto von Erdmannsdorff (22 October 1888 – 30 December 1978) was a German diplomat who served as

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

under the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s from 1937 to 1941, and was later acquitted of war crimes in the

Ministries Trial __NOTOC__ The Ministries Trial (or, officially, the ''United States of America vs. Ernst von Weizsäcker, et al.'') was the eleventh of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg af ...

. A member of the

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

juridical service before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and a participant in that war, Von Erdmannsdorff afterward held diplomatic posts in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, and

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. He took up his post as ambassador to Hungary on May 11, 1937.Frank, p. 353 Although serving as ambassador for Hitler's government during a critical period, he was not himself a Nazi: the U.S. Ambassador to Hungary at the time, John F. Montgomery, mentioned that von Erdmannsdorff "almost resigned at one time because he didn't want to cope with the Nazis", and Hungarian regent

Miklós Horthy Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya ( hu, Vitéz nagybányai Horthy Miklós; ; English: Nicholas Horthy; german: Nikolaus Horthy Ritter von Nagybánya; 18 June 1868 – 9 February 1957), was a Hungarian admiral and dictator who served as the Regent o ...

described him as "the last of the professional German diplomats".Horthy, p. 255 He nonetheless became a nominal member of the party in 1937.Hilberg, p. 577 He was replaced as ambassador in July 1941 by

Dietrich von Jagow Dietrich () is an ancient German name meaning "Ruler of the People.” Also "keeper of the keys" or a "lockpick" either the tool or the profession. Given name * Dietrich, Count of Oldenburg (c. 1398 – 1440) * Thierry of Alsace (german: Dietric ...

, a party member rather than professional diplomat. Thereafter, he served as Deputy to Ernst Wörmann, who was Chief of the Political Division of the

German Foreign Office , logo = DEgov-AA-Logo en.svg , logo_width = 260 px , image = Auswaertiges Amt Berlin Eingang.jpg , picture_width = 300px , image_caption = Entrance to the Foreign Office building , headquarters = Werderscher Mark ...

. Although the Political Division was staffed mainly by civil servants who were either nominal members of the Nazi Party or not members at all, it was nonetheless involved in implementing the

Final Solution The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...

. This led to von Erdmannsdorff's being charged with war crimes in the

after the war; however, he was acquitted as a result of a determination that he lacked sufficient power and influence to have been able to prevent the crimes.Friedman, p. 86 His memoirs are unpublished, and contain among other things a number of quotations from Horthy recorded during von Erdmannsdorff's four years representing Germany in Hungary.

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* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Erdmannsdorff, Otto von 1888 births 1978 deaths Ambassadors of Germany to Hungary People indicted for war crimes People acquitted by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals