Karl Borromäus Maria Heinrich Graf von Spreti (21 May 1907 – 5 April 1970) was a German

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

. He is best known as the West German Ambassador to Guatemala from 1968 until his assassination in 1970. The story of his assassination by Guatemalan guerillas was depicted in a 1970 book, ''

Why Karl von Spreti Died Why may refer to: * Causality, a consequential relationship between two events * Reason (argument), a premise in support of an argument, for what reason or purpose * Grounding (metaphysics), a topic in metaphysics regarding how things exist in ...

,'' by

Ryszard Kapuściński Ryszard Kapuściński (; 4 March 1932 – 23 January 2007) was a Polish journalist, photographer, poet and author. He received many awards and was considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Kapuściński's personal journals in bo ...

Background

Spreti was born in the Kapfing Castle near Landshut to an

aristocratic Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word's ...

family (his direct ancestor was

Leo von Klenze Leo von Klenze (Franz Karl Leopold von Klenze; 29 February 1784, Buchladen (Bockelah / Bocla) near Schladen – 26 January 1864, Munich) was a German neoclassicist architect, painter and writer. Court architect of Bavarian King Ludwig I, L ...

). Like his forefather, Karl von Spreti studied architecture. He also joined the

Bavarian People's Party The Bavarian People's Party (german: Bayerische Volkspartei; BVP) was the Bavarian branch of the Centre Party, a lay Roman Catholic party, which broke off from the rest of the party in 1918 to pursue a more conservative and more Bavarian partic ...

. After his service in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

German Army and a short period in Allied captivity, he settled in

Lindau Lindau (german: Lindau (Bodensee), ''Lindau am Bodensee''; ; Low Alemannic: ''Lindou'') is a major town and island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (''Bodensee'' in German) in Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the county ('' Landkreis ...

, where he continued his career as an architect and as a local politician for the

Christian Social Union of Bavaria The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (German: , CSU) is a Christian-democratic and conservative political party in Germany. Having a regionalist identity, the CSU operates only in Bavaria while its larger counterpart, the Christian Democratic ...

. In 1956, Spreti became West Germany's first ambassador to

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small land ...

since the Second World War, and held that post until 1960, when he became the ambassador to Cuba (until 1963), then to

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Ri ...

(1963–1965) and to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

(between 1966 and 1968). Finally he was dispatched to Guatemala during the turbulent times of the

Guatemalan Civil War The Guatemalan Civil War was a civil war in Guatemala fought from 1960 to 1996 between the government of Guatemala and various leftist rebel groups. The government forces have been condemned for committing genocide against the Maya population ...

. On 31 March 1970 he was kidnapped by Marxist–Leninist FAR guerillas in

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

and was murdered six days later.

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

immediately severed diplomatic ties with Guatemala. Three days after Spreti's murder, an anti-communist

death squad A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are f ...

named

Mano Blanca (Spanish, 'White Hand'), was a Guatemalan right-wing, anti-communist death squad, set up in 1966 to prevent Julio César Méndez Montenegro from being inaugurated as the president of Guatemala. While initially autonomous from the government, it ...

retaliated by assassinating the Communist politician

César Montenegro Paniagua César Montenegro Paniagua (October 1920 – April 1970) was a communist Guatemalan politician, who was assassinated on April 7, 1970. He was born into one of Guatemala's largest and most influential families and was one of twelve children. His ...

References

Further references

*Blumenau, Bernhard. ''The United Nations and Terrorism. Germany, Multilateralism, and Antiterrorism Efforts in the 1970s.'' Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, ch. 2. . * Katrin Neuhaus: ''Un error de cálculo. El secuestro y asesinato del Embajador Karl Graf von Spreti a la luz de nuevas fuentes documentales.'' Guatemala, 2018. Ziviler Friedensdienst, GIZ. https://www.ziviler-friedensdienst.org/de/publikation/un-error-de-calculo

External links

* 1907 births 1970 deaths 1970s missing person cases 20th-century German diplomats Ambassadors of West Germany to the Dominican Republic Ambassadors of West Germany to Guatemala Ambassadors of West Germany to Luxembourg Ambassadors of West Germany to Jordan Assassinated German diplomats Assassinated German people German people murdered abroad German people taken hostage German terrorism victims Kidnapped diplomats Kidnapped German people Missing person cases in Guatemala People murdered in Guatemala Terrorism deaths in Guatemala {{Germany-diplomat-stub

Background

See also

References

Further references

External links