Werner Otto von Hentig

Werner Otto von Hentig (22 May, 1886 - 8 August 1984) was a German diplomat from Berlin. He was the elder brother of criminal psychologist Hans von Hentig and the father of Hartmut von Hentig.

Hentig joined the Imperial German diplomatic service in 1909 and was posted as an attache to the German mission at Beijing, and was later posted to Constantinopole and Tehran. During World War I he was wounded in the Battle of Masuria, and later in 1915 led, along with Oskar Niedermayer, the German mission to Kabul that sought to enlist the Afghan Amir's support for the Central Powers and attack British India.

At the end of the war, Hentig was attached to the embassy at Constantinopole, before becoming active in repatriation of German prisoners of war from Siberia. In 1924, he was appointed the ambassador to Poznan. In the 1920s, Hentig became involved in the German Youth Movement. In the 1930s, he was appointed the German Consul General to San Francisco and later Bogotá when in 1935, attempts were made to assassinate him.

As the Middle East historian Wolfgang G. Schwanitz of New Jersey proved in his research, Hentig did cultivate a bitter rivalry with another foremost German envoy to the Middle East, Dr. Fritz Grobba. This shaped the German Middle Eastern policy: Hentig obstructed the expansion of World War II to the Middle East. Whereas Grobba belonged in both world wars to Foreign Office's faction that favored the massive incitement of Muslims to jihad in the colonial hinterland of Britain, France, and Russia, Hentig opposed it. Though he had switched sides for during World War I he did spread jihad ideas himself in his secret mission to Kabul, Afghanistan, due to the Ottoman-German conspiracy to instigate Muslims for a Holy War.

After World War II, he was the West Germanambassador to Indonesia. Following his retirement, he also served as the personal advisor to the Saudi Royal Family for nearly two years.

In 1961, Hentig, along with Bogislaw von Bonin, Herman Schwann, Wolf Schenke and Theodor Kogler, was one of the cofounders of the Association of German National Assembly.

References

* [http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2007/issue3/jvol11no3in.html Schwanitz Wolfgang G. (2007), Germany's Middle Eastern Policy, The Middle East Review of International Affairs, MERIA Journal, 11(2007)3]
*Peter Hopkirk: The Great Game, The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia", (1994), ISBN 1568360223
*Harvard reference
Surname1 = Seidt
Given1 = Hans-Ulrich
Year = 2001
Title = From Palestine to the Caucasus-Oskar Niedermayer and Germany's Middle Eastern Strategy in 1918.German Studies Review, Vol. 24, No. 1. (Feb., 2001), pp. 1-18
URL =
Publisher = German Studies Association
ISSN = 01497952.
*Harvard reference
Surname1 = Hughes
Given1 = Thomas L
Year = 2002
Title = The German Mission to Afghanistan, 1915-1916.German Studies Review, Vol. 25, No. 3. (Oct., 2002), pp. 447-476.
URL =
Publisher = German Studies Association
ID = ISSN: 01497952