Werner Otto von Hentig

Who was Werner Otto von Hentig?

Werner Otto von Hentig was a German diplomat from Berlin. He was the elder brother of criminal psychologist Hans von Hentig and the father of Hartmut von Hentig. He was a critic of the Nazi regime who served in the Third Reich, intervened at great personal risk to save Jews who were in danger, and was instrumental in arranging for thousands of Jews to be transferred to from Germany to Palestine during the 1930s.

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.