Eduard Hempel

Eduard Hempel (1887–1972) was the German Ambassador to Ireland between 1937 and 1945.

Related Topics:
1887 - 1972 - German - Ireland - 1937 - 1945

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Hempel is particularly noted for the incident at the end of his term of office when the Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera, and External Affairs Minister Joe Walshe paid a visit to his home in Dun Laoghaire on 2 May 1945 to express their official condolences on the death of Adolf Hitler. Hempel was described as being distraught at the news, wringing his hands in anguish, although after his death his wife, Eva, accounted for the incident by saying that he was suffering from eczema.

Related Topics:
Taoiseach - Eamon de Valera - Joe Walshe - Dun Laoghaire - 2 May - 1945 - Adolf Hitler - Eczema

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Prior to his appointment, the Irish External Affairs ministry had specified that they did not want a Nazi party member as ambassador; the solution to this requirement appears to have been that at the time he took up his position he was not a member of the party, but joined the following year, his NSDAP card being dated 1 July 1938. As the Irish government did not protest, it appears that it was not informed of Hempels' change of status.

Related Topics:
Nazi - 1 July - 1938

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In his eight years in post, Hempel sent thousands of reports to Berlin by telegraph and shortwave radio (the latter until the German embassy's transmitter was seized in December 1943 at the insistence of the United States). Hempel came close to compromising the Irish government's neutrality policy by transmitting weather reports and the effects of Luftwaffe raids on England, as well as dooming the 1942 allied raid on Dieppe to failure by reporting Canadian troop movements on the south coast of England. It has also been claimed that even without his transmitter, Hempel was able to hinder the allied parachute landings at Arnhem in September 1944.

Related Topics:
Berlin - Telegraph - Shortwave radio - United States - Luftwaffe - England - Dieppe - Canadian - Allied parachute landings - Arnhem

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After Germany's surrender, and without any more salary cheques arriving from home, the Hempels were reduced to selling homemade cakes and jam -- local wits referred to the Hempel house as the "Hun Bun factory".

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