Hans Globke
| Hans Globke | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| German Chancellery Chief of Staff | |
|
In office 28 October 1953 – 15 October 1963 |
|
| Chancellor | Konrad Adenauer |
| Preceded by | Otto Lenz |
| Succeeded by | Ludger Westrick |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Hans Josef Maria Globke 10 September 1898 Düsseldorf, German Empire |
| Died | 13 February 1973 (aged 74) |
| Nationality | German |
| Political party | CDU |
| Spouse(s) | Augusta Vaillant |
| Occupation | Lawyer, politician |
| Known for | Advisor to Konrad Adenauer |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Hans Josef Maria Globke (10 September 1898 – 13 February 1973) was a German lawyer, high-ranking civil servant and politician who served as Under-Secretary of State and Chief of Staff of the German Chancellery in West Germany from 28 October 1953 to 15 October 1963. He was widely regarded as one of most influential public officials in the government of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and as the Chancellor's closest confidant during his ten-year tenure as chief of staff. As Chief of Staff he was responsible for the running of the Chancellery, recommending the people who were appointed to roles in the government, coordinating the government's work, for the establishment and oversight of the West German intelligence services and for all matters of national security. He was the German government's main liaison with NATO and other western intelligence services, especially the CIA. He also maintained contact with the party apparatus.
He earned a doctorate in law in 1922 and served as a senior legal adviser in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior and later in the Federal Ministry of the Interior from 1929 to 1945. In this capacity he was involved in drafting legislation, including legislation on the confiscation of Jewish property and removal of their political rights. After the war he was officially deemed to have been an opponent of Nazism and fully exonerated of any ties to Nazism in his denazification hearing. In 1949 he joined the German Chancellery as an undersecretary and rose to become chief of staff in 1953. Globke was a devout Catholic and a member of the Catholic Centre Party from 1922 until the party was disbanded in 1933. In the postwar era he became a member of the Centre Party's successor, the Christian Democratic Union.
As a powerful éminence grise of the West German government, he had a major role in shaping the course and structure of the state, in West Germany's alignment with the United States, its anti-communist policies at the domestic and international level and in the western intelligence community. He became a central target of the propaganda of the Soviet bloc, both because of his role in western anti-communist policies and his previous role in drafting legislation under the Nazi regime. However, the criticism of him was widely ignored both by the German government and the United States, who saw him as a key anti-communist ally. As he left office together with the Adenauer administration in 1963, Globke was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by President Heinrich Lübke. He remained active as an adviser for Adenauer and the CDU during the 1960s.
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