Ludwig Kleinwächter

Ludwig von Kleinwächter (9 October 1882 – 12 March 1973) was an Austrian diplomat.

Early life Kleinwächter was born in Chernivtsi, Austria-Hungary (formerly the capital of the historic region of Bukovina; today a city in southwestern Ukraine on the Prut River).

After graduating from the Staatsgymnasium in Czernowitz in 1903, he studied law in Berlin and at the Franz Josephs Universität in Czernowitz (today known as Chernivtsi University), where he received his sub auspiciis promovierte in 1909. He then studied at the Consular Academy in Vienna. During the time of the Federal State of Austria, Kleinwächter was a member of the Fatherland Front. On 2 April 1938, he was taken to Dachau concentration camp with the so-called celebrity transport, where he was given the prisoner number 13,904. On 23 September 1938, he was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp, before being released on 3 May 1939. His dismissal from the diplomatic service was changed to a transfer into retirement with the award of half of his pension. In November 1939, he was detained by the Gestapo for 18 days. During the Nazi regime, he eked out a living with various odd jobs until the end of the war. Together with his colleague Hans Thalberg, they rebuilt the Austrian embassy at first living out of a hotel. The writing paper they received in boxes from Vienna dated back to the Nazi era and bore the Swastika, so Kleinwächter and Thalberg burned it in the bathtub of their hotel room as a precaution.

As Envoy, Kleinwächter soon began to spread the government's "victim doctrine" line to the American public, that is, the narrative of Austria as the "first victim" of Nazi aggression. The fact that both he and Thalberg had been persecuted by the Nazis helped. He successfully lobbied U.S. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes to support Austria's request for urgently needed UNRRA aid. After the UNRRA program ended in 1947, Kleinwächter managed to get Austria to receive special consideration in the subsequent Marshall Plan and to receive a large share of the aid funds.

Another of Kleinwächter's diplomatic successes was the signing of the first Fulbright Agreement between Austria and the United States in June 1950. In December 1951, shortly before his retirement, he was promoted to Ambassador. In accepting his updated credentials, President Truman "reaffirmed the intention of the Government to withdraw its occupation forces from Austria and to work for the restoration" of a free Austria. He was succeeded as Ambassador by Dr. Max Löwenthal-Chlumecky. From 1952, Kleinwächter was chairman of the Austro-American Institute of Education, founded in 1926 by Paul Leo Dengler.

Honours 1935: Grand Officer's Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy 1936: Officer's Cross of the Austrian Order of Merit