Walter Kotschnig
Walter Maria Kotschnig ( April 9, 1901, Judenburg, Austria – June 23, 1985, Newtown, Pennsylvania) was an American diplomat who served in international organizations, including a long tenure in the United Nations, as well as worked in the administrations of five American presidents.[1][2]
Early life
[edit]He was born in Judenburg, Austria-Hungary in 1901.[3] His father, Ignaz Kotschnig, was from Mahrenberg, which would later become part of Slovenia.[3] Kotschnig studied at the University of Graz from 1919 to 1922.[3] He completed a PhD in Political Science at the Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Institute for the World Economy), University of Kiel in 1924.[3][4] He wrote a PhD thesis, entitled ‘Univeral Oekonomie und Weltwirtschaft’ (Universal Economics and the World Economy).[3]
Career
[edit]In much of the 1920s and 1930s, he worked for international organizations in Geneva, Switzerland.[3] He worked for the International Student Service from 1925. He began working for the League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1934.[3] He moved to the United States in 1936.[3] He lost his Austrian citizenship in 1938 following the Anschluss.[3] He became an American citizen in 1942.[3]
He worked for the U.S. State Department, helping to establish what would become the United Nations.[3] He took part in the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in Washington in 1944 and the San Francisco Conference in 1945.[1]
He retired as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in 1971.[1]
Personal life
[edit]He married a Welsh woman, Elined Prys, in 1921.[3] They had three children.[3]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 Saxon, Wolfgang (1985-06-25). "WALTER M. KOTSCHNIG DEAD; LONGTIME U.S. AIDE TO U.N." The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- ↑ "Walter M. Kotschnig; Career U.N. Official". Los Angeles Times. 1985-06-29.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Irish, Tomás (2025). "From Geneva to Washington: The lived internationalism of Walter Kotschnig between the League of Nations and the United Nations, 1925–45". The International History Review. doi:10.1080/07075332.2025.2457379. ISSN 0707-5332.
- ↑ Centeno, Allison (2019-12-16). "Walter Kotschnig and the German Refugee Scholar Crisis". The Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies.