Henrik Kauffmann

Henrik Kauffmann (26 August 1888 – 5 June 1963) was the Danish ambassador to the United States during World War II, who signed over part of Greenland to the US.

Henrik Kauffmann
Kauffmann in 1932
Danish Ambassador to the United States
In office 22 August 1939 – 1958
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded by	Otto Wadsted
Succeeded by	Kjeld Gustav Knuth-Winterfeldt [da]
Minister without portfolio
In office 12 May 1945 – 7 November 1945
Prime Minister	Vilhelm Buhl
Personal details
Born	Henrik Louis Hans von Kauffmann (1888-08-26)26 August 1888 Frankfurt am Main
Died	5 June 1963(1963-06-05) (aged 74) Skodsborg Spa Hotel
Spouse	Charlotte MacDougall ​ ​ (m. 1926; died 1963)​
Children	2
Relatives	Mason Sears (brother-in-law)

Henrik Kauffmann explaining the agreement with the US over Greenland

Career

Kauffmann started his foreign career by serving as envoy in Rome, 1921–1923. He afterwards served in Peking in 1924–1932 when he was succeeded by Oscar O'Neill Oxholm. During this period Kauffmann became notable for three things: political reports of high quality; an ability to gain close contacts with central Chinese decision makers; and his lavish spending.^[1] After his time in Peking, Kauffmann served as envoy in Oslo 1932–1939 (when he was, again, succeeded by Oxholm), where he helped soften the Danish-Norwegian relations following the Greenland case.^[1]

Kauffman was then posted to Washington DC in the summer of 1939. On the day after Denmark was occupied by Germany on 9 April 1940, Kauffmann became the first Danish envoy to declare he couldn't receive and act on orders from an occupied Danish government, but the US still recognized him as Denmark's official representative.^[2]

On 9 April 1941, the anniversary of the German occupation of Denmark, he signed on his own initiative "in the Name of the King" (Danish: I Kongens Navn) an "Agreement relating to the Defense of Greenland" authorizing the United States to defend the Danish colonies on Greenland from German aggression. The treaty was signed by the United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull and approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 7 June 1941.

Kauffmann's treaty was approved by the local officials on Greenland but declared void by the Danish government in Copenhagen. Kauffmann ignored this protest, citing the fact that Denmark was occupied by a hostile power; consequently, he considered the government incapable of protecting Danish interests.^[3] The government responded by charging Kauffmann with high treason and stripping him of his rank. Kauffmann ignored both actions. Kauffmann's line was supported by the Danish consuls general in the United States, as well as by the Danish ambassador to Iran. These diplomats were dismissed as well. Kauffmann replied by urging Danish diplomats around the world not to follow instructions from Copenhagen.

Kauffmann was nicknamed "the King of Greenland" for his independent political moves in the Greenland affair.

He was married to Charlotte MacDougall, the daughter of United States Navy Rear Admiral William Dugald MacDougall.^[4]

Rehabilitation

Revoking the sentence against Kauffmann was one of the first tasks done by the Danish Parliament following the Liberation of Denmark in May 1945. Kauffmann joined the Cabinet of National Unity and served as Minister without Portfolio from 12 May to 7 November 1945. While Kauffmann was unable to get Denmark to sign the Declaration by United Nations during the war, he was able as minister to join the San Francisco Conference from 25 April 1945 to 26 June 1945 and sign the Charter.^[5][6]

Kauffmann's treaty was adapted in the early 1950s and remains the legal basis for the U.S. Thule Air Base in Greenland.

Death

In June 1963, Kauffmann, suffering from prostate cancer, was killed by his wife in a "mercy killing". His wife, Charlotte, then took her own life.^[7][8]

In popular culture

The film The Good Traitor (Vores mand i Amerika) released in 2020, covers the signing of the agreement over Greenland between Henrik Kauffmann and the United States. Kauffmann is played by Ulrich Thomsen.

References

1. Beukel 1997, p. 320.
2. Wenande, Christian (2018-03-05). "In the name of the king or traitor to the crown?". The Copenhagen Post. Archived from the original on 2024-09-07. Retrieved 2025-01-12.
3. Henrik Kauffmann (April 13, 1941). "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES DIPLOMATIC PAPERS, 1941, EUROPE, VOLUME II, The Danish Minister (Kauffmann) to the Secretary of State". Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State. Retrieved August 26, 2016. Under the circumstances, there was, to me, no doubt but that I must, in the interests of Denmark and Greenland, take this unusual step. The Government in Denmark will not, as long as Denmark is occupied, be able to obtain full information as to the background and necessity for this action. I, therefore, request that judgment of my decision be withheld until Denmark again is free, and the Danish Government and public can come to know the situation that made the step necessary. I earnestly beg His Majesty the King and the Danish Government to be assured that I have acted in the way which I felt to be right, after careful consideration and according to my best belief and the dictates of my conscience, fulfilling my allegiance to His Majesty the King.
4. "Lake Charles American-Press from Lake Charles, Louisiana on June 6, 1963 · Page 17". Newspapers.com. 6 June 1963. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
5. Drakidis, Philippe (1995). The Atlantic and United Nations Charters: common law prevailing for world peace and security. Centre de recherche et d'information politique et sociale. p. 131 – via Google Books.
6. United Nations Department of Public Information (1986). Everyone's United Nations. Vol. 10. p. 7. ISBN 9789211002737 – via Google Books.
7. Meg Hixon (February 2014). "Sears and MacDougall family collection : Biography". Manuscripts Division, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan. University of Michigan. Retrieved August 26, 2016. Charlotte MacDougall Kauffmann killed her husband, then suffering from prostate cancer, and herself in Copenhagen in June 1963.
8. "Wife Cuts Danish Hero's Throat, Then Kills Self". The Tuscaloosa News. Associated Press. 1963-06-05. Retrieved 2016-08-26. Police reported today the American wife of Denmark's former ambassador to the United States, Henrik Kauffman, slit her husband's throat and then took her own life with the same bread knife. They described the murder as a "mercy killing."

Sources

• Beukel, Erik (1997). "Henrik Kauffmann Som Politisk Diplomat". Historie/Jyske Samlinger (in Danish) (2): 318. Retrieved 20 August 2020.

Further reading

• Briggs, Herbert W. (1941). "The Validity of the Greenland Agreement". American Journal of International Law. 35 (3). Cambridge University Press: 506–13. doi:10.2307/2192457. JSTOR 2192457. S2CID 147539995. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
• Lidegaard, Bo (2003). Defiant Diplomacy: Henrik Kauffmann, Denmark, and the United States in World War II and the Cold War, 1939-1958. Translated by Glyn Jones, W. Peter Lang. ISBN 9780820468198.
• Lidegaard, Bo (2013). I Kongens Navn - Henrik Kauffmann i dansk diplomati 1919-58 (in Danish). Lindhardt og Ringhof. ISBN 9788711385289.
• Lidegaard, Bo (2020). Uden mandat - En biografi om Henrik Kauffmann (in Danish). Gyldendal. ISBN 9788702288506.

External links

• Agreement between U.S. Secretary of State and Danish Minister on the status of Greenland April 10, 1941
• History of the Thule Air Base Archived 2006-04-11 at the Wayback Machine