Otto Carl Kiep

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Penny Tray
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Otto Carl Kiep

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I read the following article today and came to the conclusion that Otto Carl Kiep probably merited a little more than the two very brief mentions he's had on Threetowners to date.

"Otto Kiep was born in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, Scotland (while his parents where on holiday there), to Imperial Consul Johann Nikolaus Kiep and his wife Charlotte (née Rottenburg). He was brought up, with his three brothers and sister, in the West End of Glasgow, residing at Hughenden Terrace. His uncle, Johan Carl, resident in nearby Kelvinside, was a successful merchant in the city, and the Kiep family was prominent and popular in Victorian Glasgow society. One of Otto's cousins, Walter, stayed in Glasgow and went on to serve as a doctor in the British army.

In 1909, when Otto was aged 24, the family moved to Ballenstedt, Germany. After going to the Ilfeld monastery school, Otto studied law in Germany and London, and graduated from the University of Leipzig, while also earning a Bachelor of Law degree in London. Already at this time, his thinking and influence leant towards peace and international understanding, which his biographer Bruce Clements attributes to his liberal upbringing in Scotland.

He was with the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. from 1927 to 1931 as an embassy adviser, and from 1931 to 1933, he was Consul General in New York. He later established ties with resistance circles, with Hanna Solf (see "Frau Solf Tea Party"), and with the Kreisau Circle about Helmuth James Graf von Moltke.

As Chief of the Reich Press Office, the name Otto Kiep showed up on the list of the group around the men of the failed July 20 Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia. After his arrest in 1944, he was sentenced at the Volksgerichtshof by Roland Freisler to death, and one month after the plot's failure, on 23 August 1944, Otto Kiep was hanged at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin."

This is a similar account but containing further detail and a photograph of Otto:

http://www.gdw-berlin.de/bio/ausgabe_mit-e.php?id=143" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Otto Carl Kiep

Post by georgersweir »

The Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald BDM database details the birth of a male child to J. N. Kiep. The intimation is dated 12-07-1889 and the family address is given as 'Helenbank, Saltcoats'. If this is Otto (and I have no record of any other births with this surname around this period) he would have been 20 in 1909 (not 24).
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Re: Otto Carl Kiep

Post by georgersweir »

georgersweir wrote:...The intimation is dated 12-07-1889 ...
The only birth date I can find for Otto Carl Kiep on the Internet is 7 July 1886. Possibly the BDM record has been transcribed incorrectly...
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Re: Otto Carl Kiep

Post by hahaya2004 »

According to his birth certificate the date 07th July 1886 is correct. The address given was Shields(?) Cottage, Eglinton Place Saltcoats.
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Re: Otto Carl Kiep

Post by georgersweir »

hahaya2004 wrote:According to his birth certificate the date 07th July 1886 is correct. The address given was Shields(?) Cottage, Eglinton Place Saltcoats.
I won't quarrel with that :)

Leads me to conclude that the Herald database contains an error on his birth date. I don't know enough about Saltcoats to comment on the discrepancy in the recorded family address. Perhaps 'Helenbank' is an alternative house name for 'Shields Cottage'.
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Re: Otto Carl Kiep

Post by down south »

There have been a couple of references lately to a Willie Shields who owned a lot of property in the Hamilton St area. Eglinton Place is just behind Hamilton St; so perhaps this cottage belonged to an earlier generation of the Shields family and was referred to by some as " Shields' cottage ".

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Re: Otto Carl Kiep

Post by Penny Tray »

Reading ahead as I do for the 'THIS DAY IN HISTORY TOPIC - (and currently I'm looking at 8 July, 1880-1889) - I discover that the Kiep family made two intimations in the Glasgow Herald, both on the 8th of July, one in 1886 and one in 1889, both relative to the birth of sons, both at Saltcoats, one born at Shields Cottage on the 7th July 1886 and the other at Helenbank on the 5th of July 1889.

The confusion seems to have arisen because, while only Otto's history is in the public domain, only the birth of the second son was intimated in the Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald, causing researchers to think this referred to Otto's birth or that mistakes had been made in transcribing records.

The Glasgow Herald intimations are as follows:-

8 JULY 1886

KIEP: At Shields Cottage, Saltcoats, on the 7th instant, Mrs J. N. Kiep; a son.

8 JULY 1889

KIEP: At Helenbank, Saltcoats, on the 5th instant, the wife of J. N. Kiep, Hughenden Terrace, Kelvinside; a son.
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Re: Otto Carl Kiep

Post by hahaya2004 »

PT, the 2 Kiep children born at Saltcoats were:
Otto Carl at Shields Cottage Eglinton Place on 07th July 1886
Max Franz at Helenbank Montgomerie Crescent on 05th July 1889
Both births were also registered at Partick.
The Kieps had a total of 5 sons and one daughter.
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Re: Otto Carl Kiep

Post by Penny Tray »

Thanks hahaya. I take it all the weans weren't conceived at the same time every year and born at Saltcoats in early July at different houses :lol: !
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Re: Otto Carl Kiep

Post by hahaya2004 »

Oops... They had four sons and one daughter. :oops:
Two boys Partick, two boys Saltcoats, one girl Partick. :D
The most important hour is always the present, the most significant person is the one opposite you right now, and the most necessary deed is always love. - Meister Eckhart (c.1260 - c.1328)
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