German Who Offended Jews to Be Envoy

Philipp Jenninger, who was forced to resign as West German parliament president for a speech that insulted Jews on the 50th anniversary of the start of the Holocaust, will become the united Germany’s ambassador to Austria in November, the government disclosed Friday.

The appointment returns the 58-year-old Christian Democrat to public service after two years of political exile following his controversial address to the Bundestag on Nov. 10, 1988, half a century after the pogrom known as Kristallnacht-- “Night of Broken Glass,” after the shattered windows of Jewish homes and businesses that glittered in the streets in the Nazis’ wake.

Jenninger stirred an international furor for remarks that were interpreted as anti-Semitic, although he later convinced many of his critics that he had been attempting to explain Adolf Hitler’s appeal to the German people. Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal has exonerated Jenninger, and described him Friday as “a great friend of Israel and the Jews.”

Wiesenthal, who makes his home in Vienna, said he had no reservations about Jenninger’s appointment.

“Philipp Jenninger was a victim of the quotations,” Wiesenthal said in a telephone interview. “He has suffered the consequences of his unfortunate comments.”

It was not clear when Jenninger would present his credentials to Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, who has been implicated in Nazi war crimes.

West German Jewish Community leader Heinz Galinski was not available for comment on Jenninger’s appointment because he was observing the Rosh Hashanah holiday, a spokesman for his Berlin office said.

The announcement of Jenninger’s ambassadorial post drew little notice in Bonn on Friday, as much of the political community is absorbed with preparations for the Oct. 3 reunification observances.

Jenninger has been seen as a guest at official ceremonies over the past two years but has not returned to public life since the Kristallnacht controversy. He was delivering a memorial speech on behalf of the Bonn government when he prompted dozens of leftist politicians to stalk out in protest of his reference to Hitler’s triumphs as “glorious times.”

“Wasn’t he chosen by providence, a fuehrer such as is given to a people only once in a thousand years?” Jenninger asked, leading many of his listeners to believe that he was paying tribute to Hitler. “The years from 1933 to 1938, even from a distant retrospective and in the knowledge of what followed, still are a fascinating thing today, since throughout history there was hardly a parallel to Hitler’s triumphal procession during the first years.”

Although Jenninger was never accused of being anti-Semitic, his fumbled address was deemed disrespectful to the memory of thousands of Jews targeted by rampaging Nazis in the pogrom that heralded the coming Holocaust.