Henrik Louis Hans Kauffmann

Background

Henrik Louis Hans Kauffmann was born on August 26, 1888, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to the Danish architect and chamberlain Aage Basse Gustav von Kauffmann and Mathilde Bertha Louise von Bernus. His family returned to Copenhagen in 1902, where he completed his secondary education and began the academic preparation for a diplomatic career.

Kauffmann belonged to a Danish family with long-standing connections to public service and the court. His early life therefore combined a German birthplace with a Danish social and institutional environment, a background reflected in his later international career.

Education

Kauffmann graduated from Metropolitanskolen in Copenhagen in 1906. The school was one of Copenhagen's established Latin schools and formed part of the city's traditional secondary education system.

He studied law at the University of Copenhagen and received the cand.jur. degree in 1911. The university, founded in 1479, was Denmark's principal institution for advanced legal and administrative education, and his legal training provided the professional basis for entry into the Danish Foreign Ministry.

Career

Kauffmann entered the Danish Foreign Ministry in 1911 as a volunteer and became an assistant in 1912. He served as a consular secretary in New York from 1913 to 1915, as a legation secretary in Berlin from 1916 to 1919, and as head of a ministry office from 1920 to 1921. These assignments placed him in the diplomatic institutions through which Denmark managed its relations with major European and North American powers during the years surrounding the First World War.

In 1921 Kauffmann became Denmark's envoy in Rome. From 1924 he served as envoy in Peking, with accreditation to Tokyo and, from 1928, to Bangkok. His Chinese posting included negotiations that contributed to the 1928 Danish-Chinese treaty of friendship and commerce, while his multiple accreditations reflected the practice of assigning one senior envoy responsibility for several diplomatic relationships in East Asia.

Kauffmann was envoy in Oslo from 1932 to 1939 and was appointed envoy in Washington in 1939. After Germany occupied Denmark on April 9, 1940, he refused to accept instructions from the government in Copenhagen, arguing that it was acting under occupation. The Danish government dismissed him and charged him with high treason, but the United States continued to recognize him as Denmark's representative.

On April 9, 1941, Kauffmann signed the Agreement relating to the Defense of Greenland with United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull. Acting with the support of Greenland's local authorities, he authorized American defense measures and military facilities in Greenland at a time when the island was strategically important for the protection of North America and the Atlantic route. The agreement was rejected by the government in occupied Copenhagen but was later adapted in the postwar period.

Kauffmann represented Free Denmark in wartime diplomatic affairs and participated in international negotiations connected with the Allied war effort. In 1945 he led the Danish delegation at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco, where representatives of fifty nations drafted and signed the United Nations Charter. From May to November 1945 he served as Minister without Portfolio in Denmark's Cabinet of National Unity, then returned to Washington.

From February 1947 he held the title of ambassador and remained Denmark's ambassador to the United States until his retirement in 1958. His Washington service covered the final years of the Second World War, the creation of the United Nations, and the early Cold War, making him a central figure in Danish-American relations during those transitions.

Achievements

• Kauffmann negotiated and signed the 1941 Agreement relating to the Defense of Greenland, authorizing United States defense measures and military facilities in Greenland while Denmark was occupied by Germany.

• He continued to represent Free Denmark in Washington after rejecting instructions from the Danish government operating under German occupation.

• He led Denmark's delegation to the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco, contributing to the Danish participation in the creation of the United Nations Charter.

• He contributed to the negotiation of the 1928 Danish-Chinese treaty of friendship and commerce during his diplomatic service in China.

Politics

Kauffmann was associated with Denmark's National Unity government as Minister without Portfolio in 1945, after the country's liberation from German occupation. The cabinet brought together representatives of different political forces during the transition from occupation to restored parliamentary government.

His political conduct during the Second World War was defined by opposition to the authority of the German-controlled Danish government. After Germany occupied Denmark in April 1940, he declared that he could not follow instructions issued by a government acting under foreign coercion and continued to represent what he described as Free Denmark in Washington.

Views

Kauffmann's wartime conduct reflected the view that a government operating under foreign occupation could not freely determine Denmark's international policy. His diplomatic actions emphasized continuity of Danish sovereignty and the protection of Danish interests through cooperation with the United States and the Allied powers.

Personality

Contemporary and later descriptions portray Kauffmann as elegant, energetic, sociable, and notably self-assured. His independent conduct during the occupation, including his decision to continue representing Free Denmark despite dismissal by Copenhagen, also forms part of his documented public character.

Quotes from others about the person

• Kauffmann was nicknamed the “King of Greenland” in the United States because of his independent role in arranging the wartime defense agreement for Greenland.

Interests

• Physical fitness, jogging, international travel, and mountaineering.

• Sport & Clubs

  Skiing and mountaineering.

Connections

Kauffmann married Charlotte MacDougall on November 18, 1926, at Portsmouth Naval Base in New Hampshire. She was the daughter of United States Rear Admiral William D. MacDougall and Charlotte Stone. Both Kauffmann and his wife died on June 5, 1963, and he was buried at Vedbæk Cemetery.

Wife:

Charlotte MacDougall

Married Kauffmann in 1926; she was the daughter of Rear Admiral William D. MacDougall and Charlotte Stone.

References

• Henrik Kauffmann — Dansk Biografisk Leksikon Biographical reference documenting Kauffmann's birth and death, education, diplomatic appointments, wartime conduct, ministerial service, family, and decorations.
  2011
• Henrik Kauffmann — Lex Reference article describing Kauffmann's diplomatic career, his break with the government in occupied Copenhagen, and his role in the Greenland agreement.
• Defiant Diplomacy Professional diplomatic-history account of Kauffmann's representation of Free Denmark in Washington and his role in United States-Danish relations during the Second World War and early Cold War.
• History of the United Nations Institutional history providing context for the 1945 San Francisco conference and the creation of the United Nations in which Kauffmann represented Denmark.