Dorten, Hans Adam

Public prosecutor, separatist leader

Born: 10.02.1880 in Endenich (Bonn district)

died: 04.1963 in Nice

Dorten studied law in Heidelberg, Munich and Bonn. He then worked for the district court in Waldbröl and as a public prosecutor in Düsseldorf, obtained his doctorate in Leipzig in 1907 and held a judgeship in Waldbröl from 1912. His transfer to the district court in Berlin in the summer of 1914 was thwarted by the outbreak of the First World War, in which Dorten took part as a captain until 1918.

After the November Revolution of 1918 and the occupation of the Rhineland, he turned to politics. He was close to the Center Party and was part of the Rhineland movement, which pursued an anti-socialist and anti-Prussian policy with the aim of establishing a sovereign Rhineland Republic.

At the beginning of 1919, Dorten moved to Hildastrasse 14 in Wiesbaden, where meetings were held with like-minded people and French military officers. Under his direction, the Rhenish Republic was proclaimed in Wiesbaden on June 1, 1919. Initially supported by the French occupying forces, the coup ended after about a week. Massive resistance by the city administration and the population prevented the establishment of the Dorten government. An arrest warrant was issued against Dorten for treason, but this could not be enforced in the occupied territory.

During the Rhineland crisis of 1923, Dorten, together with Josef Matthes and supported by the Rhenish Independence League, proclaimed a "Provisional Government of the Rhenish Republic" in Koblenz on October 20, 1923. After differences, he proclaimed a government for the southern Rhineland in Bad Ems in mid-November. This attempted coup also failed due to the lack of support from broad sections of the population and the declining support of the French military.

Dorten emigrated to France, worked as a lawyer in Nice from 1927 and was granted French citizenship in 1928. In 1937, he wrote his memoirs under the title "La Tragédie Rhénane".