Laura Kuenssberg’s Great, Great grandfather was a world-renowned cloth manufacturer who built his business (photo) in Brandenburg, Germany. He employed over 500.
Laura Kuenssberg’s Great Grandfather Dr. Eberhard Kuenssberg – Legal Historian – The Third Reich
Eberhard von Kuenssberg was educated evangelically and attended schools in Graz and studied law in Vienna from 1899 to 1904.
His dissertation “The Forest in German Mountain Law” (1904) received the first prize of the Samitsch Foundation.
After leaving the legal state exams in Austria, he took an Austrian scholarship to Munich for two semesters, where he became acquainted with the founder of legal archaeology, Karl von Amira, who impressed him and became his model.
In 1905, Richard Schröder (who had initiated the 1896 project of a dictionary of the older German legal language) employed Kuenssberg as a research assistant for the dictionary.
In 1910 he qualified for the study, authorship, and publication of eight of the old German legal language for legal history.
In recognition of his decision, he was awarded the Prussian Red Eagle Order. He also received a “Free German” nationality.
Kuenssberg was not fit for military service (due to a heart defect) and during WW1, he engaged in voluntary nursing.
He founded the first German Einarmschule in Ettlingen in 1915, which he directed until December 1918, and wrote a multi-handed manual for one-armed people.
After the prescribed time as a private lecturer (and after the death of Schroeder), he was appointed titular professor in Heidelberg in 1916.
He took over the leadership of the German legal dictionary in 1917 and laid down the keywords, sources and the scope of the articles, and wrote many of his own.
In addition to his legal work, he gave lectures and exercises for lawyers and philologists on the subject of legal history.
In 1924 he was admitted to the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.
In 1928 he became a professor of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, the bearer of the legal dictionary.
He retained his special position in the Heidelberg Faculty (From 1928 -1941) and his publication of the legal dictionary (even though his wife Katharina (1883-1978), born Samson, was of Jewish descent).
After the war, the Heidelberg Faculty pointed out to the Reich Ministry of Education that Kuenssberg had actively supported National Socialism (NAZI) ideals and was the leading authority in the development of the German legal dictionary having compiled and released four of eight volumes.
Kuenssberg unexpectedly died of complications arising from an operation (ulcers) in 1941.
The Kuenssbergs had ensured that their five children had left Germany before his death.
One son, Ekkehard Kuenssberg (1913-2000), continued his medical studies in Edinburgh and became a well-known physician in Scotland.
Dr Katharina Kuenssberg (nee Samson) was a distinguished biologist. The daughter of wealthy cloth manufacturer Gustav Samson, and Anna Goldschmidt, (daughter of Jewish couple Hermann and Rosalie Goldschmidt.) was to be deported at the beginning of 1942, (but this was prevented by the intervention of the Dean of the Heidelberg Law Faculty Eugen Ulmer).
Her granddaughter said later:
“My grandfather did not die from cancer in 1941, rather he was murdered on the operating theatre table by the surgeon at the orders of the Gestapo. My uncle, Dr. Ekke von Kuenssberg, interviewed the surgeon after the war ended in 1945 as to why a simple ulcer surgery ended in death. The surgeon apologized to my uncle. He had no choice as the Gestapo in the operating theatre had given him orders that my grandfather was not to come out alive.
My grandparents sent all their children out of Germany as they were well aware of the negative changes going on in Germany under Hilter. Who wouldn’t? my mother had to leave school in 1935 because of anti-Semitism.
My grandfather was disgusted that Austria and Germany had been taken over by a working-class man, a unionist, who spent two years in a psychiatric hospital and then, had taken over Austria and Germany. Previously, nobles had a major part in all governance of Austria and Germany.”
Katherina Kuenssberg lived in Castle Finstergrün from 1941 until the end of WW2.
Laura Kuenssberg’s Grandfather Ekkehard von Kuenssberg (1913-2001) – Former General Practitioner
Ekkehard was Educated at Schule Schloss, Salem,(1) where he was head boy, led on to Innsbruck University where he studied science.
A family decision was made that Ekkehard should leave Innsbruck and go to the United Kingdom to continue his education.
The account of his journey to Edinburgh and how he was accepted as a student by Edinburgh University medical school is a wonderful story in itself which is documented in the university graduates’ association journal.
He graduated in 1939. In addition to his academic studies) he had time for play, and gained a blue for hockey, founded the university ski club, and was a co-founder of the yacht club.
His alien status in 1939 restricted the range of medical jobs he was allowed to do, and in May 1940 he was interned for five months.
On release from internment, he returned to Edinburgh and became a locum to Dr. C E Munro, who was on war service.
Thrown into general practice at the deep end his workload was enormous.
Poverty, overcrowded housing, and men away at the war all created problems additional to the difficulties of dealing with illness with a limited pharmacopeia.
In February 1944 Ekkehard achieved his desire to join the forces and was commissioned as a subaltern in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
Three years later he was demobbed in the rank of lieutenant colonel, having been an assistant director of hygiene in East Africa.
More Here:
http://www.bmj.com/content/suppl/2002/03/07/324.7337.616.g.DC1
Ekkehard Von Kuenssberg (1913-2001) was Head boy at Schule Schloss, Salem
Ekkehard von Kuenssberg – Prince Philip – Salem School – Hitler Youth and Universal Fascism
During World War I, Prince Max von Baden had been chancellor, while the Oxford-trained Hahn first served as head of the Berlin Foreign Ministry’s intelligence desk, then as a special adviser to Prince Max in the Versailles Treaty negotiations.
Von Baden and Hahn set up a school in a wing of Schloss Salem, employing a combination of monasticism and the Nazis’ “strength-through-joy” system.
At first, an ardent supporter of the Nazis, Hahn, who was part Jewish, embraced the more centrist elements of the Nazi Party.
Ownership of the school transferred to Prince Berthold, Margrave of Baden, (Queen Elizabeth’s uncle).
Through the influence of his sister Theodora, (Prince Berthold’s wife) a young Prince Philip was enrolled at the school
At the time of Prince Philip’s arrival, it was controlled and directed by the Hitler Youth and the Nazi Party, and the curriculum was centered on Nazi “race science”.
Gordonstoun School
Hahn’s powerful NAZI connections permitted him to escape the concentration camps but he left the school Prince Philip’s arrival and established a new school in Scotland, called Gordonstoun.
It would play a major role in rearing all the male children of Queen Elizabeth II and Philip.
Hahn became an important adviser to the Foreign Office in London, urging policies of appeasement based upon appeals to the “centrist” Nazis.
But according to confidential records released long after the war Dr Kurt Hahn,the German-born founder of Gordonstoun (attended by generations of the Royal Family was a suspected Nazi spy.)
MI5 agents in Edinburgh and the Secretary of State for Scotland were convinced in 1940 that Dr Kurt Hahn should be interned.
But MI5 in London and the Home Office regarded him as free from suspicion.
Rumors circulated there was a photograph of Hahn with Hitler and there were claims that during the First World War Hahn ‘connived in measures calculated to break British morale’.
He was also accused of spreading propaganda, blaming the 1919 Treaty of Versailles for the Second World War and advocating the return of colonies to Germany.
The revelations were contained in Scottish Office files released under an Open Government initiative passed by Parliament.
Gordonstoun, near Elgin, which catered for 150 boys, also came under local suspicion.
It was strategically sited between two RAF aerodromes, ran navigation courses for pupils and had a look-out post over the Moray Firth.
Five masters and 11 boys were interned by the order of the Home Secretary but Hahn was not.
A school full of refugee German teachers and pupils inevitably fell under suspicion.
In the summer of 1940, the school was evacuated and Hahn set up similar establishments in Wales and the Highlands.
The Duke of Edinburgh and Princes Charles, Andrew and Edward were educated at Gordonstoun, which maintained Hahn’s emphasis on self-reliance and practical skills.
The Kuenssberg family
Laura is the daughter of Scottish businessman, Professor Nick Kuenssberg, OBE and his wife Sally Kuenssberg, CBE.
Her brother David and sister Joanna are employed with the British Diplomatic Service.
Joanna was appointed High Commissioner to Mozambique as of April 2014.
http://www.scotsman.com/business/management/business-interview-nick-kuenssberg-1-2819213
Career profile of Professor Nick Kuenssberg OBE
Coats-Paton
Nick was employed in an executive position with Coats-Paton, from 1965 and spent a deal of time expanding the company in South America.
In Peru during the late 1960s, he became gained notoriety as a shrewd operator.
At the time the government enacted laws providing for the financial protection and reimbursement of employees in the country.
But Nick found a legal way around the reforms so that all of the employees of Coats-Paton would be exempt from the benefits of the legislation.
This was a time of sweatshops in the textile industries and Nick helped deny rights to his employees.
A study of the timeline of Coats-Patons factories opening globally reveals a hard-line capitalist approach.
When, in developing countries, they were faced with challenges to their mode of operation the company simply “upped sticks” and transferred their power looms to more receptive countries taking full advantage of weaker legal systems and lower wages.
Following a number of mergers, the company is now known as Coats PLC.
It operates sites (together with other multinationals) in many countries worldwide, including India, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Brazil, the Philippines, Venezuela, Pakistan, and Turkey.
In the 1970’s World Trading Authorities applied pressure intent on bringing to an end the shoddy business practices of Coats-Paton and other multinationals which were revealed to be tantamount to slavery.
At around this time, Nick transferred his skills to the European side of the business returning to Scotland in 1978.
In a March 2013 interview, he appeared to vindicate the denial of legal rights to his Peruvian workforce, calling the enacted governmental reforms a disaster.
(http://www.scotsman.com/business/management/business-interview-nick-kuenssberg-1-2819213)
In 2007 Coats was fined €110 million by the European Commission for participation in cartels with Prym, YKK and other companies to fix and manipulate the prices of zips and other fasteners, and of the machinery to make them.
One of the cartels ran for twenty-one years.
An appeal in 2012 to the General Court of the European Union was dismissed, and the fine upheld.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coats_Group#Controversy)
More information here: (http://politicalreformedfutures.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/laura-kuenssberg-heratige-of-sweat.html)
28 Mar 1995: Finlay and Kuenssberg Fall on Their Swords as company struggles
A boardroom coup at Dawson International, the Pringle sweaters business, has led to the resignations of its chairman and managing director.
They are carrying the can for a string of bad news, culminating yesterday in the announcement of 500 job losses in Scotland and the closure of two factories.
The market, which has been looking for scapegoats for Dawson’s poor performance, pushed the shares 4.5p higher to 104p.
Over the past three years, they have underperformed the market by almost two-thirds.
In a move thought to have been precipitated by disgruntled institutional investors, including PDFM, Royal Insurance, M&G and Schroders, Sir Ronald Miller, chairman, has been replaced by non-executive Derek Finlay, and Nick Kuenssberg, managing director for less than a year, is succeeded by Peter Forrest, a divisional head.
Investors are annoyed that they stumped up £45m in a one-for-four rights issue last May to restore Dawson’s badly mauled balance sheet. The shares are currently well below the 120p issue price.
At the time, Sir Ronald told investors that have taken the decision to implement essential rationalization in the US, the group was in a strong position to achieve growth again.
Sir Ronald, who joined Dawson in 1968, had been chairman for the past 12 years. He and Kuenssberg are expected to receive pay-offs relative to their respective £200,000 and £135,000 salaries. The company is looking for a new chief executive.
The cost of adjusting is expected to be £10m covering site closures and job losses. Those are divided between the Pringle operation, where a factory at Arbroath is to be closed and at Blackwood Brothers, Dawson’s yarn-spinning company, which is suffering from reduced demand for high-quality carpets.
Pringle is reeling under lower sales and higher raw material prices and will make a loss this year. Its retail operations are also to be run down.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/heads-roll-as-dawson-sheds-500-1613256.html
The Kuenssberg’s & the Labour Party
Nick enjoys a friendship with the (Labour Party) Alexander family (from Paisley).
He contributed financially, together with others to the labor party in Scotland’s leadership campaign of Wendy Alexander.
Problems surfaced when it was revealed that she had failed to declare the contributions to the Electoral Commission and she was forced to withdraw her nomination. She resigned from Scottish politics.
Laura Kuenssberg was born in Italy, while her father was employed there with Coats Viyella.
She studied history at the University of Edinburgh, followed by a journalism course at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., where she worked on an NBC News political programme.
She has worked in France, and in the United States, satisfying her serious election geek tendencies by covering two White House races.
On returning to Britain, she worked for local radio and then cable television in Glasgow, before joining BBC North East and Cumbria in March 2000.
She won a regional Royal Television Society award for her work as Home Affairs correspondent and went on to produce segments for the Social Affairs editor Niall Dickson.
She then worked for Channel 4 News for a time before returning to the BBC.
She is married and lives in London.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/12/bbc-newsnight-itv-laura-kuenssberg .
2010: Kuenssberg rejoined the BBC in 2004 as Chief Political Correspondent for BBC News
In her seven years in Westminster, she reported for a wide range of BBC programmes including the 10 O’clock News, Today and News-night, ultimately working as the chief political correspondent for the BBC News Channel during the 2010 General Election.
She enjoyed an extremely good relationship with the Downing Street police officers, and benefited from this in May 2010, when her presence was so ubiquitous in the period between the general election and the formation of a coalition government under David Cameron.
Surviving on a diet of egg sandwiches and adrenaline, for hour after hour and day after day the 33-year-old, blonde-bobbed Scot described, debated and analyzed the most enthralling election campaign for decades.
http://www.webcitation.org/5xWzukw3E
On 12 November 2013 Kuenessberg awarded hefty £200,000-a-year contract by the BBC
She subsequently returned to the BBC as chief correspondent and a presenter of Newsnight (average audience slipping badly in recent years reduced to just 600,000 viewers).
The deal, which angered many BBC staff, came after the Corporation had been widely criticized for the high salaries paid to executives and on-screen stars.
Video in which Marine Le Pen put Laura Kuenssberg from BBC News-night back in her box.
The typically agenda-driven bias was well in evidence here when Kuenssberg tried to get Le Pen to say that UKIP and her party were fellow travellers.
Ms. Le Pen was adept retaining control of the interview not allowing herself to be pigeonholed.
There was much to admire at the way she admonished Kuenssberg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83NsHR5-0-Y
Ms. Le Pen
3 May 2016: Twitter erupts as BBC struggle to keep Tory Election Fraud under..
The term ‘BBC bias’ has been bandied about a lot recently, and many are questioning the political neutrality of commentators such as Laura Kuenssburg.
It’s easy to see how many have come to these conclusions, given that Kuenssburg’s last 6 consecutive tweets – spanning from April 28th – have all been about one person: Jeremy Corbyn – as opposed to anything that could potentially damage the Conservatives.
When you combine Kuenssburg’s unashamedly negative Jeremy Corbyn obsession, with her Daily Politics sidekick Andrew Neil – Chairman of the zealously Conservative media outlet, The Spectator – it’s not hard to see why many are now questioning why the BBC’s political department is keeping a potentially huge Conservative scandal subdued.
http://evolvepolitics.com/twitter-erupts-bbc-struggle-keep-tory-election-fraud-wraps-may-elections/
7 January 2016: BBC producer deletes blog where he admits political manipulation before PM questions
A BBC producer has admitted in a BBC blog – now deleted – that Andrew Neil, Laura Kuenssberg and himself manipulated the news to negatively impact Jeremy Corbyn during Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday.
In the blog, the producer – Andrew Alexander – openly admits the BBC team were not just reporting the day’s news but trying to influence it: “this was a story where we could make an impact” .
Alexander also admitted the BBC team were fully aware that their actions would influence events: “we knew his resignation just before PMQs would be a dramatic moment with big political impact”.
And expressed pleasure in seeing the PM use their actions to attack the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn: Full story here:
8 January 2016: BBC Admit intentionally damaging Corbyn leadership with contrived live resignation
Damning figures show that sixty percent of the pieces involving Corbyn during his first seven days of his leadership were negative.
What is more surprising is that these figures do not even include one of the worst culprits:
The BBC.
Shortly after Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the Labour Party in September, the BBC were accused of an ‘anti Corbyn bias’ and challenged with a 61,000 strong petition demanding that they stop using the prefix ‘left-wing’ when reporting on events related to his leadership.
But before he even won a stunning 59.5% of the vote, ensuring the largest democratic mandate of any Labour leader in modern history, Jeremy Corbyn was subject to what a source from his leadership campaign went as far as describing a ‘complete hatchet job’.
The Panorama episode in question was alleged to have attracted a large number of complaints, but the BBC refused to release the figures.
Former BBC political editor, Nick Robinson, even wrote to his colleagues over concerns about the BBC’s bias towards Corbyn, and Channel 4’s Michael Crick issued a stunning rebuke to broadcasters referring to non-left MPs as ‘moderates’.
Despite these protestations, as we begin a New Year, it is evident that the BBC has not taken any New Year’s Resolutions to become a little bit more balanced in the face of a broader, more inclusive political spectrum.
Full story here:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/resources/files/41748 (The full story)
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