Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff
Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff | |
---|---|
Hermann Freiherr Speck von Sternburg | |
Succeeded by | Suspended due to World War I |
German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire | |
In office 1917–1918 | |
Reichstag | |
In office 1921–1928 | |
Personal details | |
Born | London, United Kingdom | 14 November 1862
Died | 6 October 1939 Geneva, Switzerland | (aged 76)
Political party | German Democratic Party |
Spouse |
Jeanne Luckemeyer (m. 1887) |
Children | Luise-Alexandra (1888–1971) Christian-Günther (1891–1947) |
Parent(s) | Count Albrecht von Bernstorff Anna von Könneritz |
Johann Heinrich Graf
Early life
Born in 1862 in London, he was the son of one of the most powerful politicians in the
While Bernstorff's dream had always been to pursue a diplomatic career, the family feud with Bismarck made an appointment to the diplomatic service impossible.[1] As a result, he joined the Prussian Army for the next eight years and served in an artillery unit in Berlin.
After being elected a member of the
Career
First diplomatic postings
His first diplomatic assignment was
Despite his family's problems with the Bismarcks, Bernstorff basically agreed with Bismarck's policies, particularly the decision to found the German Reich without Austria in 1871. As a diplomat, Bernstorff adamantly supported Anglo-German rapprochement and considered the policies of Wilhelm II "reckless".[7]
Ambassador to the United States
This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2021) |
In 1908, Bernstorff was appointed the German ambassador to the United States.[9]
He was recalled to Germany on 7 July 1914 but returned on 2 August, upon the outbreak of the World War I. It was later revealed that he had been recruited into intelligence work and ordered to assist the German war effort by all means necessary.[citation needed] He was also provided with a large slush fund to finance those operations. He began with attempts to assist German-Americans who wished to return home to fight by forging passports to get them through the Allied blockade.
Publicly, Bernstorff's ambassadorship in Washington was characterised by a diplomatic battle with the British ambassador, Sir Cecil Spring Rice, with both men attempting to influence the American government's position regarding the war.[10] Later, however, as the blockade began to prevent American munitions manufacturers from trading with Germany, Bernstorff began financing sabotage missions to obstruct arms shipments to Germany's enemies. Some of the plans included a September 1914 attempt at destroying the Welland Canal, which circumvents Niagara Falls. That year, the German diplomatic mission also began supporting the expatriate Indian movement for independence.
Bernstorff was assisted by Captain Franz von Papen, later a German chancellor, and Captain Karl Boy-Ed, a naval attaché. The commercial attaché, Heinrich Albert, was the finance officer for the sabotage operations. Papen and the German consulate in San Francisco were known to have been extensively involved in the Hindu–German Conspiracy, especially in the Annie Larsen gun-running plot. Although Bernstorff himself officially denied all knowledge, most accounts agree that he was intricately involved as part of the German intelligence and sabotage offensive in America against Britain. After the capture of the Annie Larsen and confiscation of its cargo, Bernstorff made efforts to recover the $200,000 worth of arms and insisted that they were meant for Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa. That was futile, however, and the arms were auctioned off.
In December 1914, a humorous British article on his activities in the United States, The Amazing Ambassador, by
In 1915, Bernstorff also helped organise what became known as the
In July 1916, the Black Tom explosion was the most spectacular of the sabotage operations.
Some of Bernstorff's other activities were exposed by the British Secret Service, which had obtained and distributed to the press a photograph of him "in a swimming costume with his arms around two similarly dressed women, neither of whom was his wife".[12]
Bernstorff was returned home on 3 February 1917, when US President Woodrow Wilson severed diplomatic relations with Germany after the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. Upon receiving the news, Colonel Edward M. House wrote to him, "The day will come when people in Germany will see how much you have done for your country in America".
In 1910,
Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
He assumed his position as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1917. Bernstorff conceded that the Ottoman policy against the Armenians was one of exterminating the race.[14] Bernstorff provided a detailed account of the massacres in his memoirs, Memoirs of Count Bernstorff. In his memoirs, Bernstorff recounts a conversation with Talat Pasha after the massacres had been concluded: "When I kept on pestering him about the Armenian question, he once said with a smile: 'What on earth do you want? The question is settled, there are no more Armenians.'"[14]
Weimar Republic
Bernstorff was proposed as Foreign Minister in
In 1926, he became the Chairman of
Bernstorff, who was explicitly mentioned by
Publications
- My three years in America (New York: Scribner's, 1920)[18]
- Memoirs of Count Bernstorff (New York: Random House, 1936)
See also
- Witnesses and testimonies of the Armenian genocide
- Foreign policy of the Theodore Roosevelt administration
- Foreign policy of the Woodrow Wilson administration
Notes
References
- ^ Heribert von Feilitzsch, In Plain Sight: Felix A. Sommerfeld, Spymaster in Mexico, 1908 to 1914, Henselstone Verlag, Virginia, 2012, pp. 203–204
- )
- ^ NY Times 8 November 1908
- ^ "Bernstorff's wife again U.S. citizen," The New York Times, 25 February 1939, p. 13.
- ^ "Latest intelligence - German diplomatic changes". The Times. No. 36915. London. 3 November 1902. p. 4.
- ^ )
- ^ Johann Count von Bernstorff, Memoirs of Count Bernstorff, Random House, New York, NY, 1936.
- ^ Donovan, Henry. "Chicago Eagle". Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
- ^ )
- ^ S. Gwynn, 'The Letters and Friendships of Sir Cecil Spring Rice' (Constable & Co Lt, London, 1929), 352.
- ^ "Madame Eulalie - Stories from Other Publications".
- ^ MI6, The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909 – 1949, Keith Jeffery, Bloomsbury, 2010. p. 113
- ^ Martha Mitchell, "Honorary degrees" in Encyclopedia Brunoniana (1993).
- ^ ISBN 978-1-169-93525-9.
- ^ Biography at Neue Deutsche Biographie
- )
- ISBN 9780521474078. Retrieved 21 October 2009.
- ISSN 1937-5239.
External links
- Bernstorff next to Chaim Weizmann and Albert Einstein in 1926 at the foundation of the pro-Palestine Committee
- Hoser, Paul: Bernstorff, Johann Heinrich, Graf von, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- My Three Years in America by Johann Heinrich Bernstorff
- Count Bernstorff. My Three Years in America at Project Gutenberg