Adolf Georg von Maltzan | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Von Maltzan in 1924 | |
| German Ambassador to the United States | |
| In office 1925–1927 | |
| Preceded by | Otto Wiedfeldt |
| Succeeded by | Friedrich Wilhelm von Prittwitz und Gaffron |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Adolf Georg Otto von Maltzan (1877-07-31)31 July 1877 |
| Died | 23 September 1927(1927-09-23) (aged 50) |
| Cause of death | Plane crash |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Edith von Maltzan |
| Parent(s) | Ulrich von Maltzan Adelheit Bierbaum |
| Education | Katharineum |
| Alma mater | University of Bonn University of Wrocław |
Adolf Georg Otto "Ago" von Maltzan, Baron zu Wartenberg und Penzlin (31 July 1877 – 23 September 1927) was a German diplomat during theWeimar Republic, serving asState Secretary of the Foreign Office and Ambassador in Washington.
Baron von Maltzan, nicknamedAgo based on the initials of his baptismal names,[1] was born on 31 July 1877 on his father's estate atKlein-Varchow,Mecklenburg, Germany. He was the eldest son of manor owner Ulrich von Maltzan (1846–1931) and his wife Adelheid (née Bierbaum) von Maltzan (1857–1924). He was part of the nobility ofMecklenburg andWestern Pomerania.[2]
He attended theKatharineum inLübeck, graduating in 1896. He then studied law at theRheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University (known as theUniversity of Bonn) and was a member of theCorps Borussia Bonn before transferring to theSilesian Friedrich Wilhelm University in Breslau.[3]
After completing his studies and military service, von Maltzan started his diplomatic service for theGerman Empire in 1906. He was initially employed asattaché inRio de Janeiro in 1907, legation secretary inOslo in 1909,St. Petersburg in 1911. In 1912 he was promoted to legation counselor and was assigned toPeking where he acted aschargé d'affaires during the1911 Revolution. Between his posts abroad, he took the diplomatic exam in 1908, and held "home posts" in theForeign Office inBerlin, in theReich Chancellery and at the Prussian Embassy inStuttgart.[2]
DuringWorld War I, von Maltzan served as First Lieutenant in the Mecklenburg Dragoons before he was transferred to diplomatic duty as representative of theWilhelmstrasse (the Foreign Office) to the Commander-in-ChiefEastern Front in the Spring of 1917. By opposing the militarists, he made himself so unpopular he was transferred toThe Hague in December 1917.[2]
According to his obituary inTime, "His greatest diplomatic ordeal was doubtless in persuading theKaiser toabdicate.Wilhelm II, at the time he fled from Germany, had not officially abdicated, his renunciation of the throne having been announced without Imperial authority byChancellorPrince Max of Baden. Baron von Maltzan was therefore sent toAmerongen Castle to secure the Kaiser’s formal abdication as German Emperor and King of Prussia."[4]
After the War ended, von Maltzan was appointed Reich Commissioner for the East by MinisterHermann Müller in 1919, responsible for the newly formed Baltic countries ofEstonia andLatvia, where he organized the withdrawal of the German troops stationed there and the protection ofEast Prussia. Afterwards, von Maltzan served as Ministerial Director from 1921 and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1922, becoming head of the Russian Department of the Foreign Office.[5] As such, von Maltzan played a key role in bringing about theTreaty of Rapallo between Germany andSoviet Russia (from the end of 1922 theSoviet Union), which was signed on 16 April 1922.[2][6]
In 1924, von Maltzan was appointed as the ambassador to the German Embassy in Washington but did not present his credentials to PresidentCalvin Coolidge at theWhite House until 12 March 1925.[7] In October 1925, von Maltzan and SecretaryFrank B. Kellogg exchanged ratifications of a commercial treaty which was the first treaty between the countries following World War I with the exception of the peace treaty.[8] After his death, he was replaced byFriedrich Wilhelm von Prittwitz und Gaffron.[9]
In 1914, Maltzan was married toEdith Emma Henriette Marie Luise Gruson (1886–1976), a daughter of industrialist Hermann August Gruson and granddaughter ofHermann Gruson ofMagdeburg.[10][11] Together, they were the parents of a daughter:
During a stay at home in 1927, von Maltzan died on 23 September 1927,[4] along with five others, when his Lufthansamonoplane crashed overSchleiz inThüringen on the way fromBerlin toMunich.[2][15] His body was buried on his parents' estate in Grossen Luckow. In New York City, a memorial service was held for him atZion Lutheran Church on theUpper East Side, which nearly 1,000 people attended includingJulius P. Meyer,Rudolph Kessmeyer, ProfessorTheodor Wedepohl andFritz Schroeder, andKarl von Lewinski among others.[16] A ceremony was held for him in the Assembly Room of the Foreign Office in Berlin officiated by Foreign MinisterGustav Stresemann and attended by American AmbassadorJacob Gould Schurman.[17][18] His widow died inGarmisch-Partenkirchen inBavaria in 1976.[19]
Through his daughter Edith, he was posthumously a grandfather of three grandchildren:[20] Carol Hutz (b. 1940), who married Dr Wolf Johnssen (divorced),[21] Robert Hutz (b. 1942) who married Diane Dubé, and Eckbert von Bohlen und Halbach (b. 1956),[13] who married Countess Désirée von Ortenburg (néePrincess of Hohenzollern) in 2004. The former wife of Heinrich Franz Josef Georg Maria, HereditaryCount of Ortenburg, she is a daughter ofPrince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern andPrincess Birgitta of Sweden.[22]
In 1927,Marquette University inMilwaukee, Wisconsin awarded him an honoraryDoctorate of Law degree "on the basis of a long, distinguished professional career, and as an expression of international good-will."[23]
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