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Adolf Georg von Maltzan

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Adolf Georg von Maltzan
Baron von Maltzan, 1900
German Ambassador to the United States
In office
1925–1927
Preceded byOtto Wiefeldt
Succeeded byFriedrich Wilhelm von Prittwitz und Gaffron
Personal details
Born(1877-07-31)31 July 1877
Klein-Varchow, Mecklenburg
Died23 September 1927(1927-09-23) (aged 50)
Schleiz, Thüringen
Spouse
Edith Gruson
​
​
(m. 1914; died 1927)​
ChildrenEdith von Maltzan
Parent(s)Ulrich von Maltzan
Adelheit Bierbaum
EducationKatharineum
Alma materUniversity 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 the Weimar Republic, serving as State Secretary of the Foreign Office and Ambassador in Washington.

Early life[edit]

Baron von Maltzan, who was usually called Ago for based on the initials of his baptismal names,[1] was born on 31 July 1877 on his father's estate at Klein-Varchow, Mecklenburg, Germany. He was the eldest son of manor owner Ulrich von Maltzan (1846–1931) and his wife Adelheit (née Bierbaum) von Maltzan (1857–1924). He was part of the nobility of Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania.[2]

He attended the Katharineum in Lübeck, graduating in 1896. He then studied law at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University (known as the University of Bonn) and was a member of the Corps Borussia Bonn before transferring to the Silesian Friedrich Wilhelm University in Breslau.[3]

Career[edit]

Photograph of U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, U.S. Ambassador Alanson B. Houghton, and von Maltzan, in Berlin, August 1924

After completing his studies and military service, von Maltzan entered the diplomatic service of the German Empire in 1906. He was initially employed as attaché in Rio de Janeiro in 1907, legation secretary in Oslo in 1909, St. Petersburg in 1911. In 1912 he was promoted to legation counselor and was assigned to Peking where he acted as chargé d'affaires during the Chinese revolution. Between his posts abroad, he took the diplomatic exam in 1908, and held "home posts" in the Foreign Office in Berlin, in the Reich Chancellery and at the Prussian Embassy in Stuttgart.[2]

World War I[edit]

During World War I, von Maltzan served as First Lieutenant in the Mecklenburg Dragoons before he was transferred to diplomatic duty as representative of the Wilhelmstrasse (the Foreign Office) to the Commander-in-Chief Eastern Front in the Spring of 1917. By opposing the militarists, he made himself so unpopular he was transferred to The Hague in December 1917.[2]

According to his obituary in Time, "His greatest diplomatic ordeal was doubtless in persuading the Kaiser to abdicate. Wilhelm II, at the time he fled from Germany, had not officially abdicated, his renunciation of the throne having been announced without Imperial authority by Chancellor Prince Max of Baden. Baron von Maltzan was therefore sent to Amerongen Castle to secure the Kaiser’s formal abdication as German Emperor and King of Prussia."[4]

Later career[edit]

Photograph of Ambassador von Maltzahn with wife and daughter Edith, 1925

After the end of the War, von Maltzan was appointed Reich Commissioner for the East by Minister Hermann Müller in 1919, responsible for the newly formed Baltic countries of Estonia and Latvia, where he organized the withdrawal of the German troops stationed there and the protection of East 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 the Treaty of Rapallo between Germany and Soviet Russia (from the end of 1922 the Soviet 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 didn't present his credentials to President Calvin Coolidge at the White House until 12 March 1925.[7] In October 1925, von Maltzan and Secretary Frank 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 by Friedrich Wilhelm von Prittwitz und Gaffron.[9]

Personal life[edit]

Photograph of Baroness von Maltzan, 1916

In 1914, Maltzan was married to Edith Emma Henriette Marie Luise Gruson (1886–1976), a daughter of industrialist Hermann August Gruson and granddaughter of Hermann Gruson of Magdeburg.[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 Lufthansa monoplane crashed over Schleiz in Thüringen on the way from Berlin to Munich.[2][15] His body was buried on his parents' estate in Grossen Luckow. In New York City, a memorial service was held for him at Zion Lutheran Church on the Upper East Side, which nearly 1,000 people attended including Julius P. Meyer, Rudolph Kessmeyer, Professor Theodor Wedepohl and Fritz Schroeder, and Karl von Lewinski among others.[16] A ceremony was held for him in the Assembly Room of the Foreign Office in Berlin officiated by Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann and attended by American Ambassador Jacob Gould Schurman.[17][18] His widow died in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria in 1976.[19]

Descendants[edit]

Through his daughter Edith, he was posthumously a grandfather of Eckbert Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (b. 1956),[13] who married Countess Désirée von Ortenburg (née Princess of Hohenzollern) in 2004. The former wife of Heinrich Franz Josef Georg Maria, Hereditary Count of Ortenburg, she is a daughter of Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern and Princess Birgitta of Sweden.[20]

Honors and awards[edit]

In 1927, Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Law degree "on the basis of a long, distinguished professional career, and as an expression of international good-will."[21]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "VON MALTZANS CHOSE NAME; German Ambassador Calls Himself Ago, for Adolf Georg Opto". The New York Times. 15 February 1925. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e Times, by the New York Times Company by Wireless To the New York (24 September 1927). "BARON VON MALTZAN AND 5 OTHERS KILLED IN REICH AIR CRASH; Lufthansa Plane Carrying the Ambassador Crumples as One Wing Is Severed. PASSENGERS DIE INSTANTLY Talk of Sabotage Discredited and Cause of Disaster May Never Be Known. GREAT SHOCK TO GERMANY Washington, Where Envoy Was Very Popular, Profoundly Moved -- Fervent Tributes Paid to Him. BARON VON MALTZAN AND 5 OTHERS KILLED". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  3. ^ Lehmann, Torsten (2007). Die Hallenser Corps im Deutschen Kaiserreich: eine Untersuchung zum studentischen Verbindungswesen von 1871 bis 1918 (in German). Mitteldeutscher Verlag. p. 127. ISBN 978-3-89812-445-4. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  4. ^ a b "GERMANY: Death of von Maltzan". Time. 3 October 1927. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  5. ^ Rossol, Nadine; Ziemann, Benjamin (2022). The Oxford Handbook of the Weimar Republic. Oxford University Press. p. 244. ISBN 978-0-19-884577-5. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  6. ^ du Puy, William Atherton (29 March 1925). "GERMANY'S NEW ENVOY AN ATHLETIC DIPLOMAT; Descendant of Baltic Barons, von Maltzan Has Spent Many Years in Foreign Service of His Country -- Helped Frame the Rapallo Treaty". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  7. ^ Times, Special to The New York (13 March 1925). "COOLIDGE RECEIVES NEW GERMAN ENVOY; President Praises Ebert In Accepting Credentials of Ambassador von Maltzan. SEES GERMANY RECOVERING Ambassador Thanks Americans for Help In Rebuilding Germany and Especially for Dawes Plan". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  8. ^ Times, Special to The New York (11 October 1925). "TO ACT ON GERMAN TREATY.; Kellogg and von Maltzan Will Exchange Ratifications Wednesday". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  9. ^ Times, by the New York Times Companyby Wireless To the New York (6 November 1927). "VON MALTZAN'S COURSE WILL GUIDE NEW ENVOY; Dr. von Prittwitz Will Arrive in Washington in January -- Is of Ancient Nobility". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  10. ^ Who was who in America. Marquis-Who's Who. 1968. p. 771. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  11. ^ Becker, Winfried (23 March 2011). Frederic von Rosenberg: Korrespondenzen und Akten des deutschen Diplomaten und Außenministers 1913-1937 (in German). Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag. p. 410. ISBN 978-3-486-70103-6. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  12. ^ "EDITH VON MALTZAN WED IN SWITZERLAND; Baroness, Daughter of German Envoy, Bride of Carl Hutz". The New York Times. 3 October 1939. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  13. ^ a b Manchester, William (31 October 2017). The Arms of Krupp: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty That Armed Germany at War. Little, Brown. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-316-48394-0. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  14. ^ Commire, Anne (2000). Women in World History: Jab-Kyt. Yorkin Publications. p. 824. ISBN 978-0-7876-4067-5. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  15. ^ "MALTZAN TRAGEDY STUNS WASHINGTON; Official and Social Circles Saddened by Envoy's Death -Coolidge Expresses Grief". The New York Times. September 24, 1927. p. 2. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  16. ^ "MEMORIAL SERVICES FOR VON MALTZAN; Prominent Men, Friends of Ambassador, Hear Eulogy in Zion Church". The New York Times. 26 September 1927. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  17. ^ "SERVICES FOR VON MALTZAN; Stresemann Extols Late Ambassador at Foreign Office Ceremony". The New York Times. 6 October 1927. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  18. ^ "DR. STRESEMANN SADDENED.; German Foreign Minister Pays Tribute to Baron von Maltzan". The New York Times. 24 September 1927. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  19. ^ Deutsche Geschichtsquellen des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts (in German). Harald Boldt Verlag. 1998. p. 711. ISBN 978-3-486-56278-1. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  20. ^ Reinhardt, Volker; Lau, Thomas (2005). Deutsche Familien: historische Portraits von Bismarck bis Weizsäcker (in German). C.H.Beck. pp. 88–93. ISBN 978-3-406-52905-4. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  21. ^ Times, Special to The New York (4 May 1927). "VON MALTZAN GETS DEGREE.; Marquette Honors German Envoy With Doctorate of Laws". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 June 2024.

External links[edit]

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