Johan Paul van Limburg Stirum

Johan Paul van Limburg Stirum

Johan Paul van Limburg Stirum (known in the German-speaking world as John Graf von Limburg-Stirum ; born February 2, 1873 in Zwolle , † April 17, 1948 in The Hague ) was a Dutch diplomat . He was best known as the Dutch envoy in Berlin from 1925 to 1936 and as the Dutch envoy in London from 1936 to 1939.

Live and act

John Graf von Limburg-Stirum studied at the University of Leiden . He finished his studies in 1895 with a dissertation on Iets over de volkenrechtelijke interventie .

As a young man, Limburg-Stirum entered the diplomatic service of the Dutch state.

Limburg-Stirum's diplomatic career took him to the German Empire during the First World War . Erich Ludendorff , a de facto German military dictator in the second half of the war, who met the Dutchman in 1917, later characterized him as a “knowledgeable and skilled man with a warm patriotic disposition”.

After the First World War, Limburg-Stirum served as Governor General of the Dutch East Indies . From 1925 he returned to Berlin as the Dutch envoy for Germany. He held the position of envoy until 1936. In this position he worked well with his friend from their youth, the Dutch Foreign Minister, Andries Cornelis Dirk de Graeff . The Nazis stood Limburg-Stirum hostile to. According to his nephew Fritz Günther von Tschirschky "he hated the Nazis and Hitler personally like no other diplomat of the time" and refused to receive NSDAP politicians in his embassy until he left the Netherlands as a representative in Berlin .

In 1936 Limburg-Stirum was dismissed from his post in Berlin and instead sent to London in the same capacity, where he remained active until his retirement in 1939.

marriage and family

Limburg-Stirum was married to Catharina Maria ("Nini") geb. Jonkvrouwe Rolina van Sminia. Two German nephews of Limburg-Stirum were the officer Bernhard von Tschirschky and the Silesian landowner and diplomat Fritz Günther von Tschirschky .

Fonts

• Indië's national ontwikkeling , 1925.
• The Netherlands as a colonial power , 1927.

Web links

Commons : Johan Paul van Limburg Stirum  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Mr. JP graaf van Limburg Stirum , Parlement & Politiek

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Erich Ludendorff: Meine Kriegserinnerungen, 1914-1918 , 1919, p. 207.
2. ↑ At the time of Stirum's activity, ambassadors were generally only the diplomatic representatives of one great power at another great power (for example the British representative in France or the Italian representative in Germany). All representatives of smaller states and representatives of major powers in smaller states were designated as envoys, even if they actually performed the same task. The term ambassador for all the highest representatives of one country to another did not appear until after the Second World War.
3. ^ Graeff, Andries Cornelis Dirk Voor u persoonlijk. Brieven van minister van Buitenlandse Zaken yr. ACD de Graeff aan gezant JP graaf van Limburg Stirum (1933-1937) , 2nd edition, publisher - De Haan, Houten, ISBN 90-269-4324-5
4. ^ Fritz Günther von Tschirschky: Memories of a High Traitor , 1972, p. 112.

predecessor	Office	successor
Willem Gevers	Dutch envoy to the German Reich 1925 to 1936	Hendrik Maurits van Haersma de With
René de Marees van Swinderen	Dutch envoy to the United Kingdom from 1936 to 1939	Edgar Michiels van Verduynen