Benjamin Bathurst

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Benjamin Bathurst (born March 14, 1784 in London ; disappeared November 25, 1809 in Perleberg ) was a British diplomat .

Benjamin Bathurst

Life

Bathurst, third son of the Bishop of Norwich , Henry Bathurst , was in charge of a diplomatic mission in 1809. He had brought the Austrian Emperor Franz I proposals to renew the alliance between Great Britain and Austria, in which Franz was encouraged to declare war against France . The emperor approved these proposals in April 1809, and Bathurst had successfully completed his mission.

However, the war took an unfavorable course and ended with the Austrian defeat at Wagram on July 6, 1809. Bathurst had to leave Vienna in a hurry and return to London. He decided against a trip across the Mediterranean and instead chose a route that would take him by land northwards through nominally neutral states of the Rhine Confederation from Berlin to Hamburg .

On November 25th, Benjamin Bathurst, who for security reasons was traveling under the false identity of a merchant named Baron de Koch , reached the town of Perleberg around noon, where he stopped and ate at the Zum Weißen Schwan inn . Then he is said to have asked the local military commander Friedrich von Klitzing for protection, whereupon the latter is said to have put two cuirassiers at his side; they kept watch at Bathurst until he sent them away around 7 p.m. He left the building around 9 p.m. to supervise the preparations for his carriage onward. From this point on his whereabouts are unknown; Benjamin Bathurst disappeared under circumstances that were never entirely clarified.

Benjamin Bathurst left behind his wife Phillida Call , whom he married on May 25, 1805, and his daughter Emmeline .

Aftermath

The diplomat's disappearance found its way into popular culture . For example, the UFA film The Higher Command from 1935 (directed by Gerhard Lamprecht , leading roles Karl Ludwig Diehl , Lil Dagover and Heli Finkenzeller ) and the story He walked around the horses by the US science fiction author H. Beam Piper have the Incident to the basis.

literature

  • Neville Thompsen: The Continental System as a Sieve: The Disappearance of Benjamin Bathurst in 1809. In: The International History Review, Vol. 24, 2002, pp. 528-557.
  • Franz Grunick (ed.): The secret of Perleberg . Collected writings on the disappearance of Lord Bathurst in Perleberg. 2nd Edition. Dosse Verlag, Kampehl 2004, ISBN 3-9807861-3-7 .
  • Franz Bätz: The Benjamin Bathurst case. A secret of the history of Austria and Prussia. Weishaupt Verlag, Graz 2004 ISBN 978-3-70590-196-4

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bathurst, Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1784
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH after November 25, 1809