Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek

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Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek in 1863, photograph by Felix Beato

Jonkheer Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek , also called Polsbroek , (born August 28, 1833 in Amsterdam , † June 27, 1916 in The Hague ), was a Dutch aristocrat , diplomat and politician from the De Graeff family . Between 1863 and 1870 he was the Dutch Consul General and Dutch Minister-Resident in Japan . De Graeff van Polsbroek was an important representative of the Dutch government and played a central role in negotiations between Japan, which was opening up to the west, and various western states.

Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek was also an avid chronicler and photographer of Japanese social change at the time of the Meiji Restoration . As a councilor, he assisted Emperor Meiji in negotiations with western states. During his time in Japan he was the representative, envoy and authorized minister of various European countries. Due to his special relationships with Emperor Meiji and the Japanese government, he was able to conclude numerous profitable trade agreements for these states.

Life

Origin and family

Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek's ancestors were the city ​​lords of Amsterdam . His parents were Gerrit IV de Graeff (1797-1870), Vrijheer of the High Glory van Zuid-Polsbroek heer van Purmerland en Ilpendam , Amsterdam councilor and factory owner, and Carolina Ursulina Stephania Engels (1799-1864). After his father's death in 1870, the two high splendors were sold to Dirk de Jongh because of financial difficulties. Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek was married twice. In 1859 he married the Japanese Koyama Otjo, daughter of a farmer and tea merchant in Tokyo, with whom he had the son Jhr. Pieter de Graeff (1861–1909) had. The son was legitimized in 1881 and given the Jonkheer title . It has also been suggested that De Graeff van Polsbroek was married to a Japanese princess while in Japan.

In 1870 he married Bonne Elisabeth Royer. That was a granddaughter of Adriana Petronella Countess of Nassau-LaLecq and thus a direct descendant of William the Silent (William I of Orange) and Moritz von Orange . From this marriage had five children including the important diplomat and statesman Jhr. Andries Cornelis Dirk de Graeff , Jhr. Georg de Graeff (1873–1954), inspector of public health in Zeeland and North Holland and Jhr. Cornelis de Graeff (1881–1956), married to Jkvr. Susanna Ignatia Caroline Elisabeth Loudon . Cornelis was Commissioner of the Department of Foreign Policy. One of the grandchildren of Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek was Jhr. Dirk Georg de Graeff , who made a great career as a manager and banker as well as at the Dutch royal court.

Political career in Japan

De Graeff van Polsbroek with Japanese bodyguards on a tour of Edo (Tokyo)
Reception of Dirk de De Graeff van Polsbroek at Emperor Meiji

Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek received his first post in 1857 as one of the secretaries of the Dutch commissioner Jan Hendrik Donker Curtius in Japan. In 1858, along with Donker Curtis, he was present at the signing of the Dutch-Japanese treaty concerning trade relations between the two countries. The following year he became Vice Consul in Japan. Together with Carl Julius Textor, he founded the trading company Textor & Co in Yokohama . Due to his great knowledge of the Japanese culture and mentality, his trading ventures were crowned with success. In 1861 he was appointed consul of the Netherlands in Yokohama, and two years later consul general of the Netherlands. In 1864 De Graeff van Polsbroek drafted the plan to break up the Shimonoseki blockade together with British, French and US battleships . In the same year he also represented Switzerland as an interim consul general.

In 1866 De Graeff van Polsbroek took over Prussian interests in Japan. He reported to the Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck that the collective bargaining agreement had come about and that Japanese people were allowed to leave the country during their studies. In 1867 he organized a trade agreement with Denmark for Japan. In the same year, a mixture of xenophobia and religious tensions led to an attempted murder against him. At the same time he negotiated contracts for the North German Confederation and the German Hanseatic cities . They thanked De Graeff van Polsbroek with a golden tobacco box decorated with their coat of arms. In the same year he was ordered back home by the Dutch government, but returned to Japan after a short time. In 1868 he was appointed Dutch Minister Plenipotentiary in Japan. He was involved in negotiations between Japan and the USA and numerous European countries and in the same year, together with the French Minister Léon Roches, was the first European envoy to have a personal audience with Emperor Meiji , which was also featured in the film The Last Samurai . De Graeff van Polsbroek represented Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Prussia as Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy. In the case of the Kingdom of Denmark, De Graeff van Polsbroek was its first diplomatic representative from 1867, because the Danish interests were taken care of by the Dutch diplomacy until 1912. He was able to negotiate important trade agreements on behalf of Denmark.

Due to his good relations with the Japanese government, he was able to conclude a trade agreement, the so-called “Verdrag van Yokohama” (“Vänskaps-, handels- och sjöfartstraktat”) between Sweden, Norway and Japan. For his services in this regard, he was appointed Commander 1st Class of the Dannebrog Order by the Danish King .

De Graeff van Polsbroek's reputation with Emperor Meiji had risen sharply, so that on January 4, 1869, he personally presented him with his credentials in his new residence in Tokyo . Subsequently, Meiji De Graeff van Polsbroek regularly commissioned Japan to act as political and economic mediator in negotiations with major Western powers. With Western technologies, Japan could rapidly develop into a great power in Asia. As a result, De Graeff van Polsbroek could not prevent the Dutch government from quickly squandering the prominent position it had acquired through him, especially against the United States, France, Germany and Great Britain.

Between 1850 and 1870, at a time when Japan was modernizing and approaching the West, De Graeff van Polsbroek wrote many diaries, which under the name Journaal van Jonkheer Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek 1857-1870; belevenissen van een Nederlands diplomaat in het negentiende eeuwse Japan . Some of the illustrations contained therein were drawn by himself.

De Graeff van Polsbroek had close relationships with Chinese traders in Japan. He traveled to China and had trade connections with the Hong Kong trading house Jardine . Because of his reputation and contacts with China in Hong Kong, the Dutch government offered him the post of Dutch envoy there. He declined this offer for personal reasons. In 1870 De Graeff van Polsbroek finished his political duties in Japan and went back to his homeland.

Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek (before 1870), photograph by Felix Beato

Other political activities

After his return to the Netherlands, De Graeff van Polsbroek worked as the Dutch envoy in Prussia, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In 1878 he stood up for the construction of a tram connecting The Hague with Scheveningen . In 1882 he and his brother Pieter de Graeff published a genealogical work on his family under the name Genealogie van de familie De Graeff van Polsbroek . In 1885 De Graeff van Polsbroek was accepted into the new Dutch nobility with the title Jonkheer and received the Order of the Dutch Lion .

In 1906 he set up a family archive together with his two brothers Gijsbert Carel Rutger Reinier de Graeff and Frederik Lodewijk de Graeff . This was temporarily housed in Broekhuizen Castle, a property of the Pauw family (1906) in the municipality of Leersum , and is now in the Amsterdam City Archives. De Graeff van Polsbroek died in The Hague in 1916.

Works

  • Dirck de Graeff van Polsbroek: Journaal van Jonkheer Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek, 1857-1870: Belevenissen van een Nederlands diplomaat in het negentiende eeuwse Japan . Assen, Van Gorcum, 1987, ISBN 90-232-2257-1 .
  • Dirck de Graeff van Polsbroek: Aanval in de Japanse wateren op de Nederlandsche stoomkorvet Medusa . In: Colonial Jaarboeken , Volume 3.
  • P. de Graeff (P. Gerritsz de Graeff and Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek): Genealogy of the family De Graeff van Polsbroek . Amsterdam 1882.

literature

  • Ingemar Ottosson: Svensk frihandelsimperialism: Det ojämlika fördraget med Japan 1868-1896 . In: Historisk Tidskrift. 2 (1997), pp. 199-223.
  • Daniel Scherrer: The Last Samurai - Japanese story depiction in popular cinema . Diplomica Verlag , Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8366-7199-6 , pp. 90f.
  • Holmer Stahncke: The diplomatic relations between Germany and Japan 1854-1868 (= studies of modern history . 33). Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-515-04618-6 .
  • Herman J. Moeshart (Ed.): Journaal van Jonkheer Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek, 1857-1870: Belevenissen van een Nederlands diplomaat in het negentiende eeuwse Japan. Ingeleid en geannoteerd . Van Gorcum, Assen 1987, ISBN 90-232-2257-1 .

Web links

Commons : Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie Wapenvoerder: Dirk de Graeff  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / 194.171.109.12  
  2. ↑ a b c Het gougen van Nederland
  3. ↑ a b c d Bainbridge’s Auctions Blog. Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek
  4. ↑ Nederland's Patriciaat jaargang 2 (1911). On page 113 Gerrit de Graeff is reported as vrijheer van Zuid-Polsbroek .
  5. ↑ Nederlands adelsboek 1914, p. 16
  6. ^ De Graeff van Polsbroek in the Bergmeester
  7. ↑ Google Book Search: Bundesblatt / Schweiz Von Schweiz, p. 24
  8. ↑ Google Book Search: The diplomatic relations between Germany and Japan 1854-1868, p. 208. By Holmer Stahncke
  9. ↑ Google Book Search: Our Time: German Review of the Present, Volume 4, Part 2, p. 587; edited by August Kurtzel, Rudolf von Gottschall and Friedrich Bienemann
  10. ↑ Google Book Search: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History, Volume 35, pp. 14/15
  11. ↑ Google Book Search: The Last Samurai - Japanese History Representation in Popular Cinema, p. 90
  12. ↑ Google Book Search: Emperor of Japan: Meiji and his world, 1852-1912, p. 133. By Donald Keene
  13. ↑ Nederlands adelsboek 1914, p. 16
  14. ^ Denmark in Japan. History of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
  15. ↑ Google Book Search: Hōki bunrui taizen, Volume 23
  16. ↑ Google Book Search: British and foreign state papers, p. 559
  17. ↑ Google Book Search: In een Japanse stroomversnelling. Louis van Gasteren
  18. ^ "Maritime calendar - Het Scheepvaartmuseum " De Graeff van Polsbroek under "4 januari 1869" ( Memento of the original from May 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl
  19. ↑ Google Book Search: Negotiating with imperialism: the unequal treaties and the culture of Japanese Diplomacy, p. 111. By Michael R. Auslin
  20. ↑ Journaal van Jonkheer Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek 1857-1870 / Herinneringen aan Japan 1850-1870  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 44 kB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.knhg.nl  
  21. ↑ Antiqbook  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.antiqbook.nl  
  22. ↑ Google Book Search: Die Tagebücher, S. 161. By Alexander Siebold (Freiherr von) and Vera Schmidt
  23. ↑ 1e stoomtram reed in The Hague ( Memento of the original from April 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.peeters.luna.nl
  24. ↑ Nederland's Patriciaat, Volume 2, 1911, p. 171; Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek was the first of his line since Andries de Graeff and his son Cornelis in 1677, who was awarded and was allowed to lead a noble title.
personal data
SURNAME Graeff van Polsbroek, Dirk de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Graeff van Polsbroek, Dirk de Jonkheer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch politician and consul general
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 1916
Place of death The hague