Elof Signeul

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Baron Elof von Signeul (born January 5, 1770 in Gothenburg , † October 30, 1835 in Hamburg ) was a Swedish diplomat at the time of the coalition wars .

Life

Elof Signeul was born in 1770 and baptized in Gothenburg Cathedral. His parents were Fredrik Signeul (1735–1791) and his wife Rebecka, née Hellberg (1738–1785).

From September 1786 to December 1789 he studied at Uppsala University and entered the foreign service in 1790. He first served as chancellery in London under the ambassador Gustav Adam von Nolcken , then a year later in the same function in Paris under the ambassador at the time Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein . From 1796 Swedish consul general in Paris, from 1801 Signeul also headed the trade department of the embassy. When diplomatic relations between Sweden and France were broken off in 1804, he initially stayed in Paris, but was soon accused of espionage and placed under police supervision. Although he was a staunch Republican himself, his loyalty to King Gustav IV Adolf also aroused skepticism among Napoleon . In 1806 Signeul finally left France and transferred to the Swedish mission at the Swiss Confederation in Bern .

When Napoleon tried to draw Sweden to war on the French side, Signeul was back in Paris from 1810. He and the French merchant Jean Antoine Fournier launched a campaign in favor of Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte , who later became King Charles XIV of Sweden, and Signeul also organized a first meeting between Bernadotte and Carl Otto Mörner . However, Sweden's foreign policy orientation was already completed and aligned on the part of the coalition as an opponent of Napoleon. Signeul withdrew from France back: first to Hamburg , was then in 1813 as chargé ( chargé d'affaires ) to the royal Bavarian court of Maximilian I in Munich displaced, and 1,814 by the end of the war in 1815 again to Bern.

In 1815 Signeul married Marie Henriette Décle (1783–1863). Under King Charles XIII. In October 1815 he took over the management of the Swedish embassy at the royal French court of Louis XVIII. in Paris. Due to his reluctance to the restoration, Signeul let himself be dismissed from his post in November 1817 and was appointed Minister-Resident at the free Hanseatic cities in Hamburg in May 1818 , additionally accredited to the ducal-Mecklenburg courts in Schwerin and Neustrelitz , from December 1825 as envoy extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary . He remained in these offices until the end of his life in 1835, and was buried in the Hamburg main church Sankt Katharinen .

Remarks

  1. ^ French: envoyé extraordinaire and ministre plénipotentiaire

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Elof Signeul (Swedish). urn: SBL: 5910, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (SBL), Stockholm 2006. Accessed July 3, 2016
  2. ^ Regensburger Zeitung, No. 269 of November 11, 1835 , Neubauer, Regensburg 1835, accessed on July 3, 2016
    Hamburg, November 2, 1835. On the morning of October 30, after a long illness in the 66th year of life, the royal Swedish and Norwegian ambassador to the free Hanseatic cities, etc. Mr. Commander Elof Signeul, departed with death.
predecessor Office successor
Swedish Chargé d'affaires in Bavaria
1813 to 1814
Abraham Constantin Mouradgea d'Ohsson ( Gt ) Swedish Chargé d'Affaires in France from
1815 to 1817 		Carl Hochschild ( Gt )
Aron Hjort ( Gt ) Swedish envoy to the Hanseatic cities
1818 to 1835 		Anton Reinhold Wrangel ( GT )
personal data
SURNAME Signeul, Elof
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Signeul, Elof von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish diplomat at the time of the coalition wars
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Gothenburg
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 1835
Place of death Hamburg