Emil von Richthofen

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Emil von Richthofen

Emil Karl Heinrich von Richthofen (born June 11, 1810 in Trebnitz , Silesia , † June 20, 1895 in Baden-Baden ) was a Prussian diplomat .

Life

His parents were the Prussian district administrator Ludwig von Richthofen (1770–1850) and his wife Johanna Berger (1785–1862). Richthofen attended high school in Oels and studied since 1827 at the universities of Breslau and Berlin Jura . In 1830 he was admitted to the legal traineeship and received a position with the Potsdam government . After the exam in 1833 he was appointed as a government assessor in the VI. Army Corps of the Prussian Army set in Breslau . Richthofen moved in a similar position to the Guard Corps in Berlin in 1836 , where he met the then Prince Wilhelm of Prussia , who was then the commander of the 1st Guard Division . In 1842 he was hired as a secret war council in the war ministry .

In 1846 Richthofen received the newly established consulate general with the principalities of Moldova and Wallachia , so he traveled with his family via the Republic of Krakow and Chernivtsi to his location in Jassy . Two years later he was withdrawn because of diplomatic difficulties with the Russian government and in 1849 appointed consul general for Spain and Portugal . The new Prussian Foreign Minister Otto Theodor von Manteuffel appointed Richthofen as envoy for Mexico in February 1851 . During the crossing to Mexico on the sailing ship Prosper , he and his family were shipwrecked and they were able to escape to Veracruz . Nevertheless, he was able to hand over the credentials to the Mexican President Mariano Arista in Mexico City . Because of a six-month vacation, he returned to Potsdam in 1854 and met Alexander von Humboldt , who had already traveled to Mexico on an expedition in 1803 .

In 1854, the Prussian Foreign Ministry approved that Richthofen's eldest son, Emil, accompany him on the trip to Mexico as his secretary. Both first took a steamboat to New York and then took the train to Washington , where he was able to attend the United States Congress . From Charleston (South Carolina) both went by ship to Havana , where he met the Spanish captain general José Gutiérrez de la Concha . There he also met the Austrian explorer Karl von Scherzer with his Novara expedition . Arrived in Mexico, Richthofen found himself in a revolutionary situation, as the former president Antonio López de Santa Anna had to leave the country in 1855, Juan Álvarez Benítez and a few weeks later Ignacio Comonfort became the new president.

The following year Richthofen left Mexico and was named as a Prussian delegate at the Third Peace of Paris in the Crimean War . He then drove to Constantinople and was received by Sultan Abdul Medschid . After a short visit to Potsdam he had to go to Paris for the peace conference. He was then named as the extraordinary envoy for the Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz as well as Lübeck , Bremen and Hamburg . During the German-Danish War in 1864, as the Prussian envoy in Hamburg, he followed the further course of the war and was able to visit his son Ludwig in the 7th Brandenburg Infantry Regiment No. 60 in Gravenstein , who served there as an officer.

In 1867 Richthofen was transferred to Stockholm and received confirmation from King Charles XV. of Sweden and Norway as envoy from Prussia and the North German Confederation . After the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 he was also envoy of the German Empire . In April 1874 he was retired at his own request.

Richthofen bought a villa in Baden-Baden and wrote a story of the Praetorius von Richthofen family , which he published in 1884. This book describes the family history from the 16th to the 19th centuries and contains many panels with the various branches of the family. The author also explained his extensive autobiography here.

progeny

Richthofen married Marie Augustin (1814-1891) in Potsdam in August 1833 , a daughter of the Potsdam Medical Councilor Ludwig Augustin (1775-1854). Their descendants were:

  • Emil (1834–1879), Prussian naval officer, adjutant to Admiral Adalbert von Prussia
  • Johanna (1836-1837)
  • Ludwig (1837–1873), Mayor of Gütersloh, District Administrator of the Eiderstedt district, Oberdeichgraf
  • Marie (1839–1895), married to Friedrich von Jacobs (1830–1898) since 1859, factory owner and city councilor in Potsdam
  • Anna (1841–1921), since 1870 married to Hermann von Elbe (* 1831), Prussian lieutenant colonel
  • Carl (1843–1913), Prussian officer
  • Elisabeth (* 1845), married to Ernst von Plessen (1842–1874) since 1867
  • Oswald (1847–1906), Prussian diplomat and State Secretary in the Foreign Office, married since 1874 to Karoline von Hartmann (1852–1896), a daughter of General Julius von Hartmann
  • Heinrich (1849–1933), businessman and diplomat in the Dominican Republic
  • (Daughter) (* / † 1859)

Honors

Publications

  • The medicinal facilities of the royal Prussian army. Wroclaw 1837.
  • The household of the war armies in its military, political and economic relations. Berlin 1839.
  • The political conditions of the Republic of Mexico. 1859.
  • The Mexican question. Berlin 1862.
  • History of the Praetorius von Richthofen family. Baensch, Magdeburg 1884. Digitized

literature

  • Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the baronial houses for the year 1861. Eleventh year, Justus Perthes, Gotha 1860, p. 632 ff. ( Books.google.de ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Consulate in Jassy after 1807: 1846-1853. Secret State Archives PK, accessed on September 26, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Consulate General for Spain and Portugal. Organization of the Consular System in Spain, Vol. 1. Secret State Archives PK, accessed on September 26, 2019 .
predecessor Office successor
Office newly created emperor. German envoy to Sweden
1871–1874 		Friedrich von Eichmann
personal data
SURNAME Richthofen, Emil von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Richthofen, Emil Karl Heinrich von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Trebnitz , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1895
Place of death Baden-Baden