Hans von Flotow

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hans Ludwig Carl Theodor von Flotow (born September 10, 1862 at Gut Felsenhagen near Pritzwalk , † December 19, 1935 in Berlin ) was a high-ranking German diplomat and manor owner.

Life

Hans von Flotow comes from the widely ramified, Mecklenburg prehistoric noble family Flotow . He came to Gut Felsenhagen in the Prignitz as the son of the manor owner Ludwig von Flotow, who died early, and his wife Anna, née. from Avemann to the world. After attending high school in Wittstock and graduating from high school on March 31, 1882 at the Knight's Academy in Brandenburg, the financially well-off Hans von Flotow studied law and political science at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin from 1882 to 1886. From 1886 he trained as a senior Prussian administrative officer and, after completing his training and briefly working in the Prussian Ministry of Finance, joined the Foreign Service on August 24, 1892 . He was trained in the Foreign Office in 1892/93 and then found employment at various diplomatic missions of the German Reich and at Prussian legations (1893–1895 legation secretary in Washington, 1895–1898 legation secretary in Dresden, 1898–1900 legation secretary in The Hague, 1900–1904 Legation Secretary in Rome (Vatican), 1904–1907 Counselor in Paris). From 1907 to 1910 Hans von Flotow headed the personnel administration of the Foreign Office in Berlin.

In January 1910 he succeeded Nikolaus von Wallwitz as envoy in Belgium and worked there until he was replaced by Claus von Below-Saleske in 1913. His marriage to a Russian citizen, the widow general Marie Countess von Keller, born on September 20, 1910 in Berlin. Princess Schachowsky (1861-1944) was unhappy and was divorced in 1916. Although ex-Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow, in his memoirs published posthumously in 1930, accused Hans von Flotow of his childhood friend at the Knight Academy in Brandenburg, who would later become State Secretary of Foreign Affairs Gottlieb von Jagow, of homosexuality, this was probably not the case.

On February 15, 1913 earned by the Franco-German balance during the Morocco crisis and therefore with the "Grand Officer Cross" of the French was Ehrenlegion excellent German diplomat von Flotow the new German Ambassador to Italy determined because of the previously provided for this purpose Martin Rücker von Jenisch from resigned for health reasons. The position has been vacant since Gottlieb von Jagow's appointment as the new German Foreign Minister on January 11, 1913. In this post in Rome, Flotow remained nominally until the break in diplomatic relations on May 23, 1915. In practice, he was replaced on December 14, 1914 by the former Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow (1849–1929) as a so-called “special ambassador”. However, even Bülow did not succeed, as he had grandly announced, in preventing Italy from entering the war against Austria-Hungary, and later also against Germany. Italy switched to the Entente side in 1915 after the latter had promised Italy land gains at the expense of Austria in the event of victory. The lifelong ailing diplomat v. From the beginning of 1915, Flotow took up his permanent residence at Gut Altenhof in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, where he lived as a diplomat who was temporarily available until his final retirement on January 1, 1928. Hans von Flotow was cared for by a niece who he later adopted and made his heiress. There is no written estate. The German diplomatic historian and war debt researcher Dr. Friedrich Thimme edited anthology "Front wider Bülow" (Munich 1931), Hans von Flotow participated with a special essay on the ambassador mission of Bülow in Rome 1914/15, where he saw some of the historical errors and lies in the Bülow memoirs corrected. In the short contribution in kind, he did not defend himself against personal denigration and the accusation of homosexuality that Bülow made several times.

Von Flotow was a member of the German men's club . Distant relatives of him are the last k. u. k. Foreign Minister from November 2 to 11, 1918 Ludwig Freiherr von Flotow (1867–1948) and the German composer and director of the court theater in Schwerin Friedrich von Flotow (1812–1883).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tobias C. Bringmann: Handbook of Diplomacy 1815-1963. Foreign mission chiefs in Germany , 2001, ISBN 3110956845 , p. 85.
  2. ↑ February 1913 (chroniknet.de)
  3. ^ Tobias C. Bringmann: Handbook of Diplomacy 1815-1963. Foreign mission leaders in Germany , 2001, ISBN 3110956845 , p. 143.
predecessor Office successor
Nikolaus von Wallwitz Envoy to Belgium
1910–1912 		Claus von Below-Saleske
Gottlieb von Jagow Ambassador to Italy
1913–1915 		---
personal data
SURNAME Flotow, Hans von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Flotow, Johannes von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH September 10, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Gut Felsenhagen near Pritzwalk
DATE OF DEATH December 19, 1935
Place of death Berlin