Hermann von Thile

Karl Hermann von Thile (born December 19, 1812 in Berlin ; † December 26, 1889 ibid) was a German diplomat and first State Secretary in the Foreign Office of the German Empire .

Diplomatic career

His father was the general of the infantry Adolf Eduard von Thile , last commanding general of the VIII Army Corps in Berlin. Thile, a nephew of the Prussian general and head of the military cabinet Ludwig Gustav von Thile , entered the diplomatic service of Prussia in 1837 . In 1838 it was used for the first time in Rome. In the following years it was used in Bern, in Vienna in 1842 and in London. From 1854 to 1859 he was the successor to Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen's envoy in Rome.

In 1862 he became Undersecretary of State in the Prussian Foreign Ministry. In the same year he joined the lawless society in Berlin like many aristocrats of his time .

State Secretary of the Foreign Office

On January 12, 1870, he became the first State Secretary of the Foreign Office in the North German Confederation when the Prussian Foreign Ministry was transferred to the federal level. He remained in office after 1871, when the Bund was renamed the German Empire. The State Secretary was the head of this highest Reich authority, roughly comparable to a present-day minister.

He held the office until September 30, 1872, when he resigned in the wake of an affair surrounding the award of the Order of the Black Eagle to the Russian Ambassador Paul von Oubril and the Austrian Ambassador Alajos Károlyi and was replaced by Hermann Ludwig von Balan . During this time, however, the actual shaping of foreign policy was largely the responsibility of Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck .

Thile left an extensive literary legacy that is in the Anhalt State Library in Dessau . Among them is the correspondence with the historian Alfred von Reumont .

family

He was married to Ottilie von Graefe (1816–1889), daughter of the physician Karl von Graefe and sister of the ophthalmologist Albrecht von Graefe .

literature

Herman von Petersdorff : Thile, Hermann von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 54, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1908, pp. 687-697.
Ferdinand Gregorovius : Letters from Ferdinand Gregorovius to the State Secretary Hermann von Thile. Published by Herman von Petersdorff, Berlin 1894
J. Sass: Hermann von Thile and Bismarck. With unpublished letters from Thiles . In: Prussian yearbook. Volume 217, pp. 257-279.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Allgemeine Familienzeitung , Stuttgart, year 1872, p. 67

predecessor	Office	successor
Louis von Wildenbruch	Prussian envoy in Athens 1852–1854	Robert von der Goltz

personal data
SURNAME	Thile, Hermann von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Thile, Karl Hermann von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German diplomat and State Secretary of the German Empire
DATE OF BIRTH	December 19, 1812
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin
DATE OF DEATH	December 26, 1889
Place of death	Berlin

[1] Allgemeine Familienzeitung , Stuttgart, year 1872, p. 67