Joseph Maria von Radowitz (diplomat)

Joseph Maria von Radowitz (1893)

Joseph Maria Friedrich von Radowitz (born May 19, 1839 in Frankfurt am Main ; † January 15, 1912 in Berlin ) was a Prussian-German diplomat and acting State Secretary in the Foreign Office of the German Empire .

Diplomatic career

Radowitz, son of the Prussian politician Joseph von Radowitz , attended the Royal High School in Erfurt and studied law in Bonn and Berlin . In 1857 he became a member of the Corps Borussia Bonn .

In 1860 he entered the Prussian civil service. In 1861 he was sent to the embassy in Constantinople , and the following year as legation counselor to China and Japan . In 1864 he was already running the Consulate General in Shanghai . After returning to Europe , he was transferred to the embassy in Paris in 1865 . During the German War he was an orderly officer of Prince Friedrich Karl Nikolaus of Prussia and then came to the Prussian legation in Munich in 1867 as a legation councilor under Georg von Werthern . In 1870 he was made Consul General of the North German Confederation in Bucharest and at the same time a member of the European Danube Commission . In 1872 he came back to Constantinople, this time as chargé d'affaires .

Finally he went to the Foreign Office in Berlin as a department head , where he was responsible for oriental affairs. Here he became a secret councilor. Despite his appointment as ambassador to Athens in 1874, he remained employed in the Foreign Office. In 1875 he was sent to Petersburg to represent the sick German ambassador.

→ Main article : Mission Radowitz

Radowitz made Russia the offer of German support for Russian interests in the Balkans for reciprocity in the West. What is behind the Radowitz mission is still controversial in research. It is assumed that Bismarck only wanted to achieve an active policy for Russia in the Orient with this action - there it was supposed to meet the other major European powers. The resulting conflicts in the Balkans would have relieved central Europe. In 1878 he took part in the Berlin Congress as envoy .

State Secretary in the Foreign Office

From November 6, 1879 to April 17, 1880 Radowitz was acting State Secretary in the Foreign Office as the successor to the late Bernhard Ernst von Bülow . He was succeeded in this function on April 20, 1880, later Chancellor Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst .

In the summer of 1880 he administered the embassy in Paris on a special mission. In October 1882 he was appointed ambassador of the German Empire in Constantinople and in 1892 in Madrid . In 1906 he represented the German Empire at the Algeciras Conference .

Private life

He was married to Nadezhda Ivanovna von Ozerow (1840-1912), a daughter of Ivan Petrovich von Ozerow (1806-1880), in 1868. The couple had six children including:

• Wilhelm (1875–1939), diplomat, from 1917 to 1918 head of the Reich Chancellery under Georg von Hertling
• Otto (1880–1941), diplomat, 1933–1936 Consul General in Danzig, 1936–1940 in Luxembourg

literature

• Hajo Holborn (ed.): Notes and memories from the life of the ambassador Joseph Maria von Radowitz . German publishing house, Stuttgart / Berlin / Leipzig 1925.
• Hartwin Spenkuch:  Radowitz, Joseph Maria. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 100 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 3: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: L – R. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-506-71842-6 , pp. 552 f.

Web links

Commons : Joseph Maria von Radowitz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Joseph Maria von Radowitz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Joseph Maria von Radowitz  in the German Digital Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Kösener corps lists 1910, 19 , 369

predecessor	Office	successor
Eberhard zu Solms-Sonnenwalde	German ambassador to Spain 1892–1908	Christian von Tattenbach