Kurd von Schlözer

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Luise von Schlözer : Kurd von Schlözer as a young diplomat
Kurd von Schlözer, portrayed by Franz von Lenbach

Kurd von Schlözer (born January 5, 1822 in Lübeck , † May 13, 1894 in Berlin ; Dr. jur., Actually Conrad Nestor von Schlözer ) was an imperial German diplomat and historian.

family

Schlözer came from an old family from the County of Hohenlohe and was the son of the Lübeck merchant and Russian consul general Karl von Schlözer . Like his older brother Nestor von Schlözer , he also received the name of the Russian saint Nestor of Kiev , the author of the Nestor chronicle , which his grandfather, the court advisor and Professor August Ludwig von Schlözer had published, but which he did not use. Dorothea Schlözer was his aunt.

Kurd von Schlözer remained unmarried and childless.

Life

After visiting the Katharineum in Lübeck , where he passed his Abitur at Easter 1841, and studying oriental studies and history in Göttingen and Berlin, Schlözer first moved to Paris and worked as a publicist.

Through the mediation of Ernst Curtius and Princess Augusta , he was accepted into the Prussian diplomatic service even without the necessary legal training. For several years he worked in the Foreign Ministry in Berlin and wrote several historical treatises in addition to his work, including on the Hanseatic League , German-Russian history and a biography of Count Chasot . As an author he is assigned to the reformer group Jung-Lübeck . In 1857 he was sent to Saint Petersburg as the second secretary of the legation . The envoy Bismarck , who was his superior from 1859, initially “went through bad times with him” because of Schlözer's inability to submit. Schlözer, however, was indispensable because of his local knowledge, and later both found a good relationship.

Further stations in his diplomatic career were Copenhagen in 1863 and Rome a year later . Here he was secretary to the Prussian envoy to the Holy See, Friedrich Adolf Freiherrn von Willisen . Already in this position he made numerous contacts with artists and high church representatives. In 1867 Schlözer became a Prussian Chargé d'affaires in a politically difficult situation between the Papal States and the Kingdom of Italy .

After a mission on behalf of the North German Confederation in Mexico, which led a trade and navigation treaty to a conclusion, Schlözer 1871 became the first charge d'affaires of the German Reich in Washington, DC appointed. In letters and reports he gave insights into the domestic political situation in the USA . He kept in contact with German-American groups and people, including Carl Schurz in particular , and was generally popular.

In preparation for the resumption of diplomatic relations between the Reich and the Holy See , which had broken off in the Kulturkampf , Schlözer traveled to Rome in 1878 and 1881 and was appointed Prussian ambassador to Pope Leo XIII in 1882 . appointed. In the preparation and implementation of the peace laws of 1886/87 Schlözer experienced the climax of his diplomatic career.

A little later, however, he got caught up in the vortex caused by Bismarck's dismissal and was put into retirement in 1892 , presumably at the instigation of Friedrich von Holstein .

tomb

Schlözer initially stayed in Rome. The fatally embittered , according to Hildegard von Spitzemberg , died shortly after his final return to Germany in 1894 in Berlin. He was buried in Cemetery IV of the Jerusalems- und Neue Kirche congregation in Bergmannstrasse, where his grave, designed by Bernhard Sehring , is now maintained as the honorary grave of the State of Berlin .

Works

  • The von Meyern family in Hanover and at the Margravial Court of Baireuth , Berlin 1855 Digitized
  • Chasot. On the history of Frederick the Great and his time . Hertz, Berlin 1856 digitized
2nd edition 1878: General Count Egmont von Chasot: on the history of Frederick the Great and his time. Edited by Karl-Friedrich von Bunsen. Reprint v. Kloeden, Berlin 2005 ISBN 3-920564-50-2

Schlözer became known not so much for his historical treatises but rather for his collections of letters, which were published by his nephews Karl (1854–1916) and Leopold (1863–1946) von Schlözer and which made him a "classic of the German letter literature" ( Hassenstein) did:

  • Youth letters . Stuttgart 1920
  • Petersburg letters . Stuttgart 1921 ( digitized , digitized )
  • Roman letters . Stuttgart 1912
  • Mexican letters . Stuttgart 1913
  • American letters . Stuttgart 1927
  • Last roman letters . Stuttgart 1924

Awards

literature

  • Paul Curtius:  Schlözer, Kurd von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 54, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1908, pp. 47-54.
  • Friedrich Hassenstein: Schlözer, Conrad (Kurd) Nestor von . In: Lübeck CVs , ed. von Alken Bruns, Neumünster: Karl Wachholtz Verlag 1993, ISBN 3-529-02729-4 , pp. 346-350
  • Frank Lambach: Our man in Washington. From the first Prussian ministerial resident to the ambassadors of the Federal Republic of Germany. Washington / DC: German Information Center 2004, pp. 27–37
  • Christoph Weber: Sources and studies on the curia and the Vatican politics under Leo XIII. Taking into account the relations of the Holy See to the Triple Alliance until 1893. Tübingen: Niemeyer 1973. ISBN 3-484-80065-8
  • Roland J. Ross: The Failure of Bismarck's Kulturkampf: Catholicism and State Power in Imperial Germany, 1871–1887. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press 1997 ISBN 0-8132-0894-7
  • Max Lenz: Bismarck and Schlözer . After an unfinished manuscript, published by Adolf Hasenclever, in: Journal of the Association for Lübeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde ( ZVLGA ) 28, 1936, pp. 1-58

Web links

Commons : Kurd von Schlözer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Kurd von Schlözer  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann Genzken: The Abitur graduates of the Katharineum zu Lübeck (grammar school and secondary school) from Easter 1807 to 1907. Borchers, Lübeck 1907. (Supplement to the school program 1907, digitized version ), No. 389
  2. ↑ Based on a letter from Bismarck to Justus von Gruner (politician) from 1861, quoted in: Paul Curtius: From the life of Kurd v. Schlözers. in: Deutsche Revue 26 (1901) pp. 129-139, here p. 131, also in ADB
  3. ^ Rudolf Vierhaus (ed.): The diary of the Baroness Spitzemberg, born. Freiin v. Varnbuler. Records from the court society of the Hohenzollern Empire. (= German historical sources of the 19th and 20th centuries. 43). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1960, p. 325
  4. ^ Awards according to Handbuch für das Deutsche Reich 1893, p. 39
personal data
SURNAME Schlözer, Kurd from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schlözer, Conrad Nestor von; Schlözer, Curd von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Diplomat, historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1822
PLACE OF BIRTH Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1894
Place of death Berlin