Rudolf Eiswaldt

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Rudolf Eiswaldt (born May 25, 1859 in Munich ; † May 2, 1930 ibid) was a German diplomat and consul general , mainly in China and Sarajevo .

Eiswaldt was active in key political regions around the turn of the century, for example in China at the time the Kiautschou Bay was ceded to Germany and in Sarajevo from 1912–1917, the epoch in which the heir to the Austrian throne Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in July 1914 Sarajevo and the beginning of World War I fell.

Rudolf Eiswaldt was married to Maria Galliani, daughter of the Italian consul general Jean Galliovani Galliani. He is the father of Erich Eiswaldt , the first German ambassador to Afghanistan after the Second World War , and is related to Major General Rudolf Eiswaldt of the same name . During his tenure, Rudolf Eiswaldt received numerous awards and medals.

education

Eiswaldt attended the Herzog Franz Gymnasium in Dessau , the Friedrichwerdersche Gymnasium in Berlin and the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium Greiffenberg. In 1879 he passed the Abitur there. He studied law in Berlin and Munich. He passed the legal traineeship exam on June 9, 1882, the doctorate to Dr. jur. took place in December 1882. Since June 15, 1882 he was in the Prussian judicial service. From February 15 to May 3, 1884 he was employed by the director of the Baltic Sea naval station in Kiel. He did a year of volunteering and achieved the rank of premier lieutenant .

Use and career in the foreign service

Eiswaldt worked in the foreign service from 1885 to the end of 1917. From 1885 to 1887 he was employed in the consulates of Nice , Calcutta and Bombay , from 1892–1901 and 1903–1905 in China. Eiswaldt's activities in China included that of a vice consul and consul in Shanghai , the German and Spanish consul in Tientsin , the consul in Guangzhou and Macau, and acting as a German consul for Hong Kong . Eiswaldt also worked in Varna ( Bulgaria ) and most recently as Consul General in Sarajevo.

Diplomatic service in Tientsin

(Period of the German ownership name of the Kiautschou Bay)

After Eiswaldt worked as (Vice) Consul in Shanghai from 1892 to 1895, he was appointed acting director and German and Spanish consul in Tientsin from 1896 to March 1900. During this period, the negotiations concluded by the German envoy Freiherr von Heyking in 1897 on the cession of Kiautschou Bay (Shandong Province) to the German Empire and Prince Heinrich of Prussia's only visit to China took place .

Rudolf Eiswaldt, who came from an old Prussian family of officials and officers, reflected the camp within the Foreign Office in Berlin that, even after Bismarck's abdication, was rather skeptical of the colonial aspirations for a large empire and viewed it as a danger to the Reich. This also referred to the German territorial claims in China. During his activity in Tientsin, Eiswaldt saw himself in agreement with the German ambassador von Heyking, who on the one hand led the negotiations on the cession of Kiautschou Bay to Germany to success, but viewed the Chinese activities, which were costly for the Reich, as such, rather distanced and also from his wife, Elisabeth von Heyking , née von Flemming, was supported. Eiswaldt viewed the activities of European missionaries in China critically, even though they received official support from the Reich. Heykings' successor, the German envoy Clemens von Ketteler , who was murdered on June 20, 1901 , complained in a letter to Reich Chancellor Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst in September 1899 that Eiswaldt, as a religious person, even considered the missionaries in Shandong to be “troublemakers, hypocritical ones Shandong saints ”.

Diplomatic service in Switzerland

From 1901 to 1903 Eiswaldt took over the consulate in Basel and was also acting head of the consulate general in Zurich .

Guangzhou Diplomatic Service and Consul for Macau

From 1903 to 1904 Rudolf Eiswaldt was again transferred to China and took over the consulate in Guangzhou, which gained increasing importance as an economic metropolis. During this time Eiswaldt also pushed ahead with the expansion of the German representative office in the Shamian district . At the Foreign Office in Berlin, Eiswaldt achieved unadulterated recognition simply because he consistently managed to negotiate down the skyrocketing costs for the new construction of the German Consulate General in Shamian / Guangzhou. Eiswaldt's relationship with the German merchants in China was not uncritical, as was the case with the western missionaries. So he accused the German businessman Böckelmann from the trading company Renter, Böckelmann Co., of doing "usurious business", especially with foreigners in China itself; Böckelmann, on the other hand, wrote a letter of justification directly to Reich Chancellor Graf von Bülow , stating that Eiswaldt was "known throughout China for his tone management among German merchants" and demanded an apology (not granted).

Diplomatic service in Varna / Bulgaria

After Eiswaldt took early retirement in 1904 for health reasons, he was called up to the diplomatic service again in 1905 to take over the consulate in Varna (Bulgaria) until 1911, as well as the consulates in Basel and Zurich in the meantime.

Diplomatic service in Sarajevo

(Assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife; beginning of the First World War)

In 1912 Eiswaldt was sent to Sarajevo as the successor of Baron von Stein as German consul. He held this post until the end of 1917. On November 25, 1908, an article written by Eiswaldt appeared in the Cologne city gazette “On inner criticism”, in which he wrote “that the future will bring fearful and severe storms. The outbreak of the ominous thunderstorm will be attributed to an accident. ”In the same article, he also refers to the“ solidified character traits of Kaiser Wilhelm II ”and the dangers of unclouded great power thinking. Following Bismarck, he saw the Caucasus regions as a political source of fire and the starting point for an expected war. On June 28, 12 noon, Eiswaldt telegraphed the murder of the Austrian Archduke and his wife to Kaiser Wilhelm II on his yacht to Kiel with the sparse words: “His Majesty, Kiel. His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke heir to the throne and his highest wife have just been victims of a revolver attack. Consul General Eiswaldt. "

Activity as deputy Reich commissioner for foreign damage

After leaving the diplomatic service, Eiswaldt took over activities as the chairman of the verdict commissioner at the Reich commissioner for foreign damage in Berlin-Zehlendorf in 1920 ; from 1922 to May 1924 the position of permanent representative of the head of the Reich Commissioner for Foreign Damage in Bavaria, in Munich.

Orders and awards

swell

  • Archives of the Foreign Office, Berlin.
  • Gutenberg.spiegel.de, Gunter Hille.
  • “Diaries from four parts of the world”, Elisabeth von Heyking, b. von Arnim; Verlag v. Hase & Koehler, Leipzig, 1926.
  • “German-Chinese Relations in the Nineteenth Century”, by Mechthild Leutner, Klaus Mühlhahn.
  • “ Fateful Day 1914 ” by Kurt Jagow , in: Weiße Blätter May / June 1939.
  • "Kölner Stadtanzeiger", November 25, 1913.
  • "The German documents on the outbreak of war", Karl Kautsky.
  • “German Consulates in Guangzhou through the Ages”, publisher of the German Consulate General in Guangzhou.
  • "China today - the China business", Burkhard Eiswaldt, Co. 2009, ISBN 978-3-8370-2639-9 .
personal data
SURNAME Eiswaldt, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat and consul general
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1930
Place of death Munich