Theodor von Holleben

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Theodor von Holleben
Holleben with dog

Theodor von Holleben (born September 16, 1838 in Stettin , † January 31, 1913 in Charlottenburg ) was an Imperial German diplomat and politician .

Life

Holleben came from the old Saxon - Thuringian noble family von Holleben . His parents were the then higher regional judge Theodor von Holleben and his wife Berta, b. from Kunow. After graduating from Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Berlin, he studied law , economics and history at the universities of Heidelberg , Berlin and Göttingen from 1857 to 1869 . In December 1867 Holleben received his doctorate. iur. As a student, Holleben was a member of the Corps Vandalia in Heidelberg .

After completing his doctorate, Holleben aspired to become a lecturer in public law , but was prevented from doing so by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War and was called up for military service on August 1, 1870 . As part of the reserve reserve , Holleben was only briefly trained and finally, despite his comparatively older age, transferred to the Leib-Garde-Hussar Regiment , which at that time was already outside Paris . With this unit, Holleben took part in the siege of Paris and in the battles at the Hallue , at Bapaume and at Saint-Quentin . For his merit, Holleben received the Iron Cross 2nd class. In 1871 Holleben was promoted to secondary lieutenant and in September 1872 to premier lieutenant of the reserve . Years later, in August 1889, he was promoted to Rittmeister of the Reserve.

Holleben remained at the front in France until February 1872 and was then sent to the Foreign Office on an initiative by Bismarck and Moltke . Holleben strove for a career in foreign service there and was accordingly placed à la suite of his regiment at the beginning of 1873 and sent to China to represent the sick ambassador there . There he was first secretary of the legation in 1874 and then the imperial chargé d' affaires in Beijing . In April 1875, Holleben came briefly to Tokyo as charge d'affaires . In December of the same year he handed over the business to Karl von Eisendecher (1841–1934). In the following year he was appointed Imperial Minister- Resident of the La Plata states of Argentina , Uruguay and Paraguay with his seat in Buenos Aires . Holleben held the position until autumn 1885, but his service was interrupted in 1878 and 1882/83 by lengthy stays in Germany, where he worked in the political department and in the trade policy department of the Foreign Office.

In his position in South America, Holleben established valuable diplomatic contacts with the nations in his area of ​​service and thus also made it possible to increase German trade volumes with these states. In the Argentine Revolution of 1880, Holleben acted as president of the committee set up by the diplomatic corps in Buenos Aires to protect the interests of foreign citizens. At the same time as representing the German Empire, Holleben was also temporarily active as a representative for Austria-Hungary and Spain . For these activities he received several high medals from both countries.

In October 1885 Holleben returned to Tokyo as envoy . At that time, the “Movement for Freedom and People's Rights” was active there, which, with its demand for the establishment of an elected parliament and a constitution, pushed Japan's turn towards a modern state based on the German model. Holleben played an active role in this. He was supported by his friend, a German lawyer and lecturer from the University of Tokyo Dr. Heinrich Weipart (1856-1905). He arranged the contact to the German architect Hermann Muthesius (1861–1927) for the construction of the German Evangelical Church in Tokyo and laid the foundation stone for this at the beginning of the construction activities. From 1886 he chaired the German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia until 1891, of which he became an honorary member after his departure from Japan.

In 1891 Holleben was then transferred to the United States as envoy , where he helped to prepare the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago . after the end of the exhibition he also went to the Stuttgart court of the Kingdom of Württemberg as an envoy in 1893 . In 1895 he became a real privy councilor . From 1897 to 1903 he was again active as the Imperial German Ambassador to the United States, where he was involved in the so-called Champagne War. From 1904 he was Vice President of the German Colonial Society . From 1906 until his death in 1913 he was a member of the Prussian manor house . In 1910, Holleben went on a month-long trip to East Asia through China and Japan.

literature

The estate was handed over to the Federal Archives in Berlin in 2011.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Freiburg newspaper of February 2, 1913
predecessor Office successor
Ludwig Aloys von Arco on Valley Ambassador of the German Reich in Washington
1891–1893 		Clemens von Ketteler
personal data
SURNAME Holleben, Theodor von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1913
Place of death Charlottenburg