Wilhelm von Mirbach-Harff

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Wilhelm von Mirbach-Harff, 1917

Wilhelm Maria Theodor Ernst Richard Graf von Mirbach-Harff (* July 2, 1871 in Bad Ischl , † July 6, 1918 in Moscow ) was a German diplomat and ambassador .

Life

Family and origin

Wilhelm Graf von Mirbach-Harff came from a family of the ancient Rhenish nobility. Johann Wilhelm von Mirbach-Harff , the founder of the Rhenish Knight Academy , was a great-great-uncle, Richard Freiherr von Vorst-Gudenau the paternal grandfather. His parents were Ernst Freiherr von der Vorst-Lombeck-Gudenau (from 1882 von Mirbach-Harff) (1845–1901) and his wife Wilhelmine von Thun-Hohenstein (1851–1929).

Education and career

As a child, Wilhelm received private lessons in the early years. From 1881 he attended the Theresian Academy in Vienna. During this time the family was renamed Mirbach-Harff. He continued his school education in 1885 at the Rhenish Knight Academy in Bedburg. After graduating from the Knight Academy in 1889, he began studying law at the University of Freiburg / Breisgau. Other universities to continue studying were Berlin in Lausanne. He completed his studies in 1893 with the legal traineeship. From 1893 to 1894 he did his military service as a one-year volunteer in the cuirassier regiment v. Driesen No. 4 in Westphalia. The step into a diplomatic career took place in 1895 when he joined the Foreign Office as a candidate.

Diplomatic career

Wilhelm von Mirbach was assigned to the German embassy in London for training in the diplomatic service. The German ambassador at this time was Paul von Hatzfeldt (1831–1901). He passed the required career test as 3rd secretary at the embassy in 1899. Due to the death of his father in 1901, he took leave of absence for one year in order to sort out the legacies and to regulate the personal affairs associated with it. Then from 1902 he was employed as 2nd secretary at the German embassy in The Hague. The German charge d'affaires on site at this time was Karl von Schlözer (1854–1916). From here he temporarily moved to Budapest and London as a substitute. Missions in Munich, Bern and Paris followed. During this time, in August 1913, he was appointed to the Prussian mansion for life for the association of old and fortified property in the Cleve-Geldern, Nieder-Berg and Nieder Jülich districts . From 1908 to 1911 Wilhelm von Mirbach-Harff worked as counselor in the German embassy in Saint Petersburg . The German ambassador to Russia at this time was Friedrich Pourtalès (1853–1928). When he returned to the Berlin headquarters, he was appointed Real Legation Councilor and Lecturer Council in 1911. This was followed in 1913 by his gratification to the Privy Councilor. In the following year he was appointed envoy in Stuttgart and at the beginning of 1915 moved to the German embassy in Athens. Here he was the German chargé d'affaires until the Greek government expelled the German and Austro-Hungarian diplomats from the country on November 24, 1916 under pressure from the Entente . After the legation was forcibly closed, he stayed here under conditions like a prisoner on site. From November 27, 1916, as Rittmeister of the Reserve, he took on an advisory role for political issues with the staff of the German command in Bucharest . From here he returned to the Foreign Office in Berlin. Then he was from December 16, 1917 to February 10, 1918 before the German embassy in Petrograd , which was established after the signing of the armistice of Brest-Litovsk . With the change of the official seat of the new government of Soviet Russia under Vladimir Illitsch Lenin (1870-1924), von Mirbach-Harff continued his diplomatic activity from April 2, 1918, now as the Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister of the German Empire in Soviet Russia , based in Moscow .

German ambassador in Moscow

One of the most important tasks of the German Ambassador Wilhelm von Mirbach-Harff was the establishment and maintenance of appropriate political relations between Germany and Soviet Russia under the conditions of the ongoing state of war in Europe. The balancing and monitoring of the agreements of the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the diplomatic support of the German prisoners in Soviet Russia were of particular importance. He was also involved in the attempts on the German side to end the captivity of the Russian tsarist family through diplomatic channels.

In Moscow, Wilhelm von Mirbach, on the instructions of State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Richard von Kühlmann (1873–1948), continued the logistical and financial support of the Bolsheviks that had begun in 1916/1917 in order to weaken the war opponent Russia by triggering internal revolutionary events. With the help of these activities on the German side, the political forces around WILenin came to power in October 1917 . But since March 1918 this strategic concept was in extreme danger from the left Social Revolutionaries who were involved in the government. On May 18, 1918, two days after a meeting with Lenin , von Mirbach-Harff expressed the view in a telegram to Berlin that a one-off sum of forty million Reichsmarks was necessary to keep the Bolsheviks in power. On June 3, 1918, he telegraphed the Foreign Office that an additional three million Reichsmarks were required a month to support Lenin's government. On June 5, 1918, von Mirbach-Harff paid three million Reichsmarks to members of the Soviet Russian government, and the Reich Treasury also paid 40 million Reichsmarks in June 1918.

However, von Mirbach-Harff recommended in a further letter to Kühlmann dated June 25, 1918 that the German government should also prepare the formation of pro-German anti-Soviet government organs in Moscow, which “we will keep ready and who will be fully at our service” because it Lenin would not be able to stay in power despite the German money.

In the sights of the left Social Revolutionaries

Since mid-May 1918 Wilhelm von Mirbach-Harff, in his position as German ambassador, was in the focus of the Left Social Revolutionaries . At this time Jakow Bljumkin (1898–1929) at the age of 19 was head of the fight against German espionage within the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission “Cheka” advances. He gathered extensive information about the German embassy and its charge d'affaires. At the beginning of June 1918 he succeeded in smuggling Jakov Fiajma, an employee disguised as an electrician, into the embassy building in order to get a plan of the location of the premises. During a personal check, the Austrian businessman Mirbach came into Bljumkin's field of vision, whom he stylized as an Austro-Hungarian officer and distant relative of the German ambassador and in June committed to secret cooperation. As early as June, the embassy received initial information about possible plans to attack the ambassador, which was passed on to the Soviet authorities. Bljumkin used this constructed fact of identical names to gain access to the German embassy in Moscow at Deneschny Pereulok 5 with his colleague Nikolai Andrejew (1882-1947) and forged documents on July 6, 1918 at around 2 p.m. Before that, both of them had armed themselves with pistols and two high-explosive bombs. In the embassy building they were taken to the “Red Hall”. A short time later, Wilhelm von Mirbach-Harff, his counselor Dr. Kurt Riezler (1882–1955) and the interpreter Leonard Müller used this room. After a brief discussion of the facts, Bljumkin shot all three embassy employees, but missed them, and threw an explosive bomb that did not explode. With the resulting chaos, a second high-explosive bomb was thrown, which smashed the window front of the room and Andrejew fired the fatal shots at von Mirbach-Harff. Both assassins then fled through the open window front.

Bljumkin had received the order for the murder of Wilhelm von Mirbach-Harff from the central committee of his party, that of the Left Social Revolutionaries , which until March 1918 had belonged to the government coalition with the Bolsheviks. The murder was intended to serve as a signal for the beginning of the anti-government uprising against the Bolsheviks. In addition, it was intended to reverse the peace treaty with the German Reich signed by the Wilenin's government in Brest-Litovsk.

Wilhelm von Mirbach-Harff died on the same day at around 3:15 p.m. as a result of the attack.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Herbert M. Schleicher: Ernst von Oidtman and his genealogical-heraldic collection in the University Library in Cologne. Volume 6. Folder 423-518. Fischenich pits. (Publications of the West German Society for Family Studies , Cologne, New Series No. 70). Cologne 1994, pp. 91-115. (Folder 434 Forst IV.), Here p. 108.
  2. ↑ Biographical Handbook of the Foreign Service 1871–1945, Ed. Foreign Office, Schöningh Verlag Volume 3, 2014, pp. 194f.
  3. ^ Wilhelm von Mirbach-Harff personal data and documents in the Reichsarchiv; in: https://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/bild3/adr/adrmr/kap1_1/para2_203.html
  4. ^ Ernst Müller-Meiningen : Diplomacy and World War. A guide through the origins and spread of the world crisis based on the official materials . Reimer, Berlin 1917, Volume 2, pp. 824-842.
  5. ↑ Ludwig Biewer, Mirbach-Harff, Wilhelm Graf von "in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 17 (1994), p. 556 [online version]; URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd120125447.html#ndbcontent
  6. ^ W. Baumgart, On the mission of Count Mirbach in Moscow April-June 1918, in VfZ 16, 1968, pp. 66–96.
  7. ↑ Elizabeth Heresch : Secret Files Parvus, The Bought Revolution . Langen Müller Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-7844-2753-7
  8. ^ Winfried Baumgart : The mission of Count Mirbach in Moscow. April – June 1918. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. Munich, issue 1/1968, pp. 67–68 (PDF file; 5.15MB)
  9. ^ Boris Chavkin, The Murder of Count Mirbach, Forum for Eastern European History of Ideas and Contemporary History, Catholic University of Eichstädt-Ingolstadt; https://www.ku.de/forschung/forschung-an-der-ku/forschungseinr/forschungseinrzimos/publikationen/
personal data
SURNAME Mirbach-Harff, Wilhelm von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vorst-Gudenau, Wilhelm Graf von (name until 1882)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat and ambassador
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Bad Ischl
DATE OF DEATH July 6, 1918
Place of death Moscow