Alfred von Kiderlen-Waechter
Encyclopedia
Alfred von Kiderlen-Waechter (10 July 1852 – 30 December 1912, né Alfred Kiderlen) was a German diplomat and politician, who served as Foreign Secretary
Foreign Minister of Germany
The Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs is the head of the Federal Foreign Office and a member of the Cabinet of Germany. The current office holder is Guido Westerwelle...

 and head of the Foreign Office
Foreign Office (Germany)
The Foreign Office is the foreign ministry of Germany, a federal agency responsible for both the country's foreign politics and its relationship with the European Union. From 1871 to 1919, it was led by a Foreign Secretary, and since 1919, it has been led by the Foreign Minister of Germany...

 from 27 June 1910 to 30 December 1912.

Biography

The son of a banker from the Kingdom of Württemberg
Kingdom of Württemberg
The Kingdom of Württemberg was a state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located in present-day Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which came into existence in 1495...

, Robert Kiderlen, and Baroness Marie von Waechter, he was born in Stuttgart. His father was elevated to the personal nobility in 1852. In 1868, Alfreds mother Marie Kiderlen and her children Alfred, Sarah and Johanna were elevated to the hereditary nobility with the name von Kiderlen-Waechter, combining the names and coats of arms of the Kiderlen and Waechter families. His name is occasionally spelled Kiderlen-Wächter, however, the correct spelling is Kiderlen-Waechter.

Kiderlen-Waechter fought as a volunteer in the Franco-German War (1870-1) and then studied at different universities, retaining throughout his subsequent career a good deal of the jovial manner of a German student (burschikos). Following studies of law, he joined the foreign service in 1877, and was stationed in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, St. Petersburg, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

. He became envoy to Copenhagen in 1895. Later, he served for ten years as envoy to Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

. He was also acting as the representative of the ambassador in Constantinople during the illness of the ambassador, and negotiated the construction of the Baghdad Railway
Baghdad Railway
The Baghdad Railway , was built from 1903 to 1940 to connect Berlin with the Ottoman Empire city of Baghdad with a line through modern-day Turkey, Syria, and Iraq....

. In 1908, he was appointed Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and returned to Berlin. He played a central role during the Bosnia Crisis, and negotiated an agreement with France over Morocco.

After the resignation of Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow
Bernhard von Bülow
Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin von Bülow , named in 1905 Prince von Bülow, was a German statesman who served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for three years and then as Chancellor of the German Empire from 1900 to 1909.Bülow was described as possessing every quality except greatness...

 in 1910, Kiderlen became Secretary of State. His attempt to reach an understanding with other great powers largely failed.

He died in 1912 in Stuttgart.

Literature

  • Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Adelslexikon Band VI, Band 91 der Gesamtreihe, C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1987,
  • Ralf Forsbach, Alfred von Kiderlen-Wächter (1852-1912). Ein Diplomatenleben im Kaiserreich (= Schriftenreihe der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Bd. 59), 2 Bde., Göttingen 1997.
  • Ernst Jäckh, Kiderlen-Wächter der Staatsmann und Mensch, Briefwechsel und Nachlaß, 2 Bde., Stuttgart/Berlin/Leipzig 1924

External links

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