Herbert von Dirksen

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Herbert von Dirksen (April 2, 1882 in Berlin - December 19, 1955 in Munich) was the last German Ambassador to Britain before World War Two. Dirksen was born to a recently ennobled family.

In 1905, he graduated with a Referendar (junior barrister) legal degree and in 1907, he went on a tour around the world. After working as assistant judge, in 1910 Dirksen went on a four month trip to Rhodesia, South Africa and German East Africa. During World War One, Dirksen served in the German Army as a lieutenant and won the Iron Cross, Second Class. After the war, he joined the German Foreign Office.

Between 1923-25, Dirksen served as German Consul in the Free City of Danzig. In 1928, in a major promotion, Dirksen became the Ministerial Director of the East Division of the Foreign Office. Later, that same year, he was appointed German Ambassador to the Soviet Union. In 1933, he became the German Ambassador to Japan. In 1938-39, he was German Ambassador at the Court of St. James.

Dirksen despised his superior, Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop as "an unwholesome, half-comical figure".

Preceded by: TBD

German Ambassador to Japan 1933-1938

Succeeded by: Eugen Ott

[edit] Endnotes

• Snyder, Louis "Encyclopedia of the Third Reich" New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976 page 68.

[edit] References

• Dirksen, Herbert von "Moscow Tokyo London: Twenty Years of German Foreign Policy" Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1952.
• Snyder, Louis "Encyclopedia of the Third Reich" New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.
• Schorske, Carl "Two German Ambassadors: Dirksen and Schulenburg" pages 477-511 from The Diplomats 1919-1939 edited by Gordon A. Craig and Felix Gilbert, Princeton, New Jersey: Princenton University Press, 1953.
• Mund, Gerald "Herbert von Dirksen (1882-1955). Ein deutscher Diplomat in Kaiserreich, Weimarer Republik und Drittem Reich. Eine Biografie." Berlin: dissertation.de - Verlag im Internet, 2003.
• Mund, Gerald: "Ostasien im Spiegel der deutschen Diplomatie. Die privatdienstliche Korrespondenz des Diplomaten Herbert von Dirksen von 1933 bis 1938." Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2006 (= Historische Mitteilungen der Ranke-Gesellschaft, Beiheft 63).