Karl Max, Fürst von Lichnowsky

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Karl Max, Fürst von Lichnowsky, 6th Prince and 8th Count Lichnowsky (1860-1928). Succeeded his father in 1901. Imperial German Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, 1912-1914.

Photo of Karl Max, Fürst von Lichnowsky

Lichnowsky became German Ambassador to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1902, replacing Philipp, Prince of Eulenburg-Hertefeld, but was forced into retirement in 1904, accused of too much independence from the Foreign Office after several conflicts with Friedrich von Holstein, senior counselor of the foreign office's political division.

According to his memoirs, Lichnowsky was brought out of retirement in 1912 when the preferred candidate for ambassador to London was thought to be too young, and two alternate candidates turned the job down.

During the July crisis of 1914, Lichnowsky was the only German diplomat who raised objections to Germany's efforts to provoke an Austro-Serbian war, arguing that Britain would intervene in a continental war. On July 25, 1914, he implored the German government to accept an offer of British mediation in the Austro-Serbian dispute. On July 27, he followed with a cable arguing that Germany could not win a continental war. This cable was not shown to Kaiser Wilhelm II. A cable on July 28 relayed an offer from King George V to hold a conference of European ambassadors to avoid general war. A final cable on July 29 to the German Foreign Office stated simply "if war breaks out it will be the greatest catastrophe the world has ever seen." These warnings went unheeded, and by the time the final cable reached Berlin, Austrian troops were already bombing Belgrade.

His privately printed pamphlet, in 1916, accused his government of failing to support him in efforts to avert World War I; its 1917 publication in the United States led to his expulsion from the Prussian Herrenhaus (House of Lords). In 1918 the "Lichnowsky Memorandum" was published in The Disclosures from Germany (New York: American Association for International Conciliation, 1918).

In his column in the May 11, 1918 issue of Illustrated London News G. K. Chesterton would note:

"And, what is worse, the spirit of this cheerless impudence has sometimes spread and chilled the blood of better men. I have noticed it lately in the last stiff pose of people who still try the stale game of blaming everybody for the war, long after the Lichnowsky revelations and the peace imposed on Russia have quite finally fixed the blame."

The latter refers to the harsh terms the Germans imposed on Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in early March 1918. Chesterton is suggesting that, had Germany won the war in the west, it would have imposed equally harsh terms on Belgium and France, implying that Germany's war had never been for defensive purposes.

See: Lichnowsky, Karl Max, My Mission to London, 1912-1914 (New York: George H. Doran Co. [1918]) and Heading for the Abyss: Reminiscences (New York: Payson and Clarke, 1928).