Albrecht von Bernstorff

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Albrecht Graf von Bernstorff (March 22, 1809 – March 26, 1873) was a Prussian statesman.

Bernstorff was born at the estate Dreilützow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Following much travels as a career diplomat, Bernstorff was sent to Vienna in 1848 during the revolution. He soon distinguished himself as an opponent of German unification schemes. He later came to accept such unification, though he felt it should be under Prussian rather than Austrian leadership. His opposition of the German policy of Austrian prime minister Prince Felix zu Schwarzenberg resulted in his diplomatic recall in 1851. Shortly before the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, he was sent as head of the Prussian embassy in London, and was successful in promoting good Anglo-Prussian relations.[1] His son, Johann-Heinrich, Count von Bernstorff, was born in London in 1862.

Bernstorff left London in 1861 to become the Foreign Minister of Prussia in October of that year, replacing a rather passive Count Alexander von Schleinitz. He would introduce several new policies and strategies, including negotiating military conventions with various northern German states, reviving a project from 1849 to form a narrow Prusso-German Bundestaat in order to ward off such initiatives by Austria, concluding a free-trade agreement with France as part of changes to the Zollverein policy to isolate protectionist Austria, and recognizing Italy as a state in hopes that it would help collaborate against Austria.[2] However his plans for Prussian-led German unification were undermined by mistrust of political elements. In 1862 he was replaced in his post by Otto von Bismarck, whom he would thereafter criticize as having Machiavellian policies. He was later reassigned to his position as Prussian ambassador in London, and by 1871 as German Imperial ambassador, which he served until his death in 1873.[1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b "Bernstorff, Albrecht, Count von." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006.
  2. ^ Hayes, Bascom Barry (1994). Bismarck and Mitteleuropa. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 85. ISBN 0838635121.

Regarding personal names: Graf is a title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin.

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