Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg
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Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg (20 November 1875 – 10 November 1944) began his diplomatic career even before the First World War, serving as consul and ambassador in several countries. From 1908 to 1910, he was married to Elisabeth von Sobbe (1875-1955), with whom he had one daughter.
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[edit] Diplomatic career
Schulenberg was born in Kemberg, Saxony-Anhalt, As Count Bernhard von der Schulenburg's son, Friedrich-Werner studied law in Lausanne, Munich and Berlin after a one-year stint in the military. In 1901, he joined the Foreign Office's consular service as a junior lawyer (Assessor). By 1903, he was already the vice-consul at Germany's consulate general in Barcelona, and in the years that followed, he also found himself working at consulates in Lviv, Prague, Warsaw and Tbilisi. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, von der Schulenburg returned to the military, and after the First Battle of the Marne was promoted to captain in October 1914 and put in charge of an artillery battery. In 1915, he went as German liaison officer to the Ottoman Army on the Armenian Front. In 1916, he took over leadership of the Georgian Legion in the struggle with Russia, until its collapse in 1917. During his time in the military, he received the Iron Cross and also some high Turkish honours. After the German Empire's collapse, he was captured by the British and interned on the Turkish island of Prinkipo (now called Büyük Ada), returning to Germany only in 1919. Von der Schulenburg returned to the Foreign Office Service and became consul in Beirut.
[edit] Noble estate
In the 1930s, von der Schulenburg acquired the Burg Falkenberg, a castle in the Upper Palatinate. He had it converted and renovated to serve as a retirement home. This monumental work was undertaken between 1936 and 1939.
[edit] Resistance activities
After the First World War, von der Schulenburg got his diplomatic career going again, becoming, among other things, an envoy to Tehran and Bucharest. In 1934, he was appointed German ambassador to the Soviet Union. Von der Schulenburg favoured an agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union, and was instrumental in bringing about the August 1939 German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. After Soviet invasion of Poland, despite state of war between Germany and Poland, he used his position as the senior ambassador in Moscow to allow Polish diplomats to leave Soviet Union, when Soviets tried to arrest them. To the last, he tried to thwart the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 through means such as hinting at the country's military strength and the unassailability of its industrial reserves.
After the aggression began on 22 June 1941, von der Schulenburg was interned for a few weeks, and transferred to the Soviet-Turkish border. Thereafter, von der Schulenburg was assigned leader of the Russia Committee, a Foreign Office post with no political influence that neutralized him. Later he would make his influence felt in the military opposition, to reach a quick peace agreement in the east. He was ready and willing to negotiate even with Stalin in the plotters' names. In the plans for the overthrow, Friedrich-Werner von der Schulenburg was tentatively foreseen as the new foreign minister.
After the failure of the attempt on Hitler's life on 20 July 1944, he was arrested, and charged as a 69-year-old with high treason. On 23 October 1944, the Volksgerichtshof sentenced him to death. He was hanged on 10 November 1944 at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.
[edit] See also
[edit] Reference
- 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: Princeton University Press, 1953.
