Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff
Johann Heinrich Graf von Bernstorff (14 November 1862 – 6 October 1939) was a German politician and ambassador to the United States from 1908 to 1917. Early life Born in 1862 in London, he was the son of one of the most powerful politicians in the Prussian Kingdom. As Foreign Minister for Prussia, his father, Count Albrecht von Bernstorff, had earned the ire of Otto von Bismarck in the Prussian constitutional crisis of 1859–1866. Overestimating his political strength, Bernstorff resigned in a spat over the constitution with the expectation to force his will on the Prussian government. However, the Emperor accepted Bernstorff's miscalculated challenge and appointed Bismarck chancellor and foreign minister. For the rest of his life, Bernstorff would criticise Bismarck's Machiavellian style of governing. In 1862, the elder Bernstorff served as ambassador to the Court of St James's. For the next eleven years, the young Bernstorff grew up in England until his father's death, in 1873. After moving back to Germany, he went to the humanistic gymnasium in Dresden from which he graduated with a baccalaureate in 1881. While Bernstorff's dream had always been to pursue a diplomatic career, the family feud with Bismarck made an appointment to the diplomatic service impossible. As a result, he joined the Prussian Army for the next eight years and served in an artillery unit in Berlin. After being elected a member of the Reichstag, he finally succeeded in convincing the Bismarcks to settle the dispute with the long-dead father. In 1887, von Bernstorff married Jeanne Luckemeyer, a German-American. She was a native of New York City and daughter of a wealthy silk merchant. Career First diplomatic postings His first diplomatic assignment was Constantinople, where he served as military attaché. From 1892 to 1894, he served at the German embassy in Belgrade. After a brief assignment to St. Petersburg (1895–1897), Bernstorff was stationed in Munich for a period. He then became First Secretary of the German embassy in London (1902–1906). Bernstorff's diplomatic skills were noted in Berlin throughout the First Moroccan Crisis in 1905. He then served as consul general in Cairo (1906–1908). Despite his family's problems with the Bismarcks, Bernstorff basically agreed with Bismarck's policies, particularly the decision to found the German Reich without Austria in 1871. As a diplomat, Bernstorff adamantly supported Anglo-German rapprochement and considered the policies of Wilhelm II "reckless". Ambassador to the United States In 1908, Bernstorff was appointed the German ambassador to the United States. He was recalled to Germany on 7 July 1914 but returned on 2 August, upon the outbreak of the World War I. It was later revealed that he had been recruited into intelligence work and ordered to assist the German war effort by all means necessary. He was also provided with a large slush fund to finance those operations. He began with attempts to assist German-Americans who wished to return home to fight by forging passports to get them through the Allied blockade. Publicly, Bernstorff's ambassadorship in Washington was characterised by a