Adolf Georg von Maltzan

Baron von Maltzan, nicknamed Ago based on the initials of his baptismal names,{{cite news |title=VON MALTZANS CHOSE NAME; German Ambassador Calls Himself Ago, for Adolf Georg Otto. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/02/15/archives/von-maltzans-chose-name-german-ambassador-calls-himself-ago-for.html?searchResultPosition=1 |access-date=11 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=15 February 1925}} was born on 31 July 1877 on his father's estate at Klein-Varchow, Mecklenburg, Germany. He was the eldest son of manor owner Ulrich von Maltzan (1846–1931) and his wife Adelheit (née Bierbaum) von Maltzan (1857–1924). He was part of the nobility of Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania.

He attended the Katharineum in Lübeck, graduating in 1896. He then studied law at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University (known as the University of Bonn) and was a member of the Corps Borussia Bonn before transferring to the Silesian Friedrich Wilhelm University in Breslau.{{cite book |last1=Lehmann |first1=Torsten |title=Die Hallenser Corps im Deutschen Kaiserreich: eine Untersuchung zum studentischen Verbindungswesen von 1871 bis 1918 |date=2007 |publisher=Mitteldeutscher Verlag |isbn=978-3-89812-445-4 |page=127 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xowlAQAAIAAJ |access-date=11 June 2024 |language=de}}

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00589, Amerikanischer Staatsekretär Hughes in Berlin.jpg Charles Evans Hughes, U.S. Ambassador Alanson B. Houghton, and von Maltzan, in Berlin, August 1924]]

After completing his studies and military service, von Maltzan started his diplomatic service for the German Empire in 1906. He was initially employed as attaché in Rio de Janeiro in 1907, legation secretary in Oslo in 1909, St. Petersburg in 1911. In 1912 he was promoted to legation counselor and was assigned to Peking where he acted as chargé d'affaires during the Chinese revolution. Between his posts abroad, he took the diplomatic exam in 1908, and held "home posts" in the Foreign Office in Berlin, in the Reich Chancellery and at the Prussian Embassy in Stuttgart.

During World War I, von Maltzan served as First Lieutenant in the Mecklenburg Dragoons before he was transferred to diplomatic duty as representative of the Wilhelmstrasse (the Foreign Office) to the Commander-in-Chief Eastern Front in the Spring of 1917. By opposing the militarists, he made himself so unpopular he was transferred to The Hague in December 1917.

According to his obituary in Time, "His greatest diplomatic ordeal was doubtless in persuading the Kaiser to abdicate. Wilhelm II, at the time he fled from Germany, had not officially abdicated, his renunciation of the throne having been announced without Imperial authority by Chancellor Prince Max of Baden. Baron von Maltzan was therefore sent to Amerongen Castle to secure the Kaiser’s formal abdication as German Emperor and King of Prussia."

File:Ambassador Ago von Maltzahn with wife & daughter Edith, 3-10-25 LCCN2016839433.jpg

After the War ended, von Maltzan was appointed Reich Commissioner for the East by Minister Hermann Müller in 1919, responsible for the newly formed Baltic countries of Estonia and Latvia, where he organized the withdrawal of the German troops stationed there and the protection of East Prussia. Afterwards, von Maltzan served as Ministerial Director from 1921 and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1922, becoming head of the Russian Department of the Foreign Office.{{cite book |last1=Rossol |first1=Nadine |last2=Ziemann |first2=Benjamin |title=The Oxford Handbook of the Weimar Republic |date=2022 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-884577-5 |page=244 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Oxford_Handbook_of_the_Weimar_Republ/6fhQEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA244 |access-date=11 June 2024 |language=en}} As such, von Maltzan played a key role in bringing about the Treaty of Rapallo between Germany and Soviet Russia (from the end of 1922 the Soviet Union), which was signed on 16 April 1922.{{cite news |last1=du Puy |first1=William Atherton |title=GERMANY'S NEW ENVOY AN ATHLETIC DIPLOMAT; Descendant of Baltic Barons, von Maltzan Has Spent Many Years in Foreign Service of His Country -- Helped Frame the Rapallo Treaty |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/03/29/archives/germanys-new-envoy-an-athletic-diplomat-descendant-of-baltic-barons.html?searchResultPosition=23 |access-date=11 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=29 March 1925}}

In 1924, von Maltzan was appointed as the ambassador to the German Embassy in Washington but didn't present his credentials to President Calvin Coolidge at the White House until 12 March 1925.{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Special to The New York |title=COOLIDGE RECEIVES NEW GERMAN ENVOY; President Praises Ebert In Accepting Credentials of Ambassador von Maltzan. SEES GERMANY RECOVERING Ambassador Thanks Americans for Help In Rebuilding Germany and Especially for Dawes Plan. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/03/13/archives/coolidge-receives-new-german-envoy-president-praises-ebert-in.html?searchResultPosition=20 |access-date=11 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=13 March 1925}} In October 1925, von Maltzan and Secretary Frank B. Kellogg exchanged ratifications of a commercial treaty which was the first treaty between the countries following World War I with the exception of the peace treaty.{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Special to The New York |title=TO ACT ON GERMAN TREATY.; Kellogg and von Maltzan Will Exchange Ratifications Wednesday. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/10/11/archives/to-act-on-german-treaty-kellogg-and-von-maltzan-will-exchange.html?searchResultPosition=16 |access-date=11 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=11 October 1925}} After his death, he was replaced by Friedrich Wilhelm von Prittwitz und Gaffron.{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=the New York Times Companyby Wireless To the New York |title=VON MALTZAN'S COURSE WILL GUIDE NEW ENVOY; Dr. von Prittwitz Will Arrive in Washington in January -- Is of Ancient Nobility. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/11/06/archives/von-maltzans-course-will-guide-new-envoy-dr-von-prittwitz-will.html?searchResultPosition=9 |access-date=11 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=6 November 1927}}

File:Edith von Maltzan - july 1916.jpg

In 1914, Maltzan was married to Edith Emma Henriette Marie Luise Gruson (1886–1976), a daughter of industrialist Hermann August Gruson and granddaughter of Hermann Gruson of Magdeburg.{{cite book |title=Who was who in America |date=1968 |publisher=Marquis-Who's Who |page=771 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XmvhAAAAMAAJ |access-date=11 June 2024 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Becker |first1=Winfried |title=Frederic von Rosenberg: Korrespondenzen und Akten des deutschen Diplomaten und Außenministers 1913-1937 |date=23 March 2011 |publisher=Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag |isbn=978-3-486-70103-6 |page=410 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M4glJw04ZukC |access-date=11 June 2024 |language=de}} Together, they were the parents of a daughter:

• Edith Carola Adelheid Marie von Maltzan (1919–2009), who married Princeton graduate Carl Erik Hutz, a son of Dr. Rudolf Hutz of Englewood, New Jersey, in 1939.{{cite news |title=EDITH VON MALTZAN WED IN SWITZERLAND; Baroness, Daughter of German Envoy, Bride of Carl Hutz |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1939/10/03/archives/edith-von-maltzan-wed-in-switzerland-baroness-daughter-of-german.html?searchResultPosition=1 |access-date=11 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=3 October 1939}} They divorced in Reno, Nevada in 1953. She later married industrialist {{ill|Berthold von Bohlen und Halbach|de}}, a son of Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach and heiress Bertha Krupp of ThyssenKrupp.{{cite book |last1=Manchester |first1=William |title=The Arms of Krupp: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty That Armed Germany at War |date=31 October 2017 |publisher=Little, Brown |isbn=978-0-316-48394-0 |page=18 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Arms_of_Krupp/Syo3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT18 |access-date=11 June 2024 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Commire |first1=Anne |title=Women in World History: Jab-Kyt |date=2000 |publisher=Yorkin Publications |isbn=978-0-7876-4067-5 |page=824 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-zsOAQAAMAAJ |access-date=11 June 2024 |language=en}}

During a stay at home in 1927, von Maltzan died on 23 September 1927,{{cite magazine |title=GERMANY: Death of von Maltzan |url=https://time.com/archive/6661430/germany-death-of-von-maltzan/ |access-date=11 June 2024 |magazine=Time |date=3 October 1927 |language=en}} along with five others, when his Lufthansa monoplane crashed over Schleiz in Thüringen on the way from Berlin to Munich.{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=the New York Times Company by Wireless To the New York |title=BARON VON MALTZAN AND 5 OTHERS KILLED IN REICH AIR CRASH; Lufthansa Plane Carrying the Ambassador Crumples as One Wing Is Severed. PASSENGERS DIE INSTANTLY Talk of Sabotage Discredited and Cause of Disaster May Never Be Known. GREAT SHOCK TO GERMANY Washington, Where Envoy Was Very Popular, Profoundly Moved -- Fervent Tributes Paid to Him. BARON VON MALTZAN AND 5 OTHERS KILLED |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/09/24/archives/baron-von-maltzan-and-5-others-killed-in-reich-air-crash-lufthansa.html?searchResultPosition=8 |access-date=11 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=24 September 1927}}{{cite news |title=MALTZAN TRAGEDY STUNS WASHINGTON; Official and Social Circles Saddened by Envoy's Death -Coolidge Expresses Grief. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/09/24/104078627.html?pageNumber=2 |access-date=11 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=September 24, 1927 |page=2 |language=en}} His body was buried on his parents' estate in Grossen Luckow. In New York City, a memorial service was held for him at Zion Lutheran Church on the Upper East Side, which nearly 1,000 people attended including Julius P. Meyer, Rudolph Kessmeyer, Professor Theodor Wedepohl and Fritz Schroeder, and Karl von Lewinski among others.{{cite news |title=MEMORIAL SERVICES FOR VON MALTZAN; Prominent Men, Friends of Ambassador, Hear Eulogy in Zion Church. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/09/26/archives/memorial-services-for-von-maltzan-prominent-men-friends-of.html?searchResultPosition=9 |access-date=11 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=26 September 1927}} A ceremony was held for him in the Assembly Room of the Foreign Office in Berlin officiated by Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann and attended by American Ambassador Jacob Gould Schurman.{{cite news |title=SERVICES FOR VON MALTZAN; Stresemann Extols Late Ambassador at Foreign Office Ceremony. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/10/06/archives/services-for-von-maltzan-stresemann-extols-late-ambassador-at.html?searchResultPosition=8 |access-date=11 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=6 October 1927}}{{cite news |title=DR. STRESEMANN SADDENED.; German Foreign Minister Pays Tribute to Baron von Maltzan. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/09/24/archives/dr-stresemann-saddened-german-foreign-minister-pays-tribute-to.html?searchResultPosition=6 |access-date=11 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=24 September 1927}} His widow died in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria in 1976.{{cite book |title=Deutsche Geschichtsquellen des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts |date=1998 |publisher=Harald Boldt Verlag |isbn=978-3-486-56278-1 |page=711 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rMtCBSSVcaYC |access-date=11 June 2024 |language=de}}

Through his daughter Edith, he was posthumously a grandfather of three grandchildren:Käthe Eberlein - Käthe Hütz, Briefwechsel 1947-1960, ed. Hermann-Peter Eberlein, 2. Heft: Bilder und Dokumente, Wuppertal 2020, p. 6; obituary Edith von Bohlen und Halbach, died January 19, 2009 Carol Hutz (b. 1940), who married Dr Wolf Johnssen (divorced),Zoom. Galerie Carol Johnssen, Munic 2021, p. 7 Robert Hutz (b. 1942) who married Diane Dubé, and Eckbert von Bohlen und Halbach (b. 1956), who married Countess Désirée von Ortenburg (née Princess of Hohenzollern) in 2004. The former wife of Heinrich Franz Josef Georg Maria, Hereditary Count of Ortenburg, she is a daughter of Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern and Princess Birgitta of Sweden.{{cite book |last1=Reinhardt |first1=Volker |last2=Lau |first2=Thomas |title=Deutsche Familien: historische Portraits von Bismarck bis Weizsäcker |date=2005 |publisher=C.H.Beck |isbn=978-3-406-52905-4 |pages=88–93 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Deutsche_Familien/beWPO7gtXy0C&pg=PA88 |access-date=11 June 2024 |language=de}}

In 1927, Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Law degree "on the basis of a long, distinguished professional career, and as an expression of international good-will."{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Special to The New York |title=VON MALTZAN GETS DEGREE.; Marquette Honors German Envoy With Doctorate of Laws. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/05/04/archives/von-maltzan-gets-degree-marquette-honors-german-envoy-with.html?searchResultPosition=10 |access-date=11 June 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=4 May 1927}}

{{reflist|30em}}

{{commons category}}

• [https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/maltzan-adolf-georg-von-diplomat-d-31-08-1877-baron-of-news-photo/548192041 Maltzan, Adolf Georg von - Diplomat] at Getty Images

{{Ambassadors of Germany to the United States}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maltzan, Adolf Georg von}}

Category:1877 births

Category:1927 deaths

Adolf Georg

Category:20th-century German diplomats

Category:Ambassadors of Germany to the United States

Category:People from the Weimar Republic