Ellis Loring Dresel

The son of German pianist and composer Otto Dresel and Anna Loring,{{cite book| last = Crawford| first = Mary Caroline| title = Famous Families of Massachusetts| publisher = Little, Brown and Company | year = 1930 | location = Massachusetts | pages = 275| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=eMU1AAAAIAAJ&q=%22otto+dresel%22}}{{cite web|access-date=August 14, 2015| publisher= Harvard University Library | url= http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00099 | title= Loring, Ellis Gray, 1803-1858. Papers, 1809-1942}} Ellis Dresel was born in Boston on November 28, 1865. He had one sibling, a sister Louisa. His maternal grandfather, Ellis Gray Loring, was an abolitionist and one of the founders of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. He graduated from Harvard College in 1887 and from Harvard Law School in 1892. He was fluent in French and German. He practiced law with the firm of Goodwin, Dresel and Parker in Boston and lived there on Beacon Street for most of his life.{{cite news|work=Boston Globe|date=September 21, 1925| title=Ellis L. Dresel, Diplomat, Dead}} He also served as a director of Corbin Copper and Silver Mining Company.{{cite news|title=Appointed to Berlin Post|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/11/01/118174757.pdf|access-date=August 14, 2015|work=New York Times|date=November 1, 1919}} He belonged to several private clubs and, with his sister as hostess, gave a cotillion at Christmas 1906 at the New Algonquin Club.{{cite news|access-date=August 15, 2015| date= December 22, 1906 |work= Boston Evening Transcript | title= Gave a Christmas Cotillion |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2249&dat=19061222&id=ZJY-AAAAIBAJ&pg=5619,3666272&hl=en }}

He was in Europe when World War I broke out in 1915 and he volunteered his services to the U.S. embassy in Berlin, first helping Americans stranded in Germany.{{cite news | work = New York Times | title = Dresel is Favored for Berlin Embassy | date = September 3, 1921 | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E03EED8143EEE3ABC4B53DFBF66838A639EDE| access-date = August 14, 2015}}{{cite news | work = New York Times | title = Ellis L. Dresel, Diplomatist, Dead | date = September 21, 1925 | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/09/21/99360871.pdf| access-date = August 14, 2015}} After being forced to leave Berlin when the United States entered the war, he handled the affairs of the U.S. embassy in Vienna until the United States and the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke off diplomatic relations. He was responsible for relations between the German government and British prisoners of war from 1917 to 1918. During that time, in Bern, Dresel also worked with the American Red Cross, the American Legation, and its War Trade Board.

Dresel led the political information section of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. From 1919 to 1921, he was the United States commissioner to Germany where he promoted the public presence of the United States with annual Fourth of July celebrations.{{cite news|title= Americans in Berlin Celebrate the Day|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/07/05/107019720.pdf |access-date=August 14, 2015|work=New York Times|date=July 5, 1921}} He signed the treaty that concluded hostilities between the United States and Germany and restored their diplomatic relations on November 11, 1921.{{cite news|title=Germany Will Sign Peace Treaty Today with United States|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/08/24/107024622.pdf|access-date=August 14, 2015|work=New York Times|date=August 24, 1921}}{{cite news|title=German Treaty Goes into Effect|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/11/12/109825898.pdf |access-date=August 14, 2015|work=New York Times|date=November 12, 1921}}

Dresel was the first American diplomatic observer to visit Germany after World War I.{{cite book| last = Jonas| first = Manfred| title = The United States and Germany: A Diplomatic History | publisher = Cornell University Press | year = 1985 | pages = 141, 144, 149| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MSLgiCvfKXQC&q=%22ellis+loring+dresel%22&pg=PA141| isbn = 0-8014-9890-2}}

In 1921, his title was changed to chargé d'affaires. The following year, though President Warren G. Harding was prepared to name him ambassador to Germany, he left government service and returned to the United States. Harvard awarded him an honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1922 in recognition of his diplomatic service.{{cite news|title=1,401 Harvard Men Win their Degrees|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/06/23/109846244.pdf |access-date=August 14, 2015|work=New York Times|date=June 23, 1922}}

Dresel suffered from heart problems even while in the diplomatic service.{{cite news|work=New York Times| access-date=August 14, 2015|date=September 26, 1925| url= https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/09/26/98841237.pdf| first=Charles H. |last=Russell |title=Ellis Loring Dresel}} He died of cancer on September 19, 1925, in Pride's Crossing, Massachusetts. He was buried in Beverly Central Cemetery in Beverly, Massachusetts.[https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/2015/01/14/pardee-professor-solves-history-mystery/ Boston University]

He never married. He belonged to the Episcopal Church. Years later, a group of Harvard graduates established a fund in his honor.{{cite news|title=Fund Will Honor Dresel|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1929/04/27/95934473.pdf |access-date=August 14, 2015|work=New York Times|date=April 27, 1929}}

Dresel's papers are preserved in the Houghton Library, including correspondence with William Richards Castle, Joseph Clark Grew, Hugh S. Gibson, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Allen Welsh Dulles.[http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou01312 Dresel, Ellis Loring,1865-1925. Papers: Guide]. Houghton Library, Harvard University Library.

{{Reflist|2}}

• [http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/US_Peace_Treaty_with_Germany U.S. Peace Treaty with Germany]
• {{YouTube | id= yrVKaNu7UK0 | title= VIDEO: Ellis Loring Dresel and others at signing of the U.S.-German Peace Treaty of 1921 }}

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before= James W. Gerard|

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Category:1865 births

Category:1925 deaths

Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Germany

Category:Harvard Law School alumni

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:American people of German descent

Category:20th-century American diplomats