🔍 MăreșteIn memoriam
Karl Max, Prince Lichnowsky (8 March 1860 – 27 February 1928) was a German diplomat who served as ambassador to Britain during the July Crisis and who was the author of a 1916 pamphlet that deplored German diplomacy in mid-1914 which, he argued, contributed heavily to the outbreak of the First World War.
Karl Max von Lichnowsky a adăugat o fotografie
ieri
Karl Max, Prince Lichnowsky (8 March 1860 – 27 February 1928) was a German diplomat who served as ambassador to Britain during the July Crisis and who was the author of a 1916 pamphlet that deplored German diplomacy in mid-1914 which, he argued, contributed heavily to the outbreak of the First World War.
Karl Max von Lichnowsky a adăugat o fotografie
ieri
Early life and education He was the sixth Prince and eighth Count Lichnowsky. He succeeded his father in 1901. His father was Carl, Prince Lichnowsky (1819–1901), fifth Prince and seventh Count Lichnowsky, a general of cavalry, and his mother was Marie, Princess of Croy (1837–1915). He was the head of an old noble Bohemian family, possessing estates at Kuchelna, then in Austrian Silesia, and Grätz in Moravia (present Hradec nad Moravicí, Czech Republic). As a hereditary member of the upper house of the Prussian Diet for the Free Conservative Party, Lichnowsky played a part in domestic politics, adopting in general a moderate attitude and deprecating partisan legislation. Though a Roman Catholic, he avoided identifying himself with the clerical party in Germany.
Karl Max von Lichnowsky a adăugat o fotografie
ieri
Career Entering the diplomatic service, Lichnowsky was appointed an attaché at the London embassy in 1885 and later served as legation secretary at Bucharest. He became German Ambassador to Austria-Hungary in 1902, replacing Philipp, Prince of Eulenburg, but was forced into retirement in 1904, accused of too much independence from the Foreign Office after several conflicts with Friedrich von Holstein, head of the Office's political division. He spent eight years in retirement, as his memoirs relate, "on my farm and in my garden, on horseback and in the fields, but reading industriously and publishing occasional political articles." For several years, newspaper rumour in Germany had connected the name Lichnowsky with practically every important diplomatic post that became vacant, and even with the Imperial chancellorship. No official appointment was forthcoming, however, beyond the designation of privy councilor (German: Wirklicher Geheimrat) in 1911. In 1912, Lichnowsky was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom, in which post he served until the outbreak of war in 1914. Soon after his appointment, he filed a report on a conversation with Lord Haldane, British secretary of state for war. In it, Haldane had made clear that Britain could go to war if Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia and…
Karl Max von Lichnowsky a lăsat un gând
ieri
July Crisis During the July Crisis of 1914, Lichnowsky was the only German diplomat who raised objections to Germany's efforts to provoke an Austro-Serbian war, arguing that Britain would intervene in a continental war. On 25 July, he implored the German government to accept an offer of British mediation in the Austro-Serbian dispute. On 27 July, he followed with a cable arguing that Germany could not win a continental war. This cable was not shown to Kaiser Wilhelm II. A cable on 28 July relayed an offer from King George V to hold a conference of European ambassadors to avoid general war. A final cable on 29 July to the German Foreign Office stated simply "if war breaks out it will be the greatest catastrophe the world has ever seen." These warnings went unheeded, and by the time the final cable reached Berlin, Austrian troops were already bombarding Belgrade. On Britain's declaration of war on 4 August 1914, Lichnowsky returned to Germany. So highly was he thought of, a British military guard of honour saluted his departure – a rare privilege in the circumstances.
Karl Max von Lichnowsky a lăsat un gând
ieri
Pamphlet His privately printed pamphlet, My Mission to London 1912–1914, circulated in German upper-class circles in 1916, accused his government of failing to support him in efforts to avert World War I; its 1917 publication in the United States led to his expulsion from the Prussian House of Lords. In 1918, the renamed "Lichnowsky Memorandum" was published in The Disclosures from Germany (New York: American Association for International Conciliation, 1918). It was also published in the Swedish journal Politiken in March 1918, from which a British copy was published by Cassell & Co., later in 1918, with a preface by Professor Gilbert Murray. The pamphlet mainly covers the period 1912–1914, and occasionally back to 1900. Lichnowsky deplored the German alliance with Austria-Hungary (though he owned land in Austria and had served as a diplomat in Vienna), feeling that it inevitably pulled German diplomacy into Balkan crises and tensions with Russia, without any compensating benefits to Germany with its new industries, trade and colonies. "This is a return to the days of the Holy Roman Empire and the mistakes of the Hohenstaufens and Habsburgs," he wrote. The Kaiser had commented on 31 July 1914 about an encircling British diplomacy during the…
Karl Max von Lichnowsky a lăsat un gând
ieri
Comments In his column in the 11 May 1918 issue of Illustrated London News, G. K. Chesterton would note: And, what is worse, the spirit of this cheerless impudence has sometimes spread and chilled the blood of better men. I have noticed it lately in the last stiff pose of people who still try the stale game of blaming everybody for the war, long after the Lichnowsky revelations and the peace imposed on Russia have quite finally fixed the blame. The latter refers to the harsh terms the Germans imposed on Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in early March 1918. Chesterton was reminding his readers that, were Germany to win the war in the west, it would impose equally harsh terms on Belgium and France, in line with the 1914 Septemberprogramm. Professor Murray summarised his 1918 foreword to the pamphlet with: The cleaner our national conscience the keener surely will be our will to victory. The slower we were to give up the traditions of generosity and trustfulness that came from our long security, the firmer will be our resolution to hold out... Lichnowsky was seen as a 'Good German' who had truthfully warned his government but had been…
Karl Max von Lichnowsky a lăsat un gând
ieri
Personal life In 1904, he married Countess Mechtilde von Arco-Zinneberg (1879–1958).
Karl Max von Lichnowsky a lăsat un gând
ieri
Descendants Wilhelm Dionysos Hermann Carl Max, 7th Prince and 9th Count Lichnowsky (b. 1905 – d. 1975), had three children: Christiane Maria, Countess Lichnowsky (b. 1937 – d. 1980) Felix Michael, 8th Prince and 10th Count Lichnowsky (b. 1940). had three sons:
Karl Max von Lichnowsky a lăsat un gând
ieri
Ursula, Countess Lichnowsky (b. 1998) Miguel (Michael or Michel), Count Lichnowsky (b. 1965) had one daughter:
Karl Max von Lichnowsky a lăsat un gând
ieri
Rui, Countess Lichnowsky (b. 1996) Luci Margit, Countess Lichnowsky (b. 1941), had two sons and two daughters: Ferdinand Wilhelm, Ritter von Winterhalder (b. 1969) Alexander Nikolaus, Ritter von Winterhalder (b. 1970)
Karl Max von Lichnowsky a lăsat un gând
ieri
Jasmin Maria von Winterhalder (b. 1978) Leonore Marie Helene Leodine Mechtilde, Countess Lichnowsky (b. 1906 – d. 2002) Michael Max Leopold Nikolaus, Count Lichnowsky (b. 1907)