Friedrich-Werner von der Schulenberg

From Kaiserreich

Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg (20 November 1875 – ) is a German diplomat. He began his diplomatic career before the Weltkrieg, serving as consul and ambassador in several countries. He is a member of the Deutschkonservative Partei.

Diplomatic career

Schulenburg was born in Kemberg, Saxony-Anhalt to Graf Bernhard von der Schulenburg. He 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 found himself working at consulates in Lviv, Prague, Warsaw and Tbilisi. With the outbreak of the Weltkrieg 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 some high Turkish honours. After the Ottoman Empire's collapse, he was captured by the British and interned on the Turkish island of Prinkipo), returning to Germany in 1921. Von der Schulenburg returned to the Foreign Office Service and became consul in Cairo. After the Weltkreig, 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 Russia. Von der Schulenburg favours an agreement between Germany and Russia.

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 will be undertaken in 1936 and is expected to be completed 1939.