Sutton

Bernstorff, Johann Heinrich, Graf von, trans by Eric SuttonBiblio.com

Memoirs of Count Bernstorff

1936réf. 24520New York: Random House 1936. Presumed First U. S. Edition First printing. Hardcover. fair. 24 cm. 383 1 pages. Illustrations. Index. Endpapers discolored Ink notation on front endpaper. Rear board weak and restrengthened with glue. Many pencil notes on rear flyleaf & inside rear cover. This honest book adds to the author's previous account of his years in Washington though there is new light on his relations with certain American personalities. Its most important contributions concern Bernstorff's ambassadorship at Constantinople during the last part of the war and his activities in the political life of the German Republic particularly on behalf of the League and disarmament. This volume should be read by all who wish to understand the tragedy of postwar German democracy. 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. He was recalled to Germany on 7 July 1914 but returned on 2 August upon the outbreak of the First World War. 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 of Germany. Publicly Bernstorff's ambassadorship in Washington was characterized by a diplomatic battle with the British ambassador Sir Cecil Spring Rice with both men attempting to influence the American government's position regarding the war. Later however as the blockade began to prevent American munitions manufacturers from trading with Germany the ambassador began financing sabotage missions to obstruct arms shipments to Germany's enemies. Some of the plans included destroying the Welland Canal which circumvents Niagara Falls. That was attempted in September 1914 but failed. It was also in 1914 that the German diplomatic mission began supporting the expatriate Indian movement for independence. Bernstorff was assisted by Captain Franz von Papen who would later be Chancellor of Germany and Captain Karl Boy-Ed a naval attaché. The commercial attaché Heinrich Albert was the finance officer for the sabotage operations. Papen and the German consulate in San Francisco are known to have been extensively involved in the Hindu-German Conspiracy especially in the Annie Larsen gun running plot. Although Bernstorff himself officially denied all knowledge most accounts agree this was a part of the German intelligence and sabotage offensive in America against Britain and Bernstorff was among those intricately involved. Following the capture of the Annie Larsen and confiscation of its cargo Bernstorff made efforts to recover the $200000 worth of arms insisting they were meant for Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa. This was futile however and the arms were auctioned off. In December of the same year Bernstorff received a cable from the German Foreign Office instructing him to target the Canadian railways. On 1 January 1915 the Roebling Wire and Cable plant in Trenton New Jersey was blown up. On 28 January an American merchant ship carrying wheat to Britain was sunk. On 2 February 1915 Lt. Werner Horn was captured following the Vanceboro international bridge bombing. In 1916 his wife was involved in blackmail plot by a former German spy Armgaard Karl Graves. In 1915 Bernstorff also helped organize what became known as the Great Phenol Plot an attempt to divert phenol from the production of high explosives in the United States which would end up being sold to the British and at the same time prop up several German-owned chemical companies that made aspirin and its precursor salicylic acid. In September 1915 his agents attempted to influence the negotiations between American banks and the Anglo-French Financial Commission but failed to prevent an agreement being reached. Bernstorff was returned home on 3 February 1917 when Woodrow Wilson severed diplomatic relations with Germany after the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. Upon receiving the news Colonel Edward M. House wrote to him "The day will come when people in Germany will see how much you have done for your country in America." In 1926 he became the Chairman of Kurt Blumenfeld's Zionist German Pro-Palestine Committee Deutsches Pro-Palästina Komitee to support the foundation of a Jewish State in Palestine.15 From 1926 to 1931 he was the chairman of the German delegation to the Preparatory World Disarmament Conference. Bernstorff who was explicitly mentioned by Hitler as one of those men bearing "the guilt and responsibility for the collapse of Germany" left Germany in 1933 after the Nazis rose to power and moved to Geneva Switzerland where he died on 6 October 1939. Random House hardcover

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