Johann Heinrich Bernstorff

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.

Early life

Born in 1862 in London, he was the son of one of the most powerful politicians in the Prussian Kingdom. As Foreign Minister for Prussia, his father, Count Albrecht von Bernstorff, had earned the ire of Otto von Bismarck in the Prussian constitutional crisis of 1859–1866. Overestimating his political strength, Bernstorff resigned in a spat over the constitution with the expectation to force his will on the Prussian government. However, the Emperor accepted Bernstorff's miscalculated challenge and appointed Bismarck chancellor and foreign minister. For the rest of his life, Bernstorff would criticise Bismarck's Machiavellian style of governing. In 1862, the elder Bernstorff served as ambassador to the Court of St James's. For the next eleven years, the young Bernstorff grew up in England until his father's death, in 1873. After moving back to Germany, he went to the humanistic gymnasium in Dresden from which he graduated with a baccalaureate in 1881.

While Bernstorff's dream had always been to pursue a diplomatic career, the family feud with Bismarck made an appointment to the diplomatic service impossible. As a result, he joined the Prussian Army for the next eight years and served in an artillery unit in Berlin.

After being elected a member of the Reichstag, he finally succeeded in convincing the Bismarcks to settle the dispute with the long-dead father. In 1887, von Bernstorff married Jeanne Luckemeyer, a German-American. She was a native of New York City and daughter of a wealthy silk merchant.