Wilhelm von Mirbach
Wilhelm Graf von Mirbach Harff ( born July 2, 1871 in Bad Ischl, † July 6, 1918 in Moscow ) was a German diplomat and ambassador.
Life
Education and Career
Wilhelm Graf von Mirbach Harff came from a family of the Rhineland Uradels. He is a descendant of Johann Wilhelm von Mirbach Harff, founder of the Rhenish Knights Academy. His father was Ernst Graf von Mirbach. From 1908 to 1911 was of Mirbach Harff Counselor in Saint Petersburg, then adviser on Political Affairs on the staff of the German command in Bucharest. 1915 was of Mirbach Harff German Ambassador in Athens, on 16 December 1917 he was until 10 February 1918, the German legation in Petrograd, which was established after the signing of the Armistice of Brest- Litovsk.
From April 2, 1918 until his assassination was Wilhelm Graf von Mirbach Harff Extraordinary Envoy and Minister Plenipotentiary of the German Reich in Soviet Russia.
German Ambassador in Moscow
Wilhelm Graf von Mirbach Harff 1918 was involved in the trials of the German side to free the Russian Tsar's family through diplomatic channels.
From Mirbach Harff, however, recommended in his last letter to Kühlmann of 25 June 1918, the German government should prepare the formation of pro-German anti-Soviet government organs in Moscow that " we have in store and will be available to us fully to services ", as it Lenin despite the German funds would not be able to abide in power.
The Assassination
Yakov Blumkin was head of the department for the control of German espionage in the run by Felix Dzerzhinsky All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Speculation and Sabotage, the Cheka. In Blumkin department Nikolai Andreyev worked as a photographer. The leader of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries Maria Spiridonowa confessed to inciting the murder. However, circumstantial evidence have indicated that Dzerzhinsky knew of Blumkin plans, she advocated and supported, even though he always denied this. He was deposed assassination of Lenin as Cheka Chairman on the day after Count Mirbach Harffs; Lenin, Sverdlov and Trotsky saw in the events of July 6, 1918 appears to be a joint conspiracy of Cheka people and SRs.
Successor of Mirbach Harffs as German ambassador, Karl Helfferich. The murderers Blumkin and Andreev managed to escape after the fact. Already on August 22, 1918, Dzerzhinsky took back the leadership of the Cheka.