Christian Günther von Bernstorff

Christian Günther Graf von Bernstorff ( born April 3, 1769 in Copenhagen, † March 28, 1835 in Berlin) was a Danish and Prussian statesman and diplomat.

Life

Christian Günther von Bernstorff was the son of the Danish State Minister Andreas Peter Graf von Bernstorff and Henrietta of Stolberg- Stolberg, a sister of Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg - Stolberg, on 3 April 1769 in Copenhagen. He came from an old, established in Mecklenburg, noble family. It was named after his grandfather, Count of Stolberg- Stolberg Christian Günther.

He was educated by private tutors. His father gave him an early insight into his work. Already at the age of 18 he worked in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on various diplomatic posts. In 1789 he went as secretary of legation with his uncle Friedrich Stolberg, of the Danish ambassador to Prussia, to Berlin. Already in 1791 he took over the post in 1794 and moved in the same position to Stockholm. After the death of his father in 1797, he was the Danish State Secretary in Copenhagen and in 1800 was promoted to Minister of Foreign Affairs. Due to its unfortunate policy of armed neutrality towards Britain, he joined back in 1810 from active ministerial service and went as Danish ambassador to Vienna, where in 1815 the Congress of Vienna took part, in which Denmark lost Norway.

After his return to Denmark Bernstorff was sent again as a diplomat to Prussia. Recruited him in 1818, Frederick William III. from. Bernstorff entered Prussian service and took over as Head of State and Cabinet Minister until then by Karl August von Hardenberg led the State Department. During his ministerial activity Bernstorff supported the restorative policy and advocated the persecution of demagogues. Great, who did much in the production of customs unions German states with Prussia, the basis of the later German customs union. The Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which he first stood in the shadow Klemens Wenzel Lothar Metternich of, he laid in 1832 due to his ill health down. But until his death he was one of the closest personal advisers to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III.

Family

In 1806 he married Elise of Dernath ( 1789-1867 ), the 16 -year-old daughter of his one year younger sister Charlotte, with whom he had six children, where which the three sons died as infants and the daughter of Marie remained unmarried. The daughter Klara (1811-1832) married Eugen von Reventlow (1798-1885), a son of Cay Friedrich von Reventlow, and died childless. Torah (1809-1873) had with her husband Julius von dem Bussche - Ippenburg twelve children.