August Karl Graf von Dönhoff-Friedrichstein (26 January 1845 – 9 September 1920) was a Prussian nobleman and politician.

Life

Born in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

Dönhoff descended from the

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

n branch of the

Dönhoff The House of Dönhoff (Polish: Denhoff, sometimes also Doenhoff) was an old and influential German noble family, which later also became part of the Polish nobility. History It was first mentioned in 1282, in the County of Mark in Westph ...

. His father was the diplomat and Prussian foreign minister

August Heinrich Hermann von Dönhoff August Heinrich Hermann von Dönhoff (10 October 1797 in Potsdam - 1 April 1874 at Schloss Friedrichstein ( East Prussia)) was a Prussian diplomat. Dönhoff participated as a volunteer in the campaign of 1815, studied in Königsberg, Göttingen an ...

, his mother Pauline, ''née Countess'' von Lehndorff. Dönhoff grew up on the family castle Friedrichstein not far from

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

and attended the

Kneiphof Gymnasium image:ID003746 B178 KneiphoefGymnasDom.jpg, Kneiphof Gymnasium, with Königsberg Cathedral in the background Kneiphof Gymnasium (german: Kneiphöfisches Gymnasium) was a Gymnasium (Germany), gymnasium in the Kneiphof quarter of Königsberg, Germany. ...

. After the

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

he studied law at the

Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

. In 1865 he became a member of the

Corps Borussia Bonn The Corps Borussia Bonn is a German Student Corps at the University of Bonn. History Borussia was established on 22 December 1821 and joined the Kösener Senioren-Convents-Verband (KSCV) in 1856. It is the corps of the House of Hohenzollern a ...

. As a Prussian

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

he took part in the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...

at the age of 21. From 1868 to 1870 he was an articled clerk at the

Kammergericht The Kammergericht (KG) is the ''Oberlandesgericht'', the highest state court, for the city-state of Berlin, Germany. As an ordinary court according to the German Courts Constitution Act (''Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz''), it deals with criminal a ...

and then served again as a major in the Franco-Prussian War. Like his father, Dönhoff also embarked on a diplomatic career and worked as secretary of legation for the Empire in Paris, Vienna, London, Saint Petersburg and Washington. In Washington he made friends with the Interior Minister

Carl Schurz Carl Schurz (; March 2, 1829 – May 14, 1906) was a German revolutionary and an American statesman, journalist, and reformer. He immigrated to the United States after the German revolutions of 1848–1849 and became a prominent member of the new ...

and accompanied him on an adventurous journey to the American West. Dönhoff laid down his diplomatic duties when, after his father's death in 1874, he took over his hereditary seat in the

Prussian House of Lords The Prussian House of Lords (german: Preußisches Herrenhaus) in Berlin was the upper house of the Landtag of Prussia (german: Preußischer Landtag), the parliament of Prussia from 1850 to 1918. Together with the lower house, the House of Repres ...

. At the

1881 German federal election Federal elections were held in Germany on 27 October 1881.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p762 The Centre Party became the largest party in the Reichstag, with 100 of the 397 seats, whilst the N ...

he moved as representative of the

German Conservative Party The German Conservative Party (german: Deutschkonservative Partei, DkP) was a right-wing political party of the German Empire founded in 1876. It largely represented the wealthy landowning elite Prussian Junkers. The party was a response to Ge ...

into the

Reichstag (German Empire) The Reichstag () of the German Empire was Germany's lower house of parliament from 1871 to 1918. Within the governmental structure of the Reich, it represented the national and democratic element alongside the federalism of the Bundesrat and the ...

. He was elected in the .Fritz Specht, Paul Schwabe: ''Die Reichstagswahlen von 1867 bis 1903. Eine Statistik der Reichstagswahlen nebst den Programmen der Parteien und einem Verzeichnis der gewählten Abgeordneten.'' Second edition. Verlag Carl Heymann, Berlin 1904, . He belonged to this group until 1903, representing the interests of the

East Elbia East Elbia (german: Ostelbien) was an informal denotation for those parts of the German Reich until World War II that lay east of the river Elbe. The region comprised the Prussian provinces of Brandenburg, the eastern parts of Saxony (Jerichower ...

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...

and large estates. In 1906 he became a Prussian landowner. In 1917 August von Dönhoff was one of the founding members of the

German Fatherland Party The German Fatherland Party (german: Deutsche Vaterlandspartei, abbreviated as DVLP) was a short-lived far-right political party active in the German Empire during the last phase of World War I. It rejected the ''Burgfriedenspolitik'' or "party ...

, which advocated a perseverance policy and a peace of victory in the First World War. Dönhoff died at the age of 75 at the .

Family

In 1896 Dönhoff married in Karwitz the 24 years younger Maria von Lepel (1869-1940), with whom he had eight children: * William (d. 1897) * Christa (1898-1924), married 1922 to Bruno Freiherr von Dellingshausen * Heinrich Botho Eugen von Dönhoff (1899-1942), married 1938 with Dorothea Gräfin von Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg * Yvonne Franziska Ilda (1901-1991), married in 1919 to Alexander von * Dietrich Wilfried Georg Karl (1902-1991), married in 1933 to Karin ("Sissi") Countess von Lehndorff * Christoph August Bernhard (1906-1992), married 1931 to Vera Burkart * Maria Elisabeth Helene Freda (1908-1965), born with the

Down syndrome Down syndrome or Down's syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. It is usually associated with physical growth delays, mild to moderate intellectual dis ...

, died in the

Bethel Foundation The Bethel Foundation, officially the Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel (german: von Bodelschwinghsche Stiftungen Bethel as of 2009, previously ''v. Bodelschwinghsche Anstalten Bethel'') is a diaconal (i.e. Protestant charitable) psychiatric hos ...

Marion Dönhoff Marion Hedda Ilse Gräfin von Dönhoff (2 December 1909 – 11 March 2002) was a German journalist and publisher who participated in the resistance against Nazism, along with Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, Peter Yorck von Wartenburg, and Claus S ...

(1909-2002)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Donhoff, August von Members of the Reichstag of the German Empire Members of the Prussian House of Lords German Conservative Party politicians German Fatherland Party politicians 19th-century German diplomats 1845 births 1920 deaths August von Dönhoff

Life

Family

Further reading

References

External links