Werner Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Rheinbaben (19 November 1878 – 14 January 1975) was a German diplomat and author.
, ''

Deutsche Biographie ''Deutsche Biographie'' ( en, German Biography) is a German-language online biographical dictionary. It published thus far information about more than 730,000 individuals and families (2016).Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie ...

'', retrieved 22 July 2018. Rheinbaben was born in Schmiedeberg,

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

. He was a naval attaché to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

during 1911–1913. He later wrote of the 1914

July Crisis The July Crisis was a series of interrelated diplomatic and military escalations among the major powers of Europe in the summer of 1914, Causes of World War I, which led to the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918). The crisis began on 28 June 1 ...

that it was Wilhelm von Stumm who downplayed the possibility of British intervention and strongly advised the

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg Theobald Theodor Friedrich Alfred von Bethmann Hollweg (29 November 1856 – 1 January 1921) was a German politician who was the chancellor of the German Empire from 1909 to 1917. He oversaw the German entry into World War I. According to biog ...

to act quickly.Konrad H. Jarausch, 'The Illusion of Limited War: Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg's Calculated Risk, July 1914', ''Central European History'', Vol. 2, No. 1 (Mar., 1969), p. 74, n. 90. After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Stumm told Rheinbaben: "I erred in 1914 and advised Bethmann falsely". Rheinbaben was a member of the German delegation to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

. During the 1920s and early 1930s Rheinbaben was a politician belonging to the

German People's Party The German People's Party (German: , or DVP) was a liberal party during the Weimar Republic that was the successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire. A right-liberal, or conservative-liberal political party, it represented politi ...

. He was a close political associate of

Gustav Stresemann Gustav Ernst Stresemann (; 10 May 1878 – 3 October 1929) was a German statesman who served as chancellor in 1923 (for 102 days) and as foreign minister from 1923 to 1929, during the Weimar Republic. His most notable achievement was the reconci ...

and wrote a sympathetic biography of him in 1928. In 1942 and 1943 Rheinbaben worked in Portugal on matters relating to prisoners of war for the German Red Cross. In 1968 he argued against the views of those post-1945 German historians who claimed that Germany had sought world domination, writing: "Poor Germany! You honestly did not reach for 'world hegemony'!"Konrad H. Jarausch, 'Review: World Power or Tragic Fate? The Kriegsschuldfrage as Historical Neurosis', ''Central European History'' Vol. 5, No. 1 (Mar., 1972), p. 74.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rheinbaben, Werner von 1878 births 1975 deaths Politicians from the Province of Silesia People from Karkonosze County 20th-century German diplomats German biographers German People's Party politicians