Karl von Werther

Baron Karl Anton Philipp von Werther (31 January 1809 – 8 February 1894) was a German diplomat. A royal Prussian Privy Councilor and Envoy, later to the North German Confederation and the German Empire, serving in Switzerland, Greece, Denmark, Russia, Austria, France and the Ottoman Empire.

Early life

Baron von Werther was born on 31 January 1809 at Königsberg in what was then the Kingdom of Prussia (today it is known as Kaliningrad, the largest city and administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave between Lithuania and Poland). He was the son of Josephine von Sandizell and Heinrich Wilhelm von Werther, a diplomat who served as Prussian Foreign Minister between 1837 and 1841 (after having been chamberlain to King Friedrich Wilhelm III).

His grandfather, Philipp August Wilhelm von Werther, was a Prussian lieutenant general and regimental commander.

Career

Werther studied law and passed his first legal examination in June 1830, however, in 1832 he decided on a diplomatic career and, after passing the diplomatic examination, was transferred to Munich as legation secretary in 1834. He transferred to The Hague in 1835 and, in 1836, was appointed legation councilor in London to Heinrich von Bülow, the son-in-law of Wilhelm von Humboldt. In the same year, King Friedrich Wilhelm III appointed him chamberlain. During the lengthy negotiations during the conference in London on the Eastern Question, he often had to represent Bülow, who was often ill, especially in 1839.

In 1840 Werther was transferred to Paris where he followed the events of the Oriental Crisis (an episode in the Egyptian–Ottoman War) closely.