Longest-serving Ambassador of Germany in the USA

I was able to get a great historical document of German-American relationships. The letter is handwritten by Friedrich von Gerolt in the 1840s.

Friedrich Karl Joseph Freiherr von Gerolt (5 March 1797 Bonn – 27 July 1879 Linz am Rhein) was Prussian Privy Councillor, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in the United States.

Gerolt was consistently 27 years as a diplomat in the United States and is still regarded as the longest-serving ambassador of Germany in the USA.

During his time in Washington, he maintained useful contacts with many politicians, including several presidents and government ministers.

In his quarter-century of service, Gerolt saw Presidents James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses Grant.

Millard Fillmore was the only incumbent U.S. president, who visited Germany in the 19th century. In 1855, he met with Alexander von Humboldt and King Friedrich Wilhelm IV together in Berlin. In this period, 1.5 million German immigrated to the U.S., and there were a total of 14 German consulates in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, New Orleans, St. Louis, Galveston, Savannah, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Louisville, Milwaukee, Chicago, Boston, and New Bedford.

He studied mining and geology in 1823 and was listed as a Mining Office secretary in Düren. In March 1824, he traveled to Mexico, prospecting for silver mines, and published a geological map in 1828.  King Friedrich Wilhelm III invested him and his brothers in 1830, with the Leyen manor (now Castle Ockenfels in Ockenfels).

In 1837, he was chargé d’affaires in Mexico and, at the suggestion of Alexander von Humboldt in 1844, made Extraordinary Envoy and Minister of the Kingdom of Prussia to the United States of America. In October 1848, he was superseded by Friedrich Ludwig von Rönne. He sought to comment on a German constitution from John C. Calhoun. From 1849 to 1868, he was again sent as an ambassador of Prussia to Washington from 1868 until the empire was founded in 1871, he was then working for the North German Confederation as an envoy in Washington.

In 1852, he negotiated an extradition treaty with Daniel Webster. In 1858, Gerolt was elevated to Freiherr. Alexander von Humboldt was Gerolt’s protégée and introduced him in 1844 to King Friedrich Wilhelm III – then his outstanding career began. Longest-serving Ambassador of Germany in the USA

 

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