Name Hans von | Died 1915, Constantinople | |
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Hans, Baron von Wangenheim (1859 – October 26, 1915) was a diplomat for Imperial Germany. He died of a stroke, diagnosed most likely as 'neurasthenic' tendencies.
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Life
Hans von Wangenheim was a German noble born in Gotha. In 1902 he married Johanna Freiin von Spitzemberg (1877-1960), the daughter of Carl, Baron von Spitzemberg and Hildegard Baroness von Spitzemberg, née Freiin von Varnbüler.
He served abroad as:
He died on October 26, 1915 in Constantinople, rumors were that he had been poisoned.
War
With the outbreak of World War I Wangenheim was instrumental in securing the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war as part of the Central Powers. Wangenheim oversaw Max von Oppenheim's successful attempt to get the Ottoman Caliph Mehmed V to declare Jihad against the Triple Entente. During the time of Armenian Genocide there were accusations of German complicity and question's were raised as to Wangenheim's position of 'non-intervention'; the American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau in his book Ambassador Morgenthau's Story (1918) would virulently criticise Wangenheim's role. In an interview with an American journalist, Wangenheim stated: "I do not blame the Turks for what they are doing to the Armenians...They are entirely justified".
Also in Turkey at that time was the socialist revolutionary, arms dealer, and German agent Alexander Parvus. Wangenheim sent Parvus to Berlin in March 1915 endorsing Parvus' plan that Germany back the Bolsheviks against the Russian Empire.
Russian Statesman Sergey Sazonov regarded Wangenheim as "the most successful of the German fighting diplomatists".