Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg

Friedrich-Werner, Count von der Schulenburg (born in Kemberg, Germany, on November, 20 1875) is a German diplomat and current German State Secretary for Foreign Affairs since 1934.



Biography
Born in Kemberg, Saxony-Anhalt, and son of military officer Bernhard count von der Schulenburg, Friedrich-Werner studied law in Lausanne, Munich and Berlin after a one-year stint in the military. In 1901, he joined the Foreign Office's consular service as a junior lawyer: in 1903, he was already Vice Consul at Barcelona's consulate general, and travalled to various consulates in Austria-Hungary and Russia until the Weltkrieg, then he was Consul in Tiflis, Schulenburg returned to the military, put in charge of an artillery battery. Liaison officer with the Ottoman Army on the Armenian Front in 1915, he took over the leadership of the recently formed Georgian Legion, formed by Georgian volunteers rallied to the German cause: he led these troops until the collapse of Russia in 1917: he spend the end of the Weltkrieg on the Middle Eastern Front, receiving the Iron Cross and several high Ottoman honours. After his retirement from the military, he was distinguished in his services as ambassador in Persia, Romania and at least Russia. He was recalled from Moscow in 1934 to take the succession at the ministry of Foreign Affairs of the current Reichskanzler, Franz von Papen.

Political career
Vice Consul to Barcelona, Spain (1903)

Various Consulates to Lemberg, Prague, Warsaw from 1903 to 1911

Consul to Tiflis, present-day Georgia (1911-1914)

Consul to Beirut, Ottoman Empire (1922-1924)

German ambassador to Teheran, Persia (1924-1928)

German ambassador to Bucharest, Romania (1928-1931)

German ambassador to Moscow, Russia (1931-1934)

State Secretary for Foreign Affairs (1934-...)

Personal life
He was married from 1908 to 1910 to Elisabeth von Sobbe (born in 1875), with whom he had one daugheter, Christa-Wernfriedis.

He acquired recently the Burg Falkenberg, a castle in the Upper Palatinate. He wants to turn it into a retirement home.

He is also related to NLP Reichstag deputy Fritz-Dietlof Count von der Schulenburg.