Albrecht Von Bernstorff - Foreign Minister

Foreign Minister

In October 1861, Bernstorff left London to become the Prussian Foreign Minister under the Prime Minister Charles Anthony, Prince of Hohenzollern. (He had previously been offered the position of Foreign Minister in 1848 and 1850 by King Frederick William IV, without taking it up.) He thus replaced a rather passive Count Alexander von Schleinitz (an Old Liberal) and, in the Cabinet, reinforced the more conservative grouping around August von der Heydt and Albrecht von Roon.

He would introduce several new policies and strategies. During this period, ideas were being discussed for the reform of the German Confederation. Bernstorff revived a project from 1849 to form a narrow Prusso-German Bundestaat in order to ward off such initiatives by Austria, and argued for a "Lesser German" union under Prussian leadership and excluding Austria; these plans were not pursued for the time being, however, as they were undermined by mistrust of political elements.

Bernstorff also negotiated military conventions with various northern German states, concluded a free-trade agreement with France as part of changes to the Zollverein policy to isolate protectionist Austria, and swiftly recognized the new Kingdom of Italy as a state in hopes that it would help collaborate against Austria. This last move meant a clear rejection of a Zollunion with Austria.

At the beginning of the Prussian constitutional crisis of 1859-1866, Wilhelm I and his government faced the choice of continuing to govern, without a constitutional budget. Von der Heydt, Bernstorff and the minister for trade, Heinrich Wilhelm von Holtzbrinck, rejected this as a violation of the constitution, and resigned. Other ministers were prepared to continue in office. In this situation, the minister for war, von Roon, pushed through the appointment of Otto von Bismarck both as foreign minister and prime minister. Thus, in 1862 Bernstorff was replaced in his post; he would thereafter criticize Bismarck as having Machiavellian policies.

He was later reassigned to his position as Prussian ambassador in London, and after 1871 as German Imperial ambassador with the rank of minister of state, which he remained until his death in 1873. During this time, he also served as the Prussian delegate at the London Peace Conference of 1864, which led to the signing of the Treaty of Vienna. In 1867, he was also the ambassador of the North German Confederation at the negotiations for the Treaty of London, which determined the status of Luxembourg.

He is buried (according to the inscription on his tombstone) in the Bernstorff family mausoleum in the churchyard at Lassahn, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.