Family
Von Hassell was descended from old landed nobility. He was born the son of First Lieutenant Ulrich von Hassell and Margarete (born von Stosch).
His mother was a niece of Albrecht von Stosch, the Prussian Minister of State and chief of the Admiralität. She was furthermore the great granddaughter of Henriette Vogel whom Heinrich von Kleist had accompanied in November, 1811 in suicide. Ulrich v. Hassell has not excluded later that his ever growing admiration for the writer has been increased by this fact.
His grandfather on the mother's side was the godson of count August Neidhardt von Gneisenau. This explains the special interest of Hassell in the Prussian reformer which found its expression in some publications, among other things.
His grandfather on his father's side, Christian von Hassell, born in 1805, chose a lawyer's career, an exception in their old Hanoverian family. Their members had exclusively been landowners or had taken a career in the military.
Ulrich von Hassell is also the grandfather of Agostino von Hassell, a noted author on military and war history; and of Corrado Pirzio-Biroli former civil servant of the European Commission and ambassador of the EU to Austria during the Austrian European Union membership referendum, 1994.
Read more about this topic: Ulrich Von Hassell
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