Otto Hammann (23 January 1852 in

Blankenhain Blankenhain is a town in the Weimarer Land district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is south of Weimar. History Until the Napoleonic Wars, Blankenhain had been a part of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar. After the Fourth Coalition's defeat at Jena and Auer ...

– 18 June 1928 in

Fürstenberg/Havel Fürstenberg () is a town in the Oberhavel district, Brandenburg, Germany. Geography Fürstenberg is situated on the Havel, River Havel, south of Neustrelitz, and north of Berlin. The town lies at the southern edge of the Mecklenburg Lake Di ...

) was a German

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and a German Foreign Office official 1894–1916.

Biography

Hammann was engaged in journalism from 1877 to 1893 and was appointed, in 1894, director of the Press Section of the German Foreign Office, a post which he continued to hold until 1916. Hammann was the trusted adviser of Chancellor

Bernhard von Bülow Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin, Prince of Bülow ( ; 3 May 1849 – 28 October 1929) was a German politician who served as the chancellor of the German Empire, imperial chancellor of the German Empire and minister-president of Prussia from 1900 to ...

. Hammann always kept an attentive eye upon public opinion as reflected or created in the press. He had personally played a leading part in the defensive campaign of the Imperial Chancellor,

Leo von Caprivi Georg Leo Graf von Caprivi de Caprara de Montecuccoli (English language, English: ''Count George Leo of Caprivi, Caprara, and Montecuccoli''; born Georg Leo von Caprivi; 24 February 1831 – 6 February 1899) was a German general and statesman. He ...

, and the Foreign Secretary,

Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein Adolf Hermann Freiherr Marschall von Bieberstein (12 October 1842 – 24 September 1912) was a German politician and State Secretary of the Foreign Office (Germany), Foreign Office of the German Empire. Biography Marschall von Bieberstein's fathe ...

, in the early 1890s, against the Bismarckian opposition. Hammann's business was to inspire the German and, as far as possible, the foreign press in a sense favourable to German policy and above all to obtain full and accurate information with regard to the personality and circumstances of journalists.

Works

Hammann's position enabled him to acquire a great deal of exclusive information with regard to the more secret ways of German policy, and he embodied a considerable portion of what he knew in the three volumes of reminiscences which he published after the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

: ''Der neue Kurs, Erinnerungen'' (1918), ''Zur Vorgeschichte des Weltkriegs'' and ''Um den Kaiser, Erinnerungen aus den Jahren 1906-1909'' (1919).

Notes

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External links

* 1852 births 1928 deaths German journalists German male journalists German male writers {{Germany-journalist-stub