Friedrich Rosen or Fritz Rosen (

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, August 30, 1856 – November 27, 1935,

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

) was a German Orientalist, diplomat and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

. From May to October 1921 he was the Foreign Minister of Germany.

Background

Friedrich Rosen's grandfather, Friedrich Ballhorn-Rosen, was Chancellor of the Principality of Lippe; his father, Georg Rosen, an orientalist, published writings on Islam. However, Georg Rosen decided to enter the

diplomatic service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

. He was active as a

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

and the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

. Friedrich's mother Serena Anna, daughter of

Ignaz Moscheles Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 179410 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano at the Co ...

, came from a British scholarly family of Jewish faith (who had converted to Christianity).

Early years

In this cosmopolitan atmosphere, Friedrich Rosen was born in 1856 in

. However, he grew up in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, where his father was consul. Friedrich Rosen enjoyed an education in four languages (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, English,

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

and Turkish). He early decided to study modern and oriental languages, which brought him to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

, and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. After graduating, he worked for several months in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

as a tutor for the children of Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, the

viceroy of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...

. He retained a basically

anglophilic An Anglophile is a person who admires or loves England, its people, its culture, its language, and/or its various accents. Etymology The word is derived from the Latin word ''Anglii'' and Ancient Greek word φίλος ''philos'', meaning "frien ...

attitude and a passion for oriental culture all his life. From 1887 onwards, he taught

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin.

Diplomatic career

After a dispute with the university department leadership in 1890, he gave up his academic position, and as his father before him he entered a career at the Foreign Office. He was employed as a representative in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

and

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, until 1898 when he was placed in charge of establishing a consulate in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

. The diplomatic work in the

was compatible with Rosen's orientalist interests. He was conversant in

and

, and obtained an intimate knowledge of

Persian culture The culture of Iran () or culture of PersiaYarshater, Ehsa, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) is among the most influential in the world. Iran, also known as Persia, is widely considered to be one of the cradles of civilization. Due t ...

. In 1890, he published ''Modern Persian Grammar'', with Nāsir al-Din Shāh, the

Shah Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, as co-author; parts of the diary of the latter were employed as texts. In 1899, he accompanied the archeologist

Gertrude Bell Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE (14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926) was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist. She spent much of her life exploring and mapping the Middle East, and became highl ...

on her visit to Jerusalem.Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, KT., M.A. & Litt.D. Cambridge, M.A. & D.Litt. Oxford, D.LiT. Durham, F.S.A.
A NARRATIVE OF JOURNEYS IN EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA ON BEHALF OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM BETWEEN THE YEARS 1886 AND 1913
," ''Journal in the Library of the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

'' (1920). After his travel to Palestine,

Kaiser Wilhelm II , house = Hohenzollern , father = Frederick III, German Emperor , mother = Victoria, Princess Royal , religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United) , signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...

appointed Rosen as consul in Jerusalem. Only two years later in 1900, he was appointed to the Political Department of Foreign Affairs. Rosen was considered as an expert on the Arab world. Moreover, like his friend

Wilhelm Solf Wilhelm Heinrich Solf (5 October 1862 – 6 February 1936) was a German scholar, diplomat, jurist and statesman. Early life Solf was born into a wealthy and liberal family in Berlin. He attended secondary schools in Anklam, western Pomerania, an ...

, he held liberal views, and simultaneously supported the monarchy and was an anglophile, and thus was considered as the right person for achieving an understanding with

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

. From 1904 to 1905, Friedrich Rosen represented the interests of the German Empire in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

, in what after him was called the ''Rosengesandtschaft'' ("the Rosen Embassy"). Ethiopia hardly had as good relations with any other major power as with Germany. Returning to Europe, Rosen was appointed

envoy Envoy or Envoys may refer to: Diplomacy * Diplomacy, in general * Envoy (title) * Special envoy, a type of diplomatic rank Brands *Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft *Envoy (automobile), an automobile brand used to sell Br ...

Tangiers Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...

. From 1910 to 1912, Rosen was envoy in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, and from 1912 to 1916 in Lisbon. In 1916, after Germany declared war on

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, Rosen returned home.

Wilhelm II , house = Hohenzollern , father = Frederick III, German Emperor , mother = Victoria, Princess Royal , religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United) , signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...

then appointed him as envoy at

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. As a representative of the German government, he helped prepare and visited Wilhelm at

Huis Doorn Huis Doorn (; en, Doorn Manor) is a manor house and national museum in the town of Doorn in the Netherlands. The residence has early 20th-century interiors from the time when former German Emperor Wilhelm II resided there (1919–1941). Huis Do ...

, after the former kaiser went into exile, a visit which the German public noted with mixed feelings.

Foreign minister

In the spring of 1921 the

German chancellor The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ge ...

Joseph Wirth Karl Joseph Wirth (6 September 1879 – 3 January 1956) was a German politician of the Catholic Centre Party who served for one year and six months as the chancellor of Germany from 1921 to 1922, as the finance minister from 1920 to 1921, a ...

, appointed Rosen foreign minister. On the issue of

war reparations War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. History Making one party pay a war indemnity is a common practice with a long history. ...

, the Centre Party's Wirth considered an anglophilic and also

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

foreign minister to be advantageous. Rosen retired in protest against the London ultimatum, in which the Allied powers combined demands of high reparations from Germany with threats of sanctions. He considered the policy of the victorious powers hypocritical: on the one hand proclaiming self-determination of all nations, but on the other hand showing no respect to the

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, locate ...

, where a 60-percent majority had voted in favour of remaining Germany. Thus, Friedrich Rosen retired in October 1921 from the civil service. Following the same policy, Wirth named

Walther Rathenau Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922) was a German industrialist, writer and liberal politician. During the First World War of 1914–1918 he was involved in the organization of the German war economy. After the war, Rathenau s ...

as his successor, who was committed to the same principles.

Orientalist again

Rosen became chairman of the German Oriental Society, the umbrella organization of the Orientalists in Germany, and dedicated himself increasingly to scientific work. In this field, his today still well-known translation of the '' Rubaiyat'' of

Omar Khayyam Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīsābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131), commonly known as Omar Khayyam ( fa, عمر خیّام), was a polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, an ...

has been published in several editions. Since the seizure of power by the Nazis, whose ideology Friedrich Rosen opposed from the beginning, the former Foreign Minister was subjected to anti-Semitic hatred, because of his descent. Hence until his death he maintained contact with the SeSiSo Club of his friend

, from which a few years later the resistance group Solf Circle developed. As the result of a fracture, Friedrich Rosen died in 1935 during a stay in

, where his son Dr. Georg Rosen was working at the German embassy. Because of the racist policy of the Nazi regime, the younger Dr. Rosen, who was sending reports to the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin about the

Nanjing Massacre The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the ...

, was forced to retire from the diplomatic service in 1938.

References

Selected bibliography

* 1890, ''Neupersischer Sprachführer'', translated as ''Persian Colloquial Grammar'', review: Carl D. Buck, The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures (1898); reprint: Modern Persian colloquial grammar : containing a short grammar, dialogues, and extracts from Nasir-Eddin Shah's diaries, tales, etc., and a vocabulary, by Friedrich Rosen and Nāsir al-Din Shāh, Shah of Iran, New Delhi 2000, . * ''Oriental memories of a German Diplomatist''. Methuen & co., London 1930. * Omar Khayyam: Vierzeiler (Rubāʿīyāt) übersetzt von Friedrich Rosen mit Miniaturen von Hossein Behzad. Epubli, Berlin 2010.
Details
* Amir Theilhaber
''Friedrich Rosen: Orientalist scholarship and international politics.''
De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Berlin 2020, .

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosen, Friedrich 1856 births 1935 deaths German orientalists Ambassadors of Germany to Ethiopia Ambassadors of Germany to the Netherlands Ambassadors of Germany to Portugal Ambassadors of Germany to Morocco Ambassadors of Germany to Romania 19th-century German Jews Politicians from Leipzig People from the Kingdom of Saxony Jewish Chinese history German expatriates in China Foreign Ministers of Germany German male non-fiction writers