Friedrich Karl Joseph Freiherr von Gerolt (5 March 1797

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

– 27 July 1879

Linz am Rhein Linz am Rhein (, ) is a municipality in the district of Neuwied, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the river Rhine near Remagen, approx. 25 km southeast of Bonn and has about 6,000 inhabitants. It is the s ...

) was Prussian Privy Councillor, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in the United States.

Family

Gerolt was born the son of the German jurist and politician Bernard Franz Josef of Gerolt and his wife, Anna Katharina Josepha Caroline v. Bouget from

Odenkirchen Odenkirchen is a former town in Germany, presently part of the city Mönchengladbach. It is situated on the river Niers, 21 miles by rail south-west of Düsseldorf. It has a railway station ( Rheydt-Odenkirchen), on the line from Mönchengladbach t ...

. He descended from the Gerolt family, which was founded on 3 January 1558 in Prague, and was awarded the coat of arms on 16 April 1614, knighted in the Castle of Linz in Austria by

Emperor Matthias MatthiasMátyás II of Hungary and BohemiaMatija II of Croatia (24 February 1557 – 20 March 1619) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1612 to 1619, Archduke of Austria from 1608 to 1619, King of Hungary and Croatia from 1608 to 1618 and King of Bohemi ...

. He married on 28 August 1837 in Bonn, Huberta Josephine Henriette Walter, daughter of Privy Councillor at the former Court of Appeal in Wetzlar, Walter Francis Martin, and his wife Anna Maria de Noel.

Life

He studied mining and geology in 1823, and was listed as Mining Office secretary in

Düren Düren (; Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: Düre) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Aachen and Cologne, on the river Rur (river), Rur. History Roman era The area of Düren was part of Gallia Belgica, more specifically the ter ...

. In March 1824, he traveled to Mexico, prospecting for silver mines, and published a geological map in 1828. King

Friedrich Wilhelm III Frederick William III (; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, when the empire was dissolved ...

invested, him and his brothers in 1830, with the Leyen manor (now Castle Ockenfels in Ockenfels). In 1837, he was chargé d'affaires in Mexico and at the suggestion of

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

in 1844, made Extraordinary Envoy and Minister of the Kingdom of Prussia to the United States of America. In October 1848, he was superseded by Friedrich Ludwig von Rönne. He sought comment on a German constitution from

John C. Calhoun John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist who served as the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. Born in South Carolina, he adamantly defended American s ...

. From 1849 to 1868, he was again sent as ambassador of Prussia to Washington from 1868 until the empire was founded in 1871, he was then working for the

North German Confederation The North German Confederation () was initially a German military alliance established in August 1866 under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed in the subsequent year into a confederated state (a ''de facto'' feder ...

as an envoy in Washington. In 1852, he negotiated an

extradition In an extradition, one Jurisdiction (area), jurisdiction delivers a person Suspect, accused or Conviction, convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforc ...

treaty with

Daniel Webster Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the 14th and 19th United States Secretary of State, U.S. secretary o ...

. In 1858, Gerolt was elevated to

Freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , ) and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in ...

. Gerolt was consistently 27 years as a diplomat in the United States and is still regarded as the longest serving ambassador of Germany in the U.S. During his time in Washington, he maintained good contacts with many politicians, including several presidents and government ministers. In the quarter century of service, Gerolt saw presidents

James K. Polk James Knox Polk (; November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. A protégé of Andrew Jackson and a member of the Democratic Party, he was an advocate of Jacksonian democracy and ...

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military officer and politician who was the 12th president of the United States, serving from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States ...

Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853. He was the last president to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House, and the last to be neither a De ...

Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. A northern Democratic Party (United States), Democrat who believed that the Abolitionism in the United States, abolitio ...

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. The 16th vice president, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a South ...

, and

Ulysses Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as commanding general, Grant led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War ...

was the only incumbent U.S. president, who visited Germany in the 19th century. In 1855, he met with Alexander von Humboldt and King

Friedrich Wilhelm IV Frederick William IV (; 15 October 1795 – 2 January 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, was King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 until his death on 2 January 1861. Also referred to as the " romanticist on the ...

together in Berlin. In this period 1.5 million German emigrated to the U.S., and there were a total of 14 German consulates in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, New Orleans, St. Louis, Galveston, Savannah, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Louisville, Milwaukee, Chicago, Boston and New Bedford.

References

Sources

*Dr. Ralph Lutz, ''Die Beziehungen zwischen Deutschland und den Vereinigten Staaten während des Sezessionskrieges'', Heidelberg 1911th *

Enno Eimers Enno may refer to: People Given name *Enno I, Count of Ostfriesland (1460–1491) *Enno II, Count of Ostfriesland (1505–1540) *Enno III, Count of Ostfriesland (1563–1625) *Enno Brandrøk (1538–1571), Norwegian noble- and highwayman (named a ...

, ''Preussen und die USA 1850 bis 1867. Transatlantische Wechselwirkungen'', Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2004, {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerolt, Friedrich von 1797 births 1879 deaths Ambassadors of Germany to the United States German barons 19th-century Prussian people