Oskar Trautmann (7 May 1877 – 10 December 1950) was a German diplomat and writer.

Diplomatic career

After completing his doctorate in 1904, Trautmann embarked on a consular career. Trautmann entered the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 1905 he was appointed Vice Consul in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, Russia. In 1907 he served as Secretary of the German delegation to the

Hague Peace Conference The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were amon ...

. In 1911 he left his position in St. Petersburg and joined the manpower division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1913 was appointed Consul General in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, Switzerland. After the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he filled positions that were related to the Far East. In 1921 he was appointed Consul General in

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

, Japan, and in 1922 he was appointed Councillor of the Embassy in Tokyo. Between 1935 and 1938 he served as Ambassador to China, serving in Nanjing, where he attempted to mediate the

2nd Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part of World War II, and often r ...

Early life

Trutamann was born on the 7th of May, 1877, to the small village of Stradow, Brandenburg. He first attended Erwin-Strittmatter-Gymnasium in Spremburg, then to the secondary school Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium, where he passed his school leaving examination in 1895. He studied law studies in Berlin, initially was interested in various subjects of

legal history Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it has changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilizations and operates in the wider context of social history. Certain jurists and his ...

and

legal philosophy Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

before becoming interested about constitutional and

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

, something that would later lead to his career. He was fascinated by "the East German mixture of Germanic and Slavic cultures," and even as a young man he learned the

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

, "because it was so close to Wendish."

Interest in Chinese cultural art

Trautmann was also a well-known

Chinese painting Chinese painting () is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as , meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western styles of art which b ...

and bronze collector within his time as Ministry of Foreign Affairs, collecting around 150 paintings and calligraphic works. He collected various contemporary art, meeting important Chinese artists at the time, such as

Xu Beihong Xu Beihong (; 19 July 1895 – 26 September 1953), also known as Ju Péon, was a Chinese painter. He was primarily known for his Ink wash painting, Chinese ink paintings of horses and birds and was one of the first Chinese artists to articulat ...

Qi Baishi Qi Baishi (1 January 1864 – 16 September 1957) was a Chinese painting, Chinese painter, noted for the whimsical, often playful style of his works. Born to a peasant family from Xiangtan, Hunan, Qi taught himself to paint, sparked by the Ma ...

, and

Zhang Daqian Chang Dai-chien or Zhang Daqian (; 10 May 1899 – 2 April 1983) was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a '' guohua'' (traditionalist) painter, by the 1960s he was also renowne ...

. Trautmann took his painting collection back to Germany, and included them in various exhibitions he organized.

Works

* Trautmann, Oskar, ''Der Diplomat - Der Konsul'' (Berlin: Lehrmittelzentralt d. DAF. 1938)
"Russia and the Great War 1914-1917" ''The XX Century'' (journal published in Shanghai)
* Mitter, Rana. ''Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945''. 2013.

Sources

* Brief biography at the Bundesarchiv (German

* Brief art biography, from The Sothebys (English)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trautmann, Oskar 1877 births 1950 deaths Ambassadors of Germany to China Delegates to the Hague Peace Conferences