Albrecht von Bernstorff

Albrecht Graf von Bernstorff (22 March 1809 – 26 March 1873) was a Prussian statesman.

Bernstorff was born at the estate Dreilützow (now in the municipality of Wittendörp), in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He studied legal science in Göttingen and Berlin, following which he joined the Prussian civil service.

In 1832 he became an attaché with the Prussian legation in Hamburg. A year later he was made legation secretary in Den Haag. In 1837 he was transferred to St. Petersburg and made legation councillor. Due to the death of his father he returned to Germany that same year to settle family matters. After this, in 1838 he changed to Paris, where in 1839 he married Anna von Könneritz (born 23 May 1821 in Dresden), the daughter of the Saxonian ambassador at the French court, Hans Heinrich von Könneritz (1790–1863). In 1840 Bernstorff became chargé d'affaires in Naples, and in 1841 in Paris.

Subsequently, from 1842 he was an Expert Councillor (Vortragender Rat) in the political section of the foreign ministry. As such, he occasionally had to represent the foreign minister. In 1843 he was promoted (to Geheimer Legationsrat). In 1845, he went to Munich as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.

Following many travels as a career diplomat, Bernstorff was sent to Vienna as an envoy in May 1848 during the revolution, remaining there until 1851. He soon distinguished himself as an opponent of German unification schemes. (He later came to accept such unification, though he felt it should be under Prussian rather than Austrian leadership.) During the revolution of 1848-1849, he argued for a strong alliance between Prussia and Austria. However, differences between the two states came more to the fore under Austrian prime minister Prince Felix zu Schwarzenberg, and Bernstorff's opposition to the Prince's German policy brought about his recall from his post at the express wishes of the Austrian side in 1851.

In 1851 and 1852, Bernstorff was a member of the first chamber of the Prussian Parliament (Landtag), the Prussian House of Lords, in the Alvensleben faction. With the title of wirklicher geheimer Rat, he was sent to Naples in 1852 as an envoy.

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