Paul Georg von Möllendorff

Paul Georg von Möllendorff (17 February 1847 in Zehdenick, Prussia – 20 April 1901 in Ningbo, China) was a German linguist and diplomat. Möllendorff is mostly known for his service as an adviser to the Korean king Gojong in the late nineteenth century and for his contributions to Sinology. Möllendorff is also known for having created a system for romanizing the Manchu language.

Hailing from the Prussian aristocratic family von Möllendorf, Paul Georg von Möllendorff was the son of Georg von Möllendorff, a high-ranking Prussian civil servant. The young Möllendorff attended gymnasium in Görlitz and he enrolled at University of Halle in 1865, where he studied law, oriental studies and philology. Möllendorff showed a strong aptitude for the study of classical and foreign languages and acquired a good command of Hebrew, but did not study any East Asian languages at the time.

In 1869, Möllendorff interrupted his studies and went to China in order to join the Imperial Maritime Customs Service in Shanghai. While working for the Customs in Shanghai and later Hankou, Möllendorff acquired a good command of Chinese and quickly passed the required language exam. However, he soon grew dissatisfied with his tasks in the service and left it in 1874 in order to join the German consular service as an interpreter and was eventually promoted German vice-consul in Tianjin. During his service in Tianjin, Möllendorff befriended Ma Jianzhong, who worked in the secretariat of the prominent Qing statesman, governor-general Li Hongzhang. In 1879, Möllendorff assisted Li in procuring weapons and warships from the Germans companies Vulkan and Krupp. In 1881, Möllendorff left the German consular service because of his complicated relationship to the German minister in Beijing, Max von Brandt.

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