Paul von Hatzfeldt

Melchior Hubert Paul Gustav Graf von Hatzfeldt zu Wildenburg (8 October 1831 – 22 November 1901) was a German diplomat who served as ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1901. He was also envoy to Spain and the Ottoman Empire, foreign secretary, and head of the Foreign Office. He is best known for signing the Yangtze Agreement in 1900. Early life Hatzfeldt was born in Düsseldorf, Kingdom of Prussia, a part of the German Confederation, on 8 October 1831. A member of the House of Hatzfeld, he was the son of Sophie von Hatzfeldt ( Gräfin von Hatzfeldt-Schönstein zu Trachenberg) and Edmund Fürst von Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg. Career Hatzfeldt had a long career in the German diplomatic office and was once described by Otto von Bismarck as das beste Pferd im diplomatischen Stall ("the best horse in the diplomatic stable"). He was Bismarck's secretary when he was Ambassador to Paris in 1862. In 1874, he was appointed as German Minister to Spain in Madrid, followed by Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, before he was recalled in 1881 to become foreign secretary and head of the Foreign Office. In 1885, he succeeded Count Münster as ambassador to United Kingdom until 1901, during which he signed the Yangtze Agreement in 1900. In 1897, it was reported that he would resign on account of ill-health, followed by similar reports in the years leading up to his actual retirement in November 1901, a few weeks before his death. He was succeeded by Count Paul Wolff Metternich.