The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Jagow, Gottlieb von

JAGOW, Gottlieb von, German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs: b. 26 June 1863. Educated at the University of Bonn, he entered the diplomatic service in 1895. He first made his mark as private secretary to Prince Bülow, former Imperial Chancellor. He became Minister to Rome in 1907 and Ambassador in 1908: During the Turco-Italian war he conducted important negotiations with the Italian government and, it is said, prevented a war between Austria and Italy at the time. He was recalled to Berlin and appointed foreign secretary on the death of Kiderlen-Waechter (q.v.) in 1913. A quiet, retiring and scholarly man, he was one of the worst speakers in the Reichstag. Both the former American and British ambassadors to Germany expressed their appreciation of his unfailing courtesy. According to Mr. Gerard (‘My Four Years in Germany’) von Jagow was forced out of office in November 1916 by an agitation against him on account of his lack of force in defending government policy in the Reichstag. On 4 Aug. 1914 the British Ambassador in Berlin was informed by von Jagow that Germany could not respect the neutrality of Belgium, which led to the entrance of Great Britain into the war on the same day. During his first year as American Ambassador in Berlin. Mr. Gerard endeavored to persuade the German authorities to conclude a “Bryan Peace Treaty” with the United States, to which von Jagow replied that, if Germany did so, he feared she would be “immediately asked to sign similar treaties with England, France and Russia.”