The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Kiderlen-Waechter, Alfred von

KIDERLEN-WAECHTER, kē'dẽr-lĕn-vek'tẽr, Alfred von, German Foreign Minister: b. Stuttgart, 1852; d. there, 30 Dec 1912. The son of a banker, he served in the war of 1870 and afterward studied law. He entered the Foreign Office in 1879 and some years later accompanied the emperor to Russia, Sweden and Denmark. He was minister in the free town of Hamburg in 1894, in Copenhagen 1895-96, and later at Bucharest. In Rumania he gathered a deep knowledge of Eastern politics, which led to his acting temporarily as ambassador at Constantinople and as chief at the Foreign Office. He became Foreign Minister in 1910. He conducted the Agadir negotiations in 1911 and was severely criticised both at home and abroad for his provocative attitude in the Panther incident. He succeeded, however, in relieving the strained relations between Germany and Great Britain, and endeavored to make a friend of Russia. See Morocco.