Hans von Wangenheim was a German
noble born in
Gotha, where he was educated at the
Ernestine Gymnasium. In 1902 he married Johanna
Freiin von Spitzemberg (1877–1960), the daughter of Carl, Baron von Spitzemberg and Hildegard Baroness von Spitzemberg, née
Freiin von Varnbüler. He served abroad as, First Secretary at the embassy in
Constantinople (1899–1904), minister to
Mexico (1904–1908),
chargé d'affaires in
Tangier (1908), minister in
Athens (1909–1912) and ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire (1912–1915). With the outbreak of
World War I, Wangenheim was instrumental in securing the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war as part of the
Central Powers. Wangenheim oversaw
Max von Oppenheim's successful attempt to get Ottoman
Caliph Mehmed V to declare
Jihad against the
Triple Entente. During the time of the
Armenian genocide, there were accusations of German complicity and questions were raised as to Wangenheim's position of 'non-intervention'; the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire,
Henry Morgenthau, in his book ''
Ambassador Morgenthau's Story'' (1918) would virulently criticise Wangenheim's role. In an interview with an American journalist, Wangenheim stated: "I do not blame the Turks for what they are doing to the Armenians ... They are entirely justified". Also in Turkey at that time was the
socialist revolutionary, arms dealer and German agent
Alexander Parvus. Wangenheim sent Parvus to Berlin in March 1915 endorsing Parvus's plan that Germany back the
Bolsheviks against the
Russian Empire. The Russian statesman
Sergey Sazonov regarded Wangenheim as "the most successful of the German fighting diplomatists". Wangenheim died of a stroke in
Constantinople on 26 October 1915, then diagnosed to have been most likely as 'neurasthenic' tendencies. Rumors spread (even into the
United States) that he had been poisoned. == References ==