Ferdinand Eduard von Stumm

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Double portrait of Freiherr von Stumm and his wife, Pauline, by Salvador Martínez Cubells, 1890 (German Historical Museum)

Ferdinand Eduard, Freiherr von Stumm (12 July 1843 – 10 May 1925), was a Prussian and German diplomat.

Early life[edit]

Portrait of his father, Karl Friedrich Stumm, by Louis Krevel, 1836.

Stumm was born on 12 July 1843 in Neunkirchen, Saarland. His father was Karl Friedrich Stumm (1798–1848), who died by suicide during the economic crisis of the 1840s and who had run the family company as sole owner since the 1835 death of his grandfather, Friedrich Philipp Stumm.[1][2] His elder brother was Carl Ferdinand Stumm (ennobled as Baron von Stumm-Halberg in 1888) and his younger brother was Hugo Rudolf Stumm (ennobled as Baron von Stumm-Ramholz in 1888).[3]

Career[edit]

Stumm came from a family of entrepreneurs who bought the Neunkircher ironworks and shares in other ironworks in Saarland in 1806.[4] While his older brother Carl took over the management of the ironworks, Ferdinand benefited from the profits of the family business as a silent partner.[5]

As an officer, Stumm took part in the Second Schleswig War of 1864 and the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. He was attached to the Prussian legation in Florence in 1867, took part in the British expedition to Abyssinia in 1868 and worked in the Prussian Foreign Ministry in Berlin under Otto von Bismarck in 1869. After taking part in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, he served as Prussian chargé d'affaires to the Holy See in 1871. He was second and first secretary at the German missions in Paris, Munich, Washington, D.C., Brussels, St. Petersburg and London. In 1883 he was appointed Prussian envoy in Darmstadt, imperial envoy in Copenhagen in 1885, envoy in 1887 then ambassador in Madrid in 1888. He was ennobled on 5 May 1888 by King Frederick III, and was made a privy councilor in 1892.[6]

In 1903 he took over the chairmanship of the supervisory board of the company Gebrüder Stumm GmbH, the 23rd largest company in the German Empire in 1907.[7]

Land holdings[edit]

Rauischholzhausen Castle

In 1873, Stumm bought Schloss Rauischholzhausen in Rauischholzhausen (one of eleven villages in Ebsdorfergrund, Marburg-Biedenkopf district, Hesse) from Rau von Holzhausen. Stumm and his wife built several public buildings in Rauischholzhausen, including a church, a Protestant community center, a dairy and a retirement home.[8]

By 1908 Stumm was one of the 100 richest residents of Prussia and owned two manors: the 700 hectares (1,700 acres) Rauischholzhausen and Rohlstorf in the district of Segeberg, in Schleswig-Holstein, with 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres).[6]

Personal life[edit]

Photograph of his eldest son Ferdinand and his wife, Constance

On 28 June 1879, Stumm married American heiress Pauline von Hoffmann (1858–1950), in Fulda.[9] The younger daughter of Athenais (née Grymes) von Hoffmann and Louis von Hoffmann, a wealthy New York banker who was one of the founders of the Knickerbocker Club.[10] Her elder sister, Medora de Vallombrosa, Marquise de Morès married the Marquis de Mores. Together, they were the parents of:[1]

  • Baron Ferdinand Carl von Stumm (1880–1954), a diplomat and entrepreneur,[11] who married American heiress Constance Hoyt, daughter of Henry Hoyt Jr.,[12] in 1910.[13] After her death in 1923,[14] he married Baroness Vera von Wolff, daughter of Baron Nikolaus Boris von Wolff and former wife of Karl Gustav von Platen.
  • Baroness Maria von Stumm (1882–1954), who married Prince Paul Hermann Karl Hubert von Hatzfeldt, son of the Ambassador to England Paul von Hatzfeldt in 1911.[15][16]
  • Baron Herbert Wilhelm von Stumm (1885–1943), who married Alice Schuchard in 1913.[1]
  • Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Stumm (1888–1946), who married Laurette Luise von Stülpnagel.[17]

Baron von Stumm died on 10 May 1925 in Locarno, Switzerland.[18]

Descendants[edit]

Through his eldest son Ferdinand,[19] he was a grandfather of Nora von Stumm (1916–2000), who married Count Hyacinth Strachwitz.[20]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Gothaisches genealogisches Taschenbuch der freiherrlichen Häuser: zugleich Adelsmatrikel der im Ehrenschutzbunde des Deutschen Adels vereinigten Verbande (in German). Julius Perthes. 1919. p. 964. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  2. ^ "Biography – Carl Ferdinand Stumm (1836–1901)". www.erih.net. European Route of Industrial Heritage. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  3. ^ "Baron von Stumm-Halberg Dead". The New York Times. March 10, 1901. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  4. ^ Banken, Ralf (2000). Die Industrialisierung der Saarregion 1815-1914: Take-Off-Phase und Hochindustrialisierung 1850-1914 (in German). Franz Steiner Verlag. p. 332. ISBN 978-3-515-07828-3. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  5. ^ Heyrman, Peter; Maeyer, Jan de; Kohlrausch, Martin (5 May 2020). Leisure and Elite Formation: Arenas of Encounter in Continental Europe, 1815-1914. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 109. ISBN 978-3-11-058519-3. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  6. ^ a b Schulze, Hagen (1998). Germany: A New History. Harvard University Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-674-00545-7. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  7. ^ Wardley, Peter (1999). "The Emergence of Big Business: the Largest Corporate Employers of Labour in the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States c. 1907". Business History. 41 (4). London: Routledge: 88–116. doi:10.1080/00076799900000346.
  8. ^ "History, Architecture, Gardens". www.uni-giessen.de. Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  9. ^ "MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE.; A YOUNG GERMAN DIPLOMAT WEDS AND CHANGES HIS RELIGIOUS FAITH". The New York Times. 17 Jul 1879. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  10. ^ "Louis A. Von Hoffmann, Athenais Von Hoffmann, Medora, Marquise de Mores and her children Louis and Athenais group portrait". www.digitalhorizonsonline.org. State Historical Society of North Dakota. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  11. ^ "VON STUMM OUSTED IN POLITICAL ROW; Failure to Answer Gerard Said Not to be Real Reason for Kaiser's Action". The New York Times. 28 August 1917. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  12. ^ "HENRY M. HOYT DEAD; AIDED KNOX GREATLY; State Department Counselor Stricken While Negotiating for Canadian Reciprocity. HIS FINAL ILLNESS SHORT Had Served with Distinction as Solicitor General, and a New Office Was Created for Him". The New York Times. 21 November 1910. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  13. ^ Times, Special to The New York (31 March 1910). "PRESIDENT ATTENDS MISS HOYT'S WEDDING; Sees Daughter of Counsellor of State Department Wedded to Fredinand von Stumm. MISS BROWNSON A BRIDE Youngest Daughter of Rear Admiral Married to Lieut. Com. T. C. Hart--Admiral and Mrs. Dewey Guests". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  14. ^ "Baroness Ferdinand von Stumm". The New York Times. August 3, 1923. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  15. ^ Times, Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph To the New York (19 February 1911). "BETROTHED TO A PRINCE.; Fraulein von Stumm to Wed Prince Herman von Hatzfeldt". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  16. ^ Diplomat, A. Veteran (12 March 1911). "SOME EUROPEAN NOBLES THAT ARE ALMOST AMERICANS; The Family Histories of Prince Hermann Hatzfeldt and Baroness Stumm, Who Are Soon to Wed, Show Their Close Relation to This Country". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  17. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels (in German). C.A. Starke. 1973. p. 369. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  18. ^ "BARON VON STUMM DEAD.; German Diplomat, Who Married Miss Constance Hoyt, Dies at 82". The New York Times. 14 May 1925. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  19. ^ Wenzel, George (1929). Deutscher Wirtschaftsfürer (in German). Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt. p. 2249. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  20. ^ Bagdonas, Raymond (19 January 2014). The Devil's General: The Life of Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz, "The Panzer Graf". Casemate. ISBN 978-1-61200-223-1. Retrieved 28 January 2022.

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