Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-05
Plan Of PROMOTION SOCIETY IS STIRRED.
Mr. Johnson Would Give Old Germanys Policy Toward Dip
EMPLOYEES Preference. Iomats Marriages the Cause.
LAINLY EXPRESSES VIEWS RULING is SIGNIFICANT
Opposes Bringing Outside Men Envoy With American Wife May Be
New Kept From Capital.
QUERIES PUT AT HEARINGS is IDEA OF BISMARCK
OF
House Las Thirty Years
of Weddings in
RULING is SIGNIFICANT
Envoy With American Wife May Be
Kept From Capital.
IDEA OF BISMARCK
Order Generally Has Been Ignored
for Last Thirty Years-Notable
Weddings in Past.

Washington diplomatic and official So
ciety is stirred. owing to the cablegram
from Berlin in The Star of yester-
day. announcing the revival of Prince
Bismarck's order that any German
diplomat who had married foreign
woman would he expected to retire
from the diplomatic service of Germany.
The ruling now revived was made thirty
years ago, and it is especially interesting
from the fact that the wife of the present
German ambassador, Count Won Berus~
torff. was Miss Jeanne Luckmeyer of
New York, and the wife of his predeces
sor. Baron Won Sternburg. now dead,
was Miss Langham of Kentucky.
In addition. three American women are
now drawing pensions from Germany as
widows of German diplomatic officers.
Policy Fell Into Disuse.
What the effect of the ruling will be
upon the present members of the German
diplomatic service whose wives are Amer
leans can only be conjectured. but the be-
lief is general in Washington that it will
not be made retroactive. and thus will not
be applied to- German diplomats who are
already married to foreign women. AL
this regard fell into disuse after his re-
trement from public life, the principle
has been mildly applied through the
practice of transferring to other posts
German diplomatic officers who married
women of the country in which those off,
GERS We're accredited. Washington has had
several experiences of this sort
In addition to the Countess Won Berns
torff. who was Miss Jeanne Luckemeyer
of New York. other American women who
-iTI ia OH,
the Baroness Won Kettler, the Countess
Won Gortzen and the Baroness Speck Won
Sternburg. All these are widows. Baron
Won kettler, whose wife was Miss Led
yard of Detroit, was killed in front of
the foreign office in Peking, in June,
1900. at the outbreak of the Boxer in
surrection. He was then the German
envoy to China. Baron Won Sternburg
was the immediate predecessor of Count
Won Bernstorff in Washington. His widow
had passed most of her life abroad under
the guardianship of her uncle, Arthur
Langham of London. Arthur Langham
was at one time associated with large
AnglO-American interests in this country,
and while here he lived in Louisville KY.
Marriage in London.
The marriage of Baron Speck Won
In London before the baron's appoint
ton diplomatic establishment Count Won
Gortzen was attached to the German
embassy here when he was married His
wife was Mrs. Lay of this city. After
ward he was governor of German South
A~-'ca
While the consent of Emperor Wi::iam
has always been a necessary preliminary
to the marriage of one of his diplomatic
1f,%;
been few occasions when it has been re-
fused. Recent marriages of American
women and German diplomatists have
generally been happy, and for that rea-
son nave been successful from an official
point of view.
For this reason the revival Of the old
order created all the more surpris. in
this capital.
Significance of Rule.
The significance of the German chan
cellor's revival of the Bismarck rule in
its application to Washington lies, it is
believed. in the probability that hereafter
no German diplomatic officer who is now
married to an American woman will be
assigned to duty at this capital
Emperor William has been particularly
lenient in this regard. however. His
transfer of Baron Speck Won Sternt urs
from the office OF consul general at Cal
cutta to Washington, with the rank frst
OF minister and afterward of ambassa-
dor. was attributed mainly to the fact
that Baron Won Sternburg and his Ameri-
can wife We're intimate friends of Presi-
dent and Mrs. Roosevelt, and partly to
the German emperors growing regard
for America and Americans The en-
peror emphasized this regard by appoint
ing Count Won Bernstorff as Baron Won