Franz Von Rottenburg
DR. VON ROTTENBURG DEAD
Son-in-Law of the Late Wm. Walter Phelps -- Lieutenant of Bismarck.
NEW YORK. February 15. -- Dr. Franz von Rottenburg, curator of the University of Bonn, Germand, and once secretary to Prince Bismarck and under secretary of the interior department of the empire of Germany, died yesterday of heart disease at Bonn. Word of his death was received here by his wife, who was Marian Phelps, daughter of the late William Walter Phelps, at one time minister to Germany. For several years his wife has been living in New York and at Teaneck, N.J.
Dr. von Rottenburg, who was married to Miss Phelps at Berlin on June 1, 1893, has been in this country only once, and that was eight years ago, when he came here to receive the degree of LL.D. from Yale. He was born in Dantzic, Prussia about sixty years ago, and was the son of a high government official and member of the nobility. He was educated at Gottingen, Heidelberg and Berlin. At Heidelberg he was known as the best swordsman at the university. He passed his examination in the Prussian law department with such honor that he was entitled to hold any government office. He then went to France and England to study laws, politics and institutions.
After completing his studies in France Dr. von Rottenburg published a book on "The Conception of the State," which attracted the attention of Bismarck. When Bismarck retired, in 1890, Dr. von Rottenburg, who had been his right hand man, took the post of chief of the imperial chancellerie until the business of the old administration was wound up.
Evening Star, Washington, D.C., February 15, 1907, page 21
Dr. FRANZ VON ROTTENBURG, curator of the University of Bonn, Germany, who died in that city on Thursday, had been curator of the university since November. He married Miss Marian Phelps, daughter of William Walter Phelps, former Minister to Germany, at the American Legation, Berlin, in 1893. He was a member of the Order of the Iron Cross, and he had received many decorations. He studied law at Heidelberg, London, and Paris, and was the author of several legal text books. He was an intimate friend of Prince Bismarck, and it was the latter who induced him to enter public life.
New York Times, New York, NY, February 15, 1907, page 9
Death of Dr. Von Rottenburg
(From Our Own Correspondent)
Berlin, Feb. 14
The Curator of the University of Bonn, Dr. Franz von Rottenburg, died suddenly at Bonn this morning.
It would be impossible within the limits of this notice to do justice to the career of a man who, apart from his other activities, played such an influential part in German politics as chief of the Imperial Chancellery and confidential adviser of Prince Bismarck for nearly 10 years. Dr. Franz von Rottenburg was born at Danzig in 1845, as a member of a gifted family which has distinguished itself in business as well as in politics, since one of his brothers attained a leading position in the mercantile world of Glasgow, while another was the late technical adviser of the Sultan of Morocco. Franz von Rottenburg studied law at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin, and passed through the various stages of legal promotion until he attained, in 1872, the standing of an assessor. In a campaign of 1870 he attached himself as a volunteer to the army ambulance corps, and distinguished himself by tending the sick and wounded around Metz, where there was a terrible epidemic of typhoid. He himself was prostrated in the consequence of his exertions and the hardships of the campaign by an attack of nervous fever, which undermined his constitution and rendered his health precarious throughout the rest of his life. In 1872 he left service of the State for three or four years, which he spent in London in the study of political economy and constitutional history. It was during this period he began his uncompleted work on "The Idea of the State," which dealt with the history of "French Theories of the State up to the Year 1789."
In 1876 he resumed his official career in Berlin and entered the service of the Foreign Office, were he rapidly rose to the position of Prince Bismarck's most confidential adviser, and was, in 1881, appointed chief of the Imperial Chancellery, a position which, in the German government, may almost be said to correspond to that of the Chief of the Staff in the German Army. In all the numerous biographies and memoirs which deal with Bismarck's career the name of Rottenburg constantly recurs, but he is mostly exhibited in a passive aspect as the intermediary between the Chancellor and leading politicians, journalists, or important foreign visitors. He was influential enough in this capacity, but it was well known that he also exerted an active influence upon the great Chancellor's decisions, and more especially upon the literary form of Bismarck's dispatches and Parliamentary speeches. Some of those "winged words" of the Iron Chancellor which will always live in the political vocabulary of the German nation, owed their origin or, at least, their form, to Rottenburg's quick intuition and his knowledge of popular mind. In particular he played a great part in the inception and the execution of the social policy of Prince Bismarck, which culminated in 1888 in the aged and infirm workmen's insurance law. The Parliamentary advocacy and the draftsmanship of that measure were the work of the Secretary of State for the Interior, Dr. von Bötticher, who was the intimate friend of Dr. von Rottenburg and afterwards became his chief, when, shortly after Bismarck's resignation, he was transferred to the Imperial Home Office as Under-Secretary.
But he was not only familiar with all the ramifications of German home policy; he also enjoyed a full confidence of the Chancellor in foreign affairs and was a veritable mine of information on this subject. It was he who on a memorable occasion introduced Bismarck at Gastein the British ambassador in Constantinople, the late Sir William White, who, like himself, had been brought up at Danzig. Dr. von Rottenburg remained with the Princess Bismarck in the dining room while the Chancellor and Sir William White had a long conversation in the neighboring apartment. After some time the sound of Homeric laughter was heard, in which both Bismarck and his guest participated. Rottenburg afterwards asked Sir William White what had been the cause of the merriment, and White replied:-"I had asked him what Germany would do if the Russians took Constantinople. He blew a long cloud of smoke and answered,' Nothing.' "
After Prince Bismarck's resignation, in March, 1890, the services of Dr. von Rottenburg were perhaps valued more highly that ever in Berlin, because he was able to supply from the stores of his memory the opinions of the former Chancellor on political and especially on personal questions, and thus to maintain a certain continuity in the conduct of the government against which the illustrious exile of Friedrichsruh was then conducting a violent newspaper campaign. Herr von Bötticher, Dr. von Rottenburg, and Herr von Holstein were the three pupils of Bismarck's whose continuance in office after his own dismissal the angry ex-Chancellor could never forget. I can well remember an unexpected visit which the aged Herr von Bleichröder, the banker, paid to Rottenburg when about to leave on a mission of reconnaissance and, if it might be, conciliation with Friedrichsruh. Rottenburg left the dinner table in great haste in order to give some parting words or advice to the emissary who was starting on what seemed a perilous mission to the camp of the German Coriolanus. To the last the former chief of the Imperial Chancellery continued to be an authority upon Bismarckian methods of government and Bismarckian tactics, and he was in frequent consultation with the present Chancellor during their recent summer holidays at Norderney.
In 1896 Dr. von Rottenburg, whose health had become hardly equal to the strain of Berlin political and social life, left the Home Office and shortly afterwards was appointed by the Emperor to the dignified position of Curator of the University of Bonn. The quieter atmosphere of academic life and study was much to his mind, but it was impossible for him to divest himself of his interest in the politics of the day, and especially in questions of social policy. Together with his friend, Baron von Berlepsch, he founded the magazine theSoxiale Praxis, in which labor questions were treated in a spirit of advanced liberalism. He also found opportunities in his official capacity to break a lance in behalf of the freedom of scientific research and academic teaching, and in an address delivered on the reception of one of the Emperor's sons as a student at Bonn he declared:-"it is monstrous to think of imposing fetters upon scientific research."
He was one of those who never incurred any of the personal unpopularity which attached to Bismarck and many of the leading man of the Bismarckian regime. He was a genial and instructive conversationalist, and was particularly affable to Englishmen, whose national character he understood and appreciated better than most of his German contemporaries. His first wife was a daughter of the late Mr. Charles Hutton, one of Her Majesty's Lieutenants for the City of London, and he married, secondly, in 1893, the only daughter of the late Walter W. Phelps, a former American Minister in Berlin.
London Times, London, England, February 15, 1907, page 7
The funeral of the late Dr. Franz von Rottenburg took place at Bonn on Saturday, and was attended by Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, who represented the German Emperor, Princess Adolf of Trotha, and representatives of the Imperial Chancellor, and the local government officials. Wreaths were sent by the Crown Prince, Prince August Wilhelm, the Imperial Chancellor, and the Prussian Minister of Education. The Emperor addressed to the family a telegram of sympathy, in which his Majesty expressed his appreciation of the services of the late Sr. von Rottenburg. Prince Bülow sent a letter couched in similar terms.
London Times, February 18, 1907, page 10
News Article: Death von Rottenburg's First Wife
News Article: von Rottenburg Angers Prussian Government
