Clemens von Ketteler

Clemens August Freiherr von Ketteler (22 November 1853 – 20 June 1900) was a German career diplomat. He was killed during the Boxer Rebellion.

Family and early career

Born at Potsdam, Baron von Ketteler was born into a Prussian military family and his uncle Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler was a bishop and a prominent politician. Ketteler was educated for the army, but he resigned his commission and entered the Imperial German diplomatic corps in 1882. He served in China, Washington, D.C. and Mexico. He married an American woman, Matilda Cass Ledyard.^[1]

Death in Beijing

Ketteler returned to China in 1899 as Plenipotentiary at Beijing, from which he pointed out in vain the dangerous situation for the Europeans.^[2] On 12 June 1900, when the Boxers moved to the inner city and burned down church buildings, Ketteler reacted by ordering German embassy guards to hunt them down. On 18 June, German troops captured a Chinese civilian suspected of being a Boxer in the inner city and took him to the Legation Quarter, where he was detained. The crowd which later gathered to demand his release were fired upon by Austrian guards; many were wounded. On 14 June, soldiers of the German Marines fended off Boxers trying to break through the barricades and managed to kill approx. 20 of them.

Ketteler brutally attacked a Chinese civilian for no reason, and beat a boy who was with him after taking him to the legations. Ketteler then murdered the boy by shooting him.^[3] In response, Thousands of Chinese Muslim Kansu Braves under General Dong Fuxiang of the Imperial Army and Boxers went on a violent riot against the westerners.^[4] The Kansu braves then attacked and killed Chinese Christians around the legations in revenge for foreign attacks on Chinese. Angry at the Chinese Christians for collaborating with foreigners who were murdering Chinese, the Muslims and Boxers roasted some of them alive.^[5]

At 8.00 a.m. on 20 June, Ketteler, together with his interpreter and other associates, headed for the Zongli Yamen (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) accompanied by armed escorts. At the western end of Xizongbu Hutong, only one block away from the ministry, the party ran into the Manchu Hushenying bannerman and were fired upon. Ketteler was killed in the ensuing firefight. Ketteler was specifically targeted by the Manchu captain En Hai for assassination, in revenge for Ketteler murdering the boy.^[6] En Hai, later gave himself up to the Allied occupying forces.^[7] A Muslim commander from the Kansu Braves then ripped the skin off the Baron and ate his heart.^[8]

En Hai was subsequently tried and convicted, and was executed in Beijing on 31 December 1900 by beheading. He showed no emotion during interrogation, and was fully composed and calm, admitting to killing Ketteler, and even requested execution, saying "I received orders from my sergeant to kill every foreigner that came up the street...I am glad to die for having killed one of the enemies of my country." When questioned about whether he had consumed alcohol during the incident, En Hai said he had not "touched a drop". En Hai was praised as "brave and dignified", and called a "hero".^[9]

Ketteler was succeeded by Alfons Mumm von Schwarzenstein as ambassador of the German Empire in Beijing, who signed the Boxer Protocol on behalf of Germany.

The Ketteler-Denkmal in Beijing

The Protection of Peace Gate (former Ketteler-Denkmal gate)

After China's loss to the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1901, treaties were signed between China and eleven nations (the Eight Nations plus Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands). Prince Chun, father of the last emperor Puyi, travelled to Germany in his official capacity as ambassador extraordinary to express the regrets of Emperor Guangxu over the death of Ketteler to Kaiser Wilhelm II. A paifang or "memorial gate" called Ketteler-Denkmal (German: "Ketteler Memorial") was erected at the location where he fell. Work on this gate began on 25 June 1901 and was completed on 8 January 1903. On 13 November 1918, two days after Germany signed an armistice with the Allies, the Ketteler-Denkmal was officially abolished. The following year, the gate was moved to the present-day Zhongshan Park and renamed "The Victory of Justice Gate" (Chinese: 公理戰勝牌坊). In 1953, on occasion of the Asia-Pacific Peace Conference in Beijing, it was renamed once again, this time to "The Protection of Peace Gate".

See also

• Boxer Rebellion

References

•  This article incorporates text from China under the empress dowager: being the history of the life and times of Tzŭ Hsi, comp. from the state papers of the comptroller of her household, a publication from 1914 now in the public domain in the United States.

1. ^ Town & Country, September 25, 1909
2. ^ (German) Brockhaus Geschichte Second Edition
3. ^ Robert B. Edgerton (1997). Warriors of the rising sun: a history of the Japanese military. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 70. ISBN 0393040852. http://books.google.com/books?id=wkHyjjbv-yEC&pg=PA70&dq=sugiyama+akira&hl=en&ei=h_3_TLrBCIP88Aar4rnzBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDUQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=von%20ketteler%20shot%20boy%20death&f=false. Retrieved 2010-11-28. 
4. ^ Sterling Seagrave, Peggy Seagrave (1992). Dragon lady: the life and legend of the last empress of China. Knopf. p. 320. http://books.google.com/books?id=tURwAAAAMAAJ&q=kansu+braves+baron+von&dq=kansu+braves+baron+von&hl=en&ei=7EXMTJWzI4T7lwfQ8ZmtBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBg. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
5. ^ Robert B. Edgerton (1997). Warriors of the rising sun: a history of the Japanese military. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 70. ISBN 0393040852. http://books.google.com/books?id=wkHyjjbv-yEC&pg=PA70&dq=sugiyama+akira&hl=en&ei=h_3_TLrBCIP88Aar4rnzBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDUQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=provocations%20by%20foreigners&f=false. Retrieved 2010-11-28. 
6. ^ Robert B. Edgerton (1997). Warriors of the rising sun: a history of the Japanese military. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 82. ISBN 0393040852. http://books.google.com/books?id=wkHyjjbv-yEC&dq=sugiyama+akira&q=ketteler#v=onepage&q=ketteler%20bannerman%20lance%20killed%20german&f=false. Retrieved 2010-11-28. 
7. ^ Franciszek Przetacznik (1983). Protection of officials of foreign states according to international law. BRILL. p. 229. ISBN 9024727219. http://books.google.com/books?id=yaOknKJ3bNgC&pg=PA229&dq=En+Hai+ketteler&hl=en&ei=mETQTPfIH8OblgeNrtCrBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFsQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=En%20Hai%20ketteler&f=false. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
8. ^ Upton Close (1924). In the land of the laughing Buddha: the adventures of an American barbarian in China. Putnam. p. 267. http://books.google.com/?id=IJACAAAAMAAJ&q=skin+and+ate+the+heart+of+german+von+ketteler&dq=skin+and+ate+the+heart+of+german+von+ketteler. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
9. ^ Compiled by John Otway Percy Bland, Sir Edmund Backhouse (1914). China under the empress dowager: being the history of the life and times of Tzŭ Hsi, comp. from the state papers of the comptroller of her household. Houghton Mifflin company. p. 216. ISBN 9024727219. http://books.google.com/books?id=L3tCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA216&dq=En+Hai+calm+and+dignified&hl=en&ei=rBEATZHOOsHflgfA9ojcCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CEkQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=En%20Hai%20calm%20and%20dignified&f=false. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 

External links

• On the murder of Clemens von Ketteler (in German, with illustrations)

Persondata
Name	Ketteler, Clemens Von
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	22 November 1853
Place of birth
Date of death	20 June 1900
Place of death