Harry Graf Kessler

Harry Kessler (1868 – 1937) was an Anglo-German count, diplomat, writer, and patron of modern art.

His diaries "Berlin in Lights" published in 1971 revealed anecdotes and details of the artistic and theatrical life in Europe, mostly in Germany, from the collapse of Germany at the end of World War I until his death in 1937.

Family

Harry Kessler was the son of Hamburg banker Adolf Wilhelm Kessler and the Irish woman Alice Harriet Blosse-Lynch. His mother (born 17 July, 1844 in Bombay; died 19. September 1919 in Normandy) was the daughter of Irish baronet Henry Blosse-Lynch. Kesslers parents married in Paris on 10 August 1867. Kessler's younger sister was born in 1877, and was named Wilma Kessler after Kaiser Wilhelm I. After marriage, her name would become Wilma de Brion.

There were many rumours about a supposed affair between the Kaiser and Kessler's mother. It has even been suggested that Kaiser Wilhelm I, and not Adolf Kessler, was Harry's father.

Life and Work

Kessler grew up in France, England and Germany. He was familiar with many cultures, travelled widely, was active as an German diplomat, and hence came to be known as a man of the world. He considered himself to be part of European society.

Kessler was educated first in Paris and then, from 1880, in a boarding school in Ascot, England. Following his father's wish he enrolled in 1882 at the , where he completed his Abitur (high-school education). He then studied law and the art history in Bonn and Leipzig respectively.

After moving to Berlin in 1893, he worked on the art journal PAN, which was publishing work by, among others, Richard Dehmel, Theodor Fontane, Friedrich Nietzsche, Detlev von Liliencron, Julius Hart, Novalis, Paul Verlaine und Alfred Lichtwark