Background
Sternburg, Herman Von Speck- was born on August 21, 1852 in Leeds, England. Son of Baron Alexander and Martha (Shaw) Speck-Sternburg.
Sternburg, Herman Von Speck- was born on August 21, 1852 in Leeds, England. Son of Baron Alexander and Martha (Shaw) Speck-Sternburg.
Educated Furstenschule St. Afra, Meissen, Saxony, and Military Academy, Potsdam, Prussia. Special studies in international law, political economy, military and naval sciences.
Fought through Franco-German war in 2d Saxon Dragoons. In active military service until 1885. Appointed, 1885, as military attache German legation, Washington.
Reapptd., 1889, and transferred as major to general staff. Joined diplomatic service, 1890, and transferred as 1st secretary legation to Peking, China. Charge d’affaires, Belgrade, Servia.
1st secretary German embassy at Washington, 1898. High commissioner on Samoan Commission, 1898. Consul general of Germany for British India and Ceylon, 1900.
His Imperial German Majesty’s minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary to Washington, on special mission, 1903. Ambassador of Germany to the United States, July since 1903. Decorations: Red Eagle (1st class).
Order of Crown (1st class). Grand Cross Order of Albrecht (Saxony). War medal, in the Franco-German War, 1870-1871.
Cross of Military Merit (Saxony). Star of the Order of Francis-Joseph (Austria). Star of the Order of the Double Dragon (China).
Star of the Takowo (Servia). Cross of the Order of St. Anne (Russia).
Married London, Lillian May Langham, of Louisville, Kentucky.