Details

Name

Karl Ernst Eduard Willibald von Dirksen

Brief Biography

1852–1928, German

Occupation

Collector

Description

Born in Berlin into a family of wealthy and aristocratic Prussian landowners, von Dirksen joined the diplomatic service in 1881 and became Consulate General in London from 1882–83. He was appointed Speaker of the Imperial Privy Council in 1892. He purchased the twelfth-century Grodziec Castle, in present-day Poland, in the early twentieth century and embarked on an extensive restoration and reconstruction project which necessitated substantial purchases of antique furniture, paintings and tapestries. When the work was completed in 1908, Kaiser Wilhelm II was guest of honour at the celebrations. In 1945, the castle was partly burned by the advancing Russian troops. Von Dirksen also owned an imposing house in Berlin, the Palais Dirksen on Margaretenstrasse, which he decorated and furnished with antiques.
Von Dirksen married twice. One of his sons to his first wife was the last German ambassador to Great Britain before the outbreak of WW II. His second wife, Viktoria, whom he married in 1918, was a society hostess with a political salon which included all the leading members of the Third Reich. Adolf Hitler was her particular protégé. After von Dirksen’s death there was a large sale of his collection of Gothic and Renaissance art.