Lord Curzon and the Appointment of Lord D’Abernon as Ambassador to Berlin in 1920

Abstract

This article examines British policy towards Germany in the period between the end of the first world war and the resumption of full diplomatic relations between the two countries in June 1920. In particular, it concentrates on the relationship between the Foreign Office and the War Office in determining British policy and the pressures that were brought to bear on Lloyd George to comply with a common Allied policy towards the resumption of diplomatic relations with Germany. Far from rejecting the more open methods of conducting diplomacy that were favoured after the war, Lord Curzon was prepared to embrace them on occasion to further his own ends. The article also offers an insight into Foreign Office attitudes towards Lord D’Abernon as ambassador to Berlin. His unconventional background as well as his means of conducting diplomacy resulted in a tense relationship with the Foreign Office, which had a negative as well as a positive effect on British policy towards Germany in the early 1920s.