Baron de Maltitz

Franz von Maltitz (1794–1857) combined Russian diplomatic service with a career as a poet and translator in German. Born in Nuremberg, he entered the Russian mission in Prussia in 1814 and became secretary in the United States in 1821. He was the elder brother of Apollonius von Maltitz, another diplomat and writer. ^{1, 2}

In January 1823 Maltitz assisted chargé d’affaires George Ellisen at the exchange of ratifications for the Anglo-American convention mediated by Russia, comparing the British copy with the other texts. He later headed the legation as chargé. His 1826 reports covered the Panama Congress and Latin American affairs; one recorded Henry Clay’s assurance that an invasion of Cuba would not take place. ^{3, 4, 5}

Washington also appears in his literary correspondence. In 1824 he sent Vasily Zhukovsky a poem expressing gratitude for the Russian poet’s gift of verse and relief from his own sense of isolation abroad. Maltitz later translated Zhukovsky’s poem commemorating Borodino into German. With Apollonius he had already translated Mikhail Krukovsky’s play about Prince Pozharsky; he also gave Zhukovsky his own continuation of Schiller’s unfinished drama Demetrius. ^{2, 1}

Maltitz returned to Prussia and served as Russian minister in the Netherlands from 1837 to the early 1850s. His publications included poetry collections and Phantasiebilder. He married Marie-Elisabeth Lee, daughter of the American commercial agent William Lee, in 1825, and died at Boppard in 1857. ¹