Anton Saurma von der Jeltsch

Anton Saurma von der Jeltsch entered diplomacy in 1862 after studying law. His career combined embassy work in St Petersburg, Paris, and Constantinople with consular assignments in Belgrade and Alexandria. He later headed the missions in Bucharest, The Hague, and Stuttgart before becoming Germany's first ambassador to the United States in 1893. ^{1, 2}

Trade restrictions tested his Washington appointment. When Germany prohibited imports of American cattle in 1894, Saurma repeatedly discussed the dispute with Secretary of State Walter Gresham. His formal explanation maintained that the measure answered the discovery of Texas fever in cattle shipments and was not commercial retaliation. He also pointed to the United States' own strict sanitary regulations. ³

Saurma's correspondence included the limits of extradition. In 1894 he protested reports that an American returned from Prussia to face forgery charges had instead been convicted of embezzlement, an offense outside the grounds on which extradition had been granted. After Washington he served as ambassador in Constantinople and Rome, retired in 1899, and died in 1900. ^{4, 2}