Karl Lang

Karl Lang had served as German consul general in Montreal before helping reopen his country's representation in Washington after the First World War. A contemporary newspaper account places his Montreal service between 1900 and 1914 and describes his wartime responsibility for trade with neutral countries. In December 1921 Berlin proposed him as temporary chargé d'affaires in Washington. He arrived in New York aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam on 28 December and presented his credentials three days later. ^{1, 2}

On arrival, Lang argued publicly that Germany could not meet the reparations demanded of it under the prevailing arrangements. He told the New-York Tribune that barriers to German exports prevented the country from earning foreign currency, while buying that currency further depressed the mark. ²