Andreas Peter, Greve von Bernstorff

Andreas Peter, Greve (count) von Bernstorff (born Aug. 28, 1735, Hannover, Hanover [Germany]—died June 21, 1797, Copenhagen, Den.) was a statesman who maintained the neutrality of Denmark during the last quarter of the 18th century and who took a leading part in Danish domestic reform.

In 1758 Bernstorff joined the Danish Foreign Office, from which he was dismissed in 1770. He returned to the office in 1772 and became foreign minister the next year. On Aug. 12, 1773, he concluded a partly defensive and partly anti-Swedish treaty of alliance between Denmark and Russia.

During the American Revolution, Bernstorff sympathized with Great Britain despite that country’s assertion of its right to search for “contraband of war” on the high seas, and in 1779 he favoured the British proposal for a triple alliance among Great Britain, Denmark-Norway, and Russia. The Danish court, however, favoured the Russian proposal for an armed league of all the neutral powers to protect neutral shipping. Bernstorff, fearing that the Russian proposal was aimed exclusively against Great Britain, unwillingly acceded to it on July 9, 1780, after having reached a separate agreement with Britain five days earlier on what constituted “contraband of war.” Russian resentment over his action forced Bernstorff’s resignation on November 13.

Recalled to office in April 1784, Bernstorff, until his death, served as foreign minister in a moderate liberal government. He supported a series of reform measures including the regulation of landlord-peasant relations and the end of adscription (the legal bond between peasants and the estate of their birth). In foreign affairs, Bernstorff carefully pursued a policy of neutrality. When the French Revolution broke out, he condemned any interference in the domestic affairs of France and avoided every anti-French coalition. In March 1794 he negotiated a neutrality treaty with Sweden for protecting the merchant shipping of both countries by combined squadrons.

Bernstorff’s foreign policy won him the respect of European diplomats; his domestic policy gained him such popularity among the Danes that his death was regarded as a national calamity.