Heinrich Alexander von Arnim

Who was Heinrich Alexander von Arnim?

Heinrich Alexander von Arnim was a Prussian statesman.

Arnim received his education in the Pädagogium in Halle, then in 1814 joined the cavalry of the Landwehr of the Uckermark and fought with five brothers in the War of the Sixth Coalition. He joined the Prussian civil service in 1820, he was at first an embassy attaché in Switzerland, then a legation secretary in Munich, Copenhagen and Naples and was made chargé d'affaires in Darmstadt in 1829. There, he successfully worked towards the creation of the Zollverein, after which he was made an Expert Councillor in the Foreign Ministry in 1834. However, Frederick William IV, with whom he was in close personal contact, made him an envoy in Brussels in 1840, and in Paris in 1846.

In these positions he earned much credit through resolutely defending German trade interests, namely by bringing about the Belgo-Prussian trade agreement of 1 September 1844 and through the determination with which he confronted the prevailing protectionist attitudes, publicly and officially as well as through his work Mein handelspolitisches Testament.