1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hammann, Otto

HAMMANN, OTTO (1852-), German journalist and Foreign Office official, born Jan. 23 1852 at Blankenhain. He was engaged in journalism from 1877 to 1893 and was appointed, in 1894, Director of the Press Section of the German Foreign Office, a post which he continued to hold until 1916. Hammann was the trusted adviser of Prince Bülow, who always kept an attentive eye upon public opinion as reflected or created in the press. He had personally played a leading part in the defensive campaign of the Imperial Chancellor, Count Caprivi, and the Foreign Secretary, Baron Marshall von Bieberstein, in the early 'nineties, against the Bismarckian fronde. His business was to inspire the German and, as far as possible, the foreign press in a sense favourable to German policy and above all to obtain full and accurate information with regard to the personality and circumstances of journalists. His position enabled him to acquire a great deal of exclusive information with regard to the more secret ways of German policy and he embodied a considerable portion of what he knew in the three volumes of reminiscences which he published after the Revolution, Der neue Kurs, Erinnerungen (1918); Zur Vorgeschichte des Weltkriegs and Um den Kaiser, Erinnerungen aus den Jahren 1906-1909 (1919).