Daniel Christian Friedrich Krueger

Daniel Christian Friedrich Krüger was a diplomat in the service of the city state of Lübeck and also jointly of the Hanseatic cities of Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen. He was born in Lübeck on 22 September 1819 and died in Berlin on 17 January 1896.

Early life Krüger was the son of a Lübeck Senator. After attending the Lübeck Gymnasium, he studied jurisprudence at the universities of Bonn, Berlin, and Göttingen and completed his professional training by a long stay abroad, particularly Paris.

All three Hanseatic cities, through their envoy Krüger, voted against the Austrian proposal in the Bundestag on 14 June and jointly put a declaration formulated by Lübeck reasoning that the events in Holstein did not give rise to the mobilisation of the Confederation because the danger of an immediate collision was eliminated.

However the proposal was carried. The Lübeck Senate sided with the Prussian view that the Confederation should no longer exist, because of the illegal action of mobilisation and proposed that their Bundestag envoy Krüger be recalled. Carl Merck, foreign minister of Hamburg, wanted to wait and went to see the Lübeck Senate on 19 June to persuade them of this course.

On 21 June, the representatives of the Hanseatic cities met in Hamburg to discuss in detail measures which had been demanded by Prussia. The Prussian ambassador to the Hanseatic states, Emil von Richthofen, who also took part in this conference, emphasised that the abolition of all relations with Prussia's opponents was indispensable as a sign of friendly neutrality, and that therefore their Bundestag envoy in Frankfurt, Krüger, must be recalled. The meeting agreed to recall Krüger on 29 June. Krüger, still their Bundestag envoy, was not without influence on the decisions during the critical hours, and then had to return to Frankfurt to make a joint statement of the three cities. His attitude had been cautious since 16 June. Thus a milder answer to Prussia than originally proposed on 22 June was then sent.

Hanseatic Minister-Resident in Berlin In October 1866 he was appointed Minister-Resident of the Hanseatic cities in Berlin, in succession to Friedrich Heinrich Geffcken. When the new North German Federation came into being as a result of the Austro-Prussian war, among Kruger's most important tasks was the incorporation of the free cities he represented in the new federal and imperial structures. He advised on the take-over of the military establishments, the transition of the post and telegraph system to imperial control, and especially in the organisation of new customs relations. His own city Lübeck merged into the Customs Union shortly after joining the North German Federation, along with Lübeck’s neighbours the two Mecklenburg states, while twenty years later he dealt with the Customs Union accession of Bremen and Hamburg.

Shortly after his move to Berlin, he was able to inform Hamburg that the Prussian Ministry of Commerce could assist in promoting the construction of the Venlo-Hamburg railway, which Hamburg had agreed with Hanover before its annexation to Prussia. For Bremen, Krüger negotiated the territorial exchanges necessary to enable the expansion of Bremen's harbour districts.

In 1884 Bremen likewise applied to accede to the German Customs Union and he concluded negotiations in 1885. Bremen also secured a free port area, to be built below the old town. Also bonded warehouses for petroleum were to be set-up in the out-ports of Bremerhaven and Geestemunde.

Krüger died in post in Berlin on 17 January 1896, of a stomach bleeding. He was succeeded in April as Hanseatic Minister in Berlin by Karl Klügmann, also from Lübeck, who was appointed by the Senates of the three city states.