Speck von Sternburg Hermann

Hermann Speck von Sternburg (21 August 1852 Leeds, England – 23 August 1908 Heidelberg, Germany) was a German diplomat. He was educated in the Fürstenschule Saint Afra, Meissen, Saxony, and the military academy of Potsdam, fought through the Franco-Prussian War in the Second Saxon dragoons, and remained in the military service until 1885.

In 1890 he entered on his diplomatic career, being made successively first secretary of legation at Beijing, chargé d'affaires at Belgrade, Serbia, and first secretary of the embassy at Washington. In 1898 he was high commissioner on the Samoan Commission; became consul general for British India and Ceylon in 1900, minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary to the United States in 1903, and ambassador in July 1903, succeeding Theodor von Holleben. He died of complications from lupus in Heidelberg on August 23, 1908.