Hermann Ludwig von Balan
State Secretary for Foreign Affairs
In office 3 October 1872 – 9 October 1873
Monarch	Wilhelm I
Chancellor	Otto von Bismarck
Preceded by	Hermann von Thile
Succeeded by	Bernhard Ernst von Bülow
Personal details
Born	(1812-03-07)7 March 1812 Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia
Died	16 March 1874(1874-03-16) (aged 62) Brussels, Belgium
Spouse	Emilie Auguste Cäcilie Therese von Sybel
Children	2
Occupation	Diplomat

Hermann Ludwig von Balan (7 March 1812 – 16 March 1874) was a German diplomat who served as acting Foreign Secretary and head of the Foreign Office from 1872 to 1873.

A lawyer by profession, he joined the diplomatic service of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1833. He was appointed as Consul General in Warsaw in 1845, and as chargé d'affaires to the Free City of Frankfurt the following year. In 1848 he became chargé d'affaires to the Grand Duchy of Hesse. He became Envoy to the Kingdom of Württemberg in 1858, and was ennobled in 1859.

From 1859 to 1864, he was Envoy to the Kingdom of Denmark and took part in the negotiation of the 1864 Treaty of Vienna that concluded the Second Schleswig War. He served as Ambassador to Belgium from 1864 to 1871.

When he was succeeded by Bernhard Ernst von Bülow as Foreign Secretary, he was appointed to the Prussian House of Lords, where he was considered a liberal peer, and returned to his post as ambassador in Brussels. However, he died a few months later.

• Biographie in Meyers Konversationslexikon von 1885 bis 1892
• Biographie auf der Homepage des Bundesarchivs
• Adelige in der Gesetzlosen Gesellschaft Berlin 1809 bis 2000

v t e Foreign Ministers of Germany
German Empire (1871–1918)	Thile Balan B. E. von Bülow Radowitz Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst Limburg-Stirum Busch Hatzfeldt zu Wildenburg Bismarck Marschall B. von Bülow Richthofen Tschirschky-Bögendorff Schoen Kiderlen-Waechter Jagow Zimmermann Kühlmann Hintze Solf Brockdorff-Rantzau
Weimar Republic (1918–33)	Brockdorff-Rantzau Müller Köster Simons Rosen Wirth Rathenau Rosenberg Stresemann Curtius Brüning Neurath
Nazi Germany (1933–45)	Neurath Ribbentrop Seyss-Inquart Schwerin von Krosigk
German Democratic Republic1 (1949–90)	Dertinger Ackermann Bolz Winzer O. Fischer Meckel de Maizière
Federal Republic of Germany (1949–present)	Adenauer von Brentano Schröder Brandt Scheel Genscher Schmidt Genscher Kinkel J. Fischer Steinmeier Westerwelle Steinmeier Gabriel Maas Baerbock
1 East Germany

Authority control databases
International	ISNI VIAF WorldCat
National	Germany
People	Deutsche Biographie