Germany
Arthur Zimmermann
1864–1940 State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Germany, 1916–1917
Born in Marggrabowa, East Prussia, Zimmermann entered the consular service in 1893, served in China and joined the Foreign Office in 1902. He became Under Secretary of State in 1911 and succeeded Gottlieb von Jagow as State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in November 1916. In January 1917 he sent a coded telegram to Germany's minister in Mexico, announcing unrestricted submarine warfare from 1 February and proposing an alliance, should the United States not stay neutral, in which Mexico would recover Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. British cryptographers deciphered it, and American newspapers published it widely on 1 March. Zimmermann admitted it was genuine, and Congress declared war on 6 April. He resigned in August 1917 and died in Berlin in 1940.