Friedrich Landolin Karl Freiherr von Blittersdorf (14 February 1792 - 16 April 1861) was a long serving politician-administrator in the Grand Duchy of Baden. As a younger man he served in a succession of ambassadorial roles and undertook other diplomatic work. Between 1835 and 1844 he became a dominating force in the government. He approached his responsibilities with huge erudition and energy, combined with a powerfully conservative set of political instincts. In this respect he contrasted with his cautiously reformist predecessor as head of the government, Ludwig Georg Winter. Life Provenance and early years Blittersdorf(f) was born in Mahlberg, down-river from Basel on the right (German) side. He was a younger son. His father, Wilhelm von Blittersdorf (1748–1798), was a senior government administrator ("Hofrat", "Kämmerer" and "Landvogt") and the governor of Mahlberg. His mother, born Franziska Freiin von Vischpach (1758-1835), was from a Protestant family. He attended school in Karlsruhe and then moved on to university at Heidelberg (where in 1809 he joined the Corps Rhenania fraterntity) and Freiburg, studying jurisprudence. Public service In 1813, on the recommendation of Baron von Marschall, Blittersdorf was assigned a government post as secretary to the Mission to the Kingdom of Württemberg, on which von Marschall was about to embark. He felt that the Stuttgart appointment did not suit him and in 1814 he tried, without success, to obtain a government job on the home front. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars the opportunities for government work were evidently to be found in the international field. In 1816 he accompanied Baron von Berstett in the capacity of "councillor" ("Legationsrat"), a member of Baden's delegation, led by Berstett, to the "Federal Convention" ("Bundesversammlung des) Deutschen Bundes") in Frankfurt. In 1817 von Blittersdorf was appointed to the privy council ("Geheime Cabinet des Großherzogs"), also appointed, that same year, to a position in the foreign ministry. In 1818 he was appointed Chargé d'affaires to the imperial court at St. Petersburg. It was his first senior diplomatic posting. Nevertheless, he was required to stop off, as he traveled east, for a negotiation with Chancellor Metternich over important territorial and succession issues concerning Baden. Towards the end of 1819 he was due a period of leave and travelled home via Vienna where he received an instruction to stay and support von Berstett who was heading up the Baden delegation in preparations for the Vienna Ministerial Conference. Von Blittersdorf