From the perspective of anglophone historiography Baden is generally perceived as having been just one more of Napoleon's many client states at the time of Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein was born, and indeed till 1813.
On 4 May 1824, despite the two year difference in their ages, Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein and his elder brother[3] enrolled together as students at the University of Göttingen to study for a degree in “Staats- und Finanzwissenschaften” (‘’loosely, “statecraft and public financial administration”’’).
By this time the economic austerity that followed the war had lifted completely, and Mannheim was growing rapidly as a centre of commerce and industry and, importantly in terms of Marschall von Bieberstein's future interest in infrastructure creation, as a transport hub.
Nevertheless, developments in England and Belgium persuaded governments in the more progressive states of Germany that in an age of rapidly advancing steam power the beneficial opportunities available from railway technology might become even greater than the challenges.
Marschall von Bieberstein remained in post as “Regierungsrat”, contributing leadership and a necessary eye for detail, till 1844, to the early development of Baden's railways.
During the parliamentary session that ran from 1847 till 1849 Marschall von Bieberstein also sat as a member of the upper house of the Ständeversammlung, nominated to the parliament as the representative of the University of Freiburg.
By this time a substantial army under Prussian leadership was approaching from the east, and it was widely – and correctly – assumed that within a few months the revolutionary militias in Baden would have been put to flight.
[1] Friedrich Adolf Klüber retired in 1850 to be replaced as “prime minister” by Ludwig Rüdt, a younger man, widely perceived as being more conservative and more forthright than his predecessor.
Meanwhile, the seeds were sown of the disagreements that evolved into the “Baden Kultukampf” when catholic bishops in the west of Germany agreed among themselves to launch a push-back against growing involvement by governments in the sensitive business of church appointments.
Marschall von Bieberstein was not even a Roman Catholic, but he had close links with many leading figures in the Freiburg region, and had found himself increasingly out of sympathy with Ludwig Rüdt's negotiating tactics.
His most high-profile achievement in Berlin which came at the start of his posting, was his conduct of the negotiations that preceded the marriage between the regent and, after 1858, Grand Duke of Baden and Princess Louise, the daughter of the Prussian king.
The spread of rail transport was greatly reducing journey times, and following his posting to Berlin Marschall von Bieberstein was also accredited as Baden's ambassador at the court of the kings of Saxony (in Dresden) and of Hanover.
One of Marschall von Bieberstein's final special diplomatic missions took place in February 1863 when he travelled to St. Petersburg in connection with the marriage of Prince William, the younger brother of the Grand Duke, to the Princess Maria Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg.
Von Roggenbach was impatient for full German unification under the militarily strong leadership of Prussia, as a way to counter the military dominance of France and the Russian empire.
After his final retirement from public office in 1864, Adolf Marschall von Bieberstein relocated with his family to Freiburg im Breisgau, where his brother August was already living.