[1] He grew up in Berlin and on the family estate in Stintenburg, and embarked upon a short agricultural apprenticeship before being chosen for a Rhodes Scholarship in 1909.

[4] He completed his degree at Kiel University, following a short stint of voluntary military service.

[5] After being admitted to diplomatic service in 1914, Bernstorff spent the next three years at the German Embassy in Vienna, from where he was recalled in 1917.

[9] After a second arrest in July 1943, Bernstorff was imprisoned at the Gestapo headquarters, then in February 1944 at the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

In December 1944, he was transferred to Lehrter Strasse prison, in Berlin's Moabit district, where the Gestapo interrogated him under torture.