Alfons Mumm von Schwarzenstein

During his years in China, he dealt with the Boxer Rebellion and signed The Boxer Protocol on September 7, 1901, on behalf of Germany, maintained an extraordinarily good relation with Empress Dowager Cixi, but also he took many pictures of China in the 1900s as an amateur photographer.

[1][2] Mumm von Schwarzenstein was ennobled as a Freiherr (Baron) in the 1903 Birthday Honours list of Emperor Wilhelm II.

[3] In 1911, he bought and restored a medieval castle in the small village of Portofino, Italy, where he eventually retired in 1920 with his Scottish wife Jeannie von Mumm.

[4] During the Second World War his then-widow Jeannie is now considered "the saviour" of Portofino because she persuaded Lieutenant Ernst Reimers not to ignite the charges the Germans planned to detonate during their retreat from the village.

[5] Baron Mumm von Schwartzenstein died on his Italian estate at Portofino on 10 July 1924.