Paul Georg von Möllendorff was a German linguist and diplomat. Möllendorff is mostly known for his service as an adviser to the Korean king Gojong in the late nineteenth century and for his contributions to Sinology. Möllendorff is also known for having created a system for romanizing the Manchu language.
Early life
Hailing from the Prussian aristocratic family von Möllendorf, Paul Georg von Möllendorff was the son of Georg von Möllendorff, a high-ranking Prussian civil servant. The young Möllendorff attended gymnasium in Görlitz and he enrolled at University of Halle in 1865, where he studied law, oriental studies and philology. Möllendorff showed a strong aptitude for the study of classical and foreign languages and acquired a good command of Hebrew, but did not study any East Asian languages at the time.
In 1869, Möllendorff interrupted his studies and went to China in order to join the Imperial Maritime Customs Service in Shanghai. While working for the Customs in Shanghai and later Hankou, Möllendorff acquired a good command of Chinese and quickly passed the required language exam. However, he soon grew dissatisfied with his tasks in the service and left it in 1874 in order to join the German consular service as an interpreter and was eventually promoted German vice-consul in Tianjin. During his service in Tianjin, Möllendorff befriended Ma Jianzhong, who worked in the secretariat of the prominent Qing statesman, governor-general Li Hongzhang. In 1879, Möllendorff assisted Li in procuring weapons and warships from the German companies Vulkan and Krupp. In 1881, Möllendorff left the German consular service because of his complicated relationship to the German minister in Beijing, Max von Brandt.
Korea
In 1882, Li Hongzhang recommended Möllendorff to the position of the adviser to the Korean government and in December 1882, he arrived in Seoul for his first audience with King Gojong. Möllendorff quickly learned enough Korean to be able to communicate with the king and soon earned the trust of the king, who appointed him deputy foreign minister and charged him with the establishment of the Korean Customs Service. Möllendorff adopted the Sino-Korean name Mok In-dok and soon became a very influential figure in the Korean government. Möllendorff wanted to assert the independence of Korea and contrary to the wishes of Li Hongzhang and Robert Hart, he wanted to make the Korean Customs Service as independent from the Chinese Maritime Customs Service as possible. Möllendorff also advocated that Korea enter into an alliance with the Russian Empire to counterbalance Chinese and Japanese influences on the Korean peninsula. In response to this, the British occupied the Korean island of Geomun by force, calling it Port Hamilton. Consequently, the Qing government felt that Möllendorff acted too independently and in 1885 Li Hongzhang forced Möllendorff's resignation from the Korean government. In 1888, King Gojong unsuccessfully tried to reinstate Möllendorff.
