Agostino von Hassell

December 12, 2007

Agostino von Hassell

Agostino von Hassell was born into a European diplomatic family of historic note. His great-grandfather, Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, built Germany's Imperial Fleet prior to World War One. His paternal grandfather, German Ambassador Ulrich von Hassell, was executed after participating in an assissanation attempt on [...] on July 20, 1944. His maternal grandfather, Lt. General Bogislav von Studnitz, first commander of Paris in World War Two, was also assassinated on order of [...]. His father, Ambassador Wolf Ulrich von Hassell, was the first Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to serve at the United Nations.

Hassell was raised in several countries, moving to New York as a young man. He has written extensively on military and war history for publications such as The Marine Corps Gazette, Die Zeit (Germany), Naval Proceedings, Defense News, and The Navy Times, among others. He is the author of Warriors: The United States Marine Corps and Strike Force: Marine Corps Special Operations, as well as In Honor of America and, together with Herm Dillon, West Point: The Bicentennial Book. In November 2006 St. Martin’s Press in New York released Alliance of Enemies: The Untold Story of the Secret American and German Collaboration to End World War II, which Hassell coauthored with Sigrid Macrae. This book explores the secret contacts between the OSS and Germany’s Abwehr intelligence service during the Second World War.

In 2006, he and coauthors Herm Dillon, Lisa M. Pellegrino, and Teresa Caiado Ramirez published Military High Life: Elegant Food Histories and Recipes. It was the first illustrated history of international fine military, reaching from the present back to ancient Egyptian times. They are now working on Typhoon, a book tracing the storm of flavors that swept through the world with the voyages of discovery prompted, in 1453, by the shutdown of the traditional spice trade.

Hassell studied history at Columbia University, graduating in 1974, and attended Columbia Journalism School, graduating in 1975. He is a life member of the United States Marine Corps Combat Correspondents, the National Defense Industry Association, the American Society of Magazine Photographers, the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation, and the Authors Guild. A Chevalier of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, the world’s premier burgundy wine society, Hassell is also a Knight of Justice of the Sovereign Order of the Orthodox Knights Hospitaller of St. John. He is president of The Repton Group, a New York City–based intelligence gathering and consulting organization.