German foreign minister for 10 months during World War I, who led the German delegation that concluded the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia (March 1918) and the Treaty of Bucharest with Romania (May 1918).

Kühlmann, son of the director general of the Anatolian Railways, entered the German foreign service in 1899 and was posted to St. Petersburg, Tehrān, Tangier, Washington, The Hague, and then (1908–14) London. After the outbreak of World War I he served as German minister at The Hague and, later, as ambassador at Constantinople. On Aug. 6, 1917, he was appointed secretary of state for foreign affairs. The following June he told the Reichstag that the war could not be decided by military measures alone. As a result, the supreme army command forced his dismissal.