German diplomat and author of lyrical poems, the eldest son of Alfred von Randow and Ada, Baroness von Dalwig.
He joined the NSDAP (Nazi party) on 10 June 1925. In 1930 he was transferred to Beijing as an attaché, marking the beginning of a lifelong diplomatic career in Asia. On 15 September 1933, he was transferred to the consulate general in Shanghai, where he was first deputy consul, later consul.
On 18 October 1945, the Chiang Kai-shek Chinese authorities interned the Germans in Shanghai in the Kiangwan camp near Shanghai. On 16 April 1946, Randow and 26 other Germans were handed over to the American army authorities in Shanghai, and put on trial. Despite acquittal, Randow spent the period until repatriation to Germany in prison in Shanghai, and even after being transported back to Germany, he was held as a suspected War criminal in the Dachau internment camp until his unconditional release on 21 July 1947.
After the re-establishment of a German foreign service he was transferred to the German Embassy in the Indonesian capital Jakarta in 1953, where he was appointed to the 1st Class Legation Council. In November 1957 he went to the Burmese capital Yangon as an envoy.
In 1961 he was called back to Bonn, where he headed the Central Exchange Office for Cultural Exchange with the Soviet Union. In September 1964 he became Consul General in Calcutta, India, his last post. In November 1968 he received the Order of Merit, and in February 1969 he retired. After that he was until 1975 executive board member of the German Society for East Asian Studies in Hamburg.
Elgar von Randow wrote poems throughout his life, but most remained unpublished. Three small poetry books were published by a German publisher in Shanghai.
Elgar von Randow was married four times and had five sons, two from his first marriage, two from the second and one from the third. He died on 3 February 1977 in Hamburg at age 72.
Link to Wikipedia biography (German)