Editing Arthur de Gobineau (section)

===Time in Switzerland and Germany===
From November 1849 to January 1854 Gobineau was stationed at the French legation in [[Bern]] as the First Secretary.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=82}} During his time in Switzerland Gobineau wrote the majority of the ''Essai''.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=82}}

He was stationed in [[Hanover]] in the fall of 1851 as acting Chargé d'Affaires, and was impressed by the "traces of real nobility" he said he saw at the Hanoverian court.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=89}} Gobineau especially liked the blind King [[George V of Hanover|George V]] whom he saw as a "philosopher-king" and to whom he dedicated the ''Essai''s.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=89}} He praised the "remarkable character" of Hanoverian men and likewise commended Hanoverian society as having "an instinctive preference for hierarchy" with the commoners always deferring to the nobility, which he explained on racial grounds.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=90}}

Reflecting his lifelong interest in the Orient, Gobineau joined the ''[[Société Asiatique]]'' in 1852 and got to know several Orientalists, like [[Julius von Mohl]], very well.{{sfn|Irwin|2016|p=322}}

In January 1854, Gobineau was sent as First Secretary to the French legation at the [[Free City of Frankfurt]].{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=91}} Of the [[Federal Convention (German Confederation)|Federal Convention]] of the German Confederation that sat in Frankfurt—also known as the "Confederation Diet"—Gobineau wrote: "The Diet is a business office for the German bureaucracy—it is very far from being a real political body".{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=91}}{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|pp=91–92}} Gobineau hated the Prussian representative at the Diet, Prince [[Otto von Bismarck]], because of his advances towards Madame Gobineau.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=92}} By contrast, the Austrian representative, General [[Anton von Prokesch-Osten]] became one of Gobineau's best friends.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=91}} He was a reactionary Austrian soldier and diplomat who hated democracy and saw himself as a historian and orientalist, and for all these reasons Gobineau bonded with him.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=92}} It was during these periods that Gobineau began to write less often to his old liberal friend Tocqueville and more often to his new conservative friend Prokesch-Osten.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=92}}