Klemens Von Metternich

KLEMENS VON METTERNICH Statesman born at Coblenz, 15 May, 1773 died at capital of Austria, 11 June, 1859 son of Count Georg, Austrian envoy of the Court of Vienna at Coblenz, and Maria Beatrix, nee Countess von Kageneck. He studied philosophy at the University of Strasburg, and law and diplomacy at Mainz. A journey to England completed his education. Metternich began his exoteric career in 1801 as Austrian ambassador to the Court of Dresden. though he had for several years prepared himself for a diplomatic career, he was especially fortunate in being immediately appointed to so prominent a position.Only ii years later he was make ambassador to Berlin. The emperor butterfly considered it very important to have a pastor at Berlin who could gain the favour of the Court and the principal Prussian pleadsmen, and who k untested how to intensify great actors of observation with a moderate and agreeable manner. Metternich had already proved that he possessed these qualities. nap was t hen emperor with the new empire at the zenith of its power. The emperor Francis compulsory his ablest ambassador at piles Court, and in May, 1806, he sent Metternich to Paris.Metternich found himself in the difficult position of representing Austria in the face of the oerweening threats and ambitious plans of short sleep at the height of his power. He did so with dignity and firmness, as his report of his important audience with Napoleon on 15 August, 1808, shows. The year 1809 is marked by the great state of war between Austria and France. The German States were cal take upon to join her, but only the Tyrol responded. On 13 May Vienna was besieged by the French, but eight geezerhood later Napoleon was defeated by the Archduke Charles at Aspern.Metternich, treated as a prisoner of state by Napoleon, was finally released in July in exchange for members of the French embassy. After the battle of Wagram Austrias position was hopeless. Its troops was cut off from Hungary and comp elled to retreat to Moravia and Bohemia. A great statesman was urgencyed to save the situation. On 4 August the Emperor Francis appointed Metternich as minister of state to confer with Napoleon, and on 8 October, minister of the proud beard house and of foreign affairs.By the treaty of Schonbrunn (14 October), Austria was greatly reduced in size, and reached the great depths of its humiliation. entirely the moment of its degradation saw the beginning of its jumpstart. The two-headed eagle soared to the loftiest heights, and it was Metternich who gave it the effect for its flight. For nearly forty years he directed Austrias policy. His introductory business concern was to establish tolerable relations with the French Emperor. Napoleon desired by means of a new marriage to ally himself with one of the gray European dynasties in the hope to raise himself and to provide an heir for the imperial throne.He obtained a divorce from Josephine Beauharnais, and through the mediation o f Metternich marital Maria Louise, missy of the Emperor Frances of Austria. Though at present it seems to become frequently and much probable that Napoleons union with Josephine was a valid marriage, nevertheless it is certain that when Napoleon wedded Maria Louise (11 March, 1810) the Court of Vienna and the Papal Curia were absolutely positive(p) of the unlawfulness of Napoleons first alliance. Napoleons connexion with the imperial family of Austria had no trance on politics.Fate led the French Emperor, after ruining so many others, to ruin himself. At Schonbrunn he pronounced the temporal s everyplaceeignty of the Roman See to be at an force out, and in reply to the popes excommunication he remarked This bequeath non cause the arms to drop from the manpower of my grenadiers. Although he imprisoned the pope, in the Russian campaign on the Beresina the arms did drop from the frozen hands of his grenadiers. As the crisis approached the decision lay with Austria. From a qu arter past 11 in the morning until half past eight in the even out Metternich was closeted with Napoleon (Dresden, 26 June, 1813). Our conference consisted of the strangest farrago of heterogeneous subjects, characterized now by extreme friendliness, now by the most violent outbursts of fury. Napoleon raged, threatened, and leaped up like a chafed lion. Metternich remained calm. Napoleon let his hat, which he was holding under his arm, drop to the floor. Metternich did not stoop to pick it up. The emperor also tried persuasion. Your sovereigns, he said, who were born to their thrones cannot comprehend the feelings that move me.To them it is zilch to return to their capitals defeated. But I am a soldier. I need honour and glory. I cannot reappear among my people devoid of prestige. I must(prenominal) remain great, admired, covered with glory. For that reason, he said, he could not accept the proposed conditions of intermission. Metternich replied, But when will this condition of things cease, in which defeat and victory are uniform reasons for continuing these dismal wars? If victorious, you insist upon the fruits of your victory if defeated, you are determined to rise again. Napoleon made various offers for Austrias neutrality, but Metternich declined all bargaining, and Napoleons oft-repeated threat, We shall meet in Vienna, was his fare sound to Metternich. Metternich gave the signal for war, and Schwarzenberg led the decisive battle of Leipzig. The Emperor Francis raised his beloved Count Metternich to the rank of Austrian prince. Your able efforts in conducting the department with which I entrusted you in difficult times are now, at a moment highly decisive in the worlds destiny, happily invest with success. Metternich reached the height of his power and renown at the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815). No idea can be had of the difficulty of the problems that were to be solved. The very first conference of the representatives of the powers previously allied against France (Austria, Prussia, Russia, and England), held on 19 September, 1814, at Metternichs villa on the Rennweg, ended in a discord over the Polish question. It perpetually required all of Metternichs most brilliant qualities to preserve harmony. One of his favourite(a) means was to provide festivities of all sorts.They have often been criticized as if they had been the objective lens of the congress, and not a means to attain its ends. Metternich succeeded finally in bridging over every difficulty. The Emperor Francis explicit his satisfaction with Metternichs services in securing peace and order in Europe, and especially in restoring to Austria its ancient pre-eminence. The rearrangement of German and Italian affairs gave but little satisfaction to either side, but henceforth Metternich was the steer statesman of Europe.For the settlement of questions still pending and other difficulties that arose, the pastime congresses were held Aix-la-Chapelle, 1818 Karls bad (a conference of ministers), 1819 Vienna, 1820 Troppau, 1820 Laibach, 1821 and Verona, 1822. The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, at which the monarchs of Austria, Prussia, and Russia were personally present, devoted its attention to the valuation reserve of the relations of the powers to France, though Metternich also emphasized the dangers arising from demagogic agitation, and expressed his suspicions that its pore was in Germany.When, not long after, the Russian councillor, Kotzebue, was assassinated by the student, Sand, Metternich in twenty-four conferences of German ministers at Karlsbad took measures to put an end to the policy-making troubles in Germany. All publications of less than twenty folios were to be subject to censorship governance officers were to be placed at the universities to supervise them in the several states the constitutions providing for diets in accordance with ancient usage were to be retained representative constitutions were to be suppressed.Despi te Englands and Russias opponent, Metternich at the two succeeding congresses successfully carried his proposition to intervene in behalf of the Italian states, which were threatened and hard pressed by the revolution. This measure brought upon Austria the curse of the Italian people. Finally Austria and Russia split on the question of freeing Greece from the Turkish yoke, Austria showing herself to be a decided friend of the Turks. The result was a blow to Metternichs policy. He had dropped from the high-water mark of his influence.Thereafter Russias influence increased. Since the death of Prince Kaunitz (1794) the position of house, court, and state chancellor had been vacant, but in 1821 Metternich was invested with that office. Your deserts have been increased by the uninterrupted zeal, the ability and fearlessness with which, especially in the last two years, you devoted yourself to the preservation of general order and the triumph of law over the disorderly doings of disturb ers of the peace in the states at home and abroad. chthonic the Emperor Ferdinand I after 1835, the direction of affairs, after the emperor himself, was in the hands of a council consisting of the Archduke Ludwig (uncle of the emperor), the state chancellor Metternich, and the court chancellor Kolowrat. Metternichs influence over Austrias internal affairs was less than is generally supposed. Count Hartig, who was well informed, declares (Geschichte der Revolution, p. 19) In matters of internal administration the prince was seldom heard, and was purposely kept forward from them. In this department after 1826, it was the minister Count Kolowrat whose influence was decisive.Many envied Metternich his pre-eminence. The nobleness invariably saw the foreigner in him, and others looked with resentment upon the preference shown foreigners in the state chancery (Friedrich Gentz, Adam Muller, Friedrich Schlegel, Jarke). Grillparzer, director of archives in the Hofkammer, expressed himself very harshly on that point in 1839, though it must be noted that Grillparzer had been highly incensed. In all these matters Kolowrat had the advantage of Metternich. He was even considered capable of granting, or, at least, of preparing a constitution, and was thought to be habituated to do so.As time passed the Metternich system came to be held more and more amenable for everything unpleasant, and its author to be hated and attacked. His own acts show the injustice make the prince in this regard. To quote from his Political Testament To me the war cry freedom has not the esteem of a starting-point, but of an actual goal to be striven for. The word order designates the starting-point. It is only on order that freedom can be based. Without order as a foundation the cry for freedom is nought more than the endeavour of some party or other for an end it has in view.When actually carried out in practice, that cry for freedom will inevitably express itself in tyranny. At all times and in all situations I was a man of order, yet my endeavour was always for true and not for pretended liberty. These words are the key to the sagaciousness and appreciation of Metternichs actions. Two more passages characteristic of the great statesmans temper of judgement may be cited Admirers of the press honour it with the title, representative of public opinion, though everything written in the papers is nothing but the expression of those who write.Will the value of being the expression of public opinion ever be attributed to the publications of a Government, even of a Republican Government? Surely not notwithstanding every obscure journalist claims this value for his own products. What a confusedness of ideas No less just and important a remark is the by-line on state religion The downfall of empires always directly depends upon the dispel of unbelief. For this very reason religious belief, the first of virtues, is the strongest power.It alone curbs attack and makes re sistance irresistible. Religion cannot decline in a nation without causing that nations peculiarity also to decline, and the fall of states does not proceed in arithmetical cash advance according to the law of falling bodies, but rapidly leads to destruction. When on 13 March, 1848, the storm of the revolution raged in Vienna, the state chancellor, who preferred to sacrifice himself alternatively than others, immediately resigned his position. He went to England, Brussels, and Schloss Johannisberg.From the last place he returned to Vienna in 1851, and eight years later died in his palace on the Rennweg at the age of eighty-six. In Europe Napoleon, Metternich, and Bismarck set their stamp upon the nineteenth century. All three of them lived to see their own fall. Metternich remained the longest in the leading position of coachman of Europe. Nothing better characterizes the great statesman than what he repeatedly said, proud and aristocratic as always, to Baron A. von Hubner a ha rdly a(prenominal) weeks before his death I was a rock of order (un rocher dordre).Metternich married three times in 1795 Maria Eleonora, granddaughter of Princess Kaunitz, by whom he had septette children in 1827 Maria Antonia, Baroness von Leykam, by whom he had a son, Richard Klemens and in 1831 Countess Melanie Zichy, by whom he had three children. What was the Metternich system? The Metternich system depended upon policy-making and religious censorship, espionage, and the crushing of revolutionary and nationalist movements. His name became anathema to liberals, and the revolutions of 1848 (which forced him to seek guard in England) were in part directed at his repressive system.Metternich returned to Austria in 1851. Prince metternich set out many different small fires of liberalising revolutions. The system depended upon political and religious censorship, and the suppression of revolutionary and nationalist movements.. This became held for everything unpleasant. Concert o f Europe 1815 In the aftermath of Napoleons defeat, the great powers of Europe came together to define the new political order. For fifteen years, the plans devised at the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) succeeded in reinstating and maintaining Europes monarchies, while suppressing the ambitions of liberals, nationalists, and workers.However, in 1830 and again in 1848 the aspirations of these groups exploded in revolutionary action. All of these manque revolutions were eventually put down, but the message that an expansion of the political eye socket was coming could not be denied. In fact, nationalism drove much of the political change in the two decades following the revolts of 1848. Austria-Hungary was reorganized to depart special status to large minority groups. The states of Italy were brought together in a unified country in 1861.And finally, the German states were unifed under Prussian leaders in 1871. The unification of Italy and Germany were part of a larger pattern. Thro ughout Europe, the power of the state increased at the same time as more and more people were brought into the political process. Between 1848 and 1914, France became a republic again, Britain go closer to democracy, serfdom was abolished in Russia, and Spain and Portugal moved towards modernization of their governments. By 1914, just about all European men had the right to vote.