Everything about Clemens Von Metternich totally explained
Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (
May 15,
1773 –
June 11,
1859) was a
German-
Austrian
politician and statesman, and one of the most important
diplomats of his era. He was a major figure in the negotiations leading to and during the
Congress of Vienna and is considered both a paradigm of foreign policy management and a major figure on the development of diplomacy. He was the prime practitioner of 19th century diplomatic realism, deeply rooted on the
balance of power postulates. Metternich for generations was castigated as a blind reactionary. After
World War II some historians pointed out that one of the main reasons for his opposition to giving power to the people was his apprehension that eventually it would lead to the political dominance of German nationalism.
Early life
Metternich was born in
Koblenz. His father, Count Franz George Karl von Metternich-Winneburge zu Beilstein, was a diplomat who had passed from the service of the
Archbishopric of Trier to that of the court of
Vienna. His mother was Countess Maria Beatrice Aloisia
von Kagenegg.
At the time of Metternich's birth, and for some time after that, his father was Austrian ambassador to the courts of the three Rhenish electors, and the boy was at first brought up under the influence of the tone and ideas flourishing in the small German courts that lay within the French sphere of influence under the
Ancien Regime.
In 1788, Metternich attended the
University of Strasbourg, but the outbreak of the
French Revolution caused him to leave after two years. In 1790, he was deputed by the Catholic bench of the
Westphalian Circle to act as their Master of the Ceremonies at the coronation of the new Emperor
Leopold II at
Frankfurt, a function he repeated at the coronation of
Francis II in 1792. He then found employment in the Chancery of the Austrian minister to the Government of the
Austrian Netherlands
After a long stay in England, Metternich moved to Vienna. On
September 27,
1795 he married the Countess Eleonore von Kaunitz, a granddaughter of a former
Austrian chancellor. This alliance introduced him into the most exalted circles of Viennese society. In December, 1797, he was chosen by the Westphalian Counts as their representative to the Congress of
Rastatt, where he remained until 1799. In January, 1801, he was appointed Austrian envoy to the
Elector of Saxony, where he acquired contacts with many Russian and Polish families of importance. In November, 1803, he was appointed
Ambassador to
Berlin.
In Berlin, Metternich made himself so agreeable to the French envoy that Napoleon requested that he be sent to Paris, where he took up residence as Ambassador in August of 1806. His influence in European politics grew rapidly, and he ingratiated himself everywhere at the French Court and in society. However, war broke out between France and Austria in 1809. Metternich was arrested in reprisal for the internment in Hungary of two members of the French embassy. Upon Napoleon's capture of Vienna, he was conducted to the Austrian capital under military guard and was exchanged for the French diplomats.
On
July 8, Metternich succeeded
Johann Philip Standion as Minister of State. He was absent at the peace conference at
Altenburg when the Emperor signed the
Treaty of Schönbrunn on
October 14,
1809, although he'd been appointed
Foreign Minister on
October 8.
Minister
Metternich was fully conscious that the position of Austria, reduced to the level of a second-rate power by the
Treaty of Schönbrunn, was one of great difficulty and danger. His first mission was to gain time and separate
Napoleon from the Russian Tsar. The power that seemed to attract him was France, Austria's late enemy, although he was determined not to lose his freedom of action by making great concessions.
Napoleon's request for the hand of
Archduchess Marie Louise fitted Metternich's plans admirably, and he accompanied the princess to Paris on
March 13,
1810. The concessions that he wrung for Austria were quite small, but Metternich had managed to restore Austria's freedom to move. Metternich hurried back to Vienna on
October 10, just in time to stop the pro-Russian party at the Austrian court from compromising this liberty by concluding an alliance with Russia and to win over the Emperor for his policy of armed abstention.
With the Franco-Russian War approaching, this policy became increasingly difficult to maintain in its entirety. Although Metternich concluded an alliance with Napoleon on
March 14,
1813, promising military assistance in return for concessions that France was now obliged to offer, he at once informed Russia that Austria's troops would act only on the defensive and held out the prospect of a renewal of the old alliance of the conservative powers. When Napoleon suffered a catastrophe in Russia, Metternich extracted Austria from his alliance, reverted to neutrality, and soon maneuvered his country into the position of arbiter of Europe. When Metternich visited Napoleon at Dresden on
June 26, he still served as an impartial mediator in an attempt to end the war and re-establish good relations between the three countries. Napoleon, however, was now interested only in taking complete control of Austria and Russia and stated, "We shall meet in Vienna."
After this meeting, Metternich understood that it was necessary to protect Austria. In the war that followed, he was chiefly anxious to ensure that the balance of power didn't swing too far in any direction, strengthening neither Russia nor Prussia. The course of events forced him, against his wishes, to agree to the restoration of the
Bourbons, but he was successful in ensuring the creation of a Federation of German states. Metternich also tempered the fear of a Russian dictatorship by promoting the principle of concerted action by the Great Powers/Great Alliance (Great Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia) according to international interests. This principle, after Napoleon's fall, governed the European political system.
Peace of Paris
Young, vain and extremely self-assured, Metternich was now at the height of his reputation. In October of 1813, he'd been created a Prince of the Austrian Empire and Count of
Daruvar. On
May 30, 1814, Metternich, as the Austrian Foreign Minister, set his signature to the
Treaty of Paris. In mid July, 1814, he returned to Vienna, where the
Congress of Vienna (October, 1814 - November, 1815) was to meet in the fall to redraw the map of Europe.
The Congress of Vienna
As the Napoleonic Wars wound down, the victors gathered in Austria to make peace. The Great Alliance had at hand two major tasks; to make peace with France and restore order and stability to the continent. As the host, Prince Metternich's charm and social gifts gave him much personal influence. The ease and versatility with which he handled intricate diplomatic questions elicited admiration. The Alliance had intended to make its major decisions behind closed doors but he counseled compromise and mutual concession and included France in the negotiations. A Napoleonic creation, the Duchy of Warsaw, was implimented to solve the top priority of the Congress; the division of Poland. The Austrian Netherlands (what is now Belgium) was surrendered by Austria to the newly independent Kingdom of Holland. Three eastern cantons-Eupen, Malmedy, and St. Vith- were ceded to Prussia. Austria received the Italian provinces of Lombardy and Venetia as settlement. Metternich was the architect of what he hoped would be an enduring European peace and for the next 30 years, he'd dominate foreign policy in Europe. To some historians, the self-styled "Coachman of Europe" had initiated modern World history. Whatever the real wisdom of the decisions, he reached settlements regarding Germany, Poland, Italy, and the Austrian Netherlands that were precisely in accordance with his wishes and emerged from the Congress with the political equilibrium he'd desired.
Metternich was destined to spend much of the remainder of his life in an attempt to stabilize and make permanent the situation that he'd so largely helped to create. The key-note of his policy henceforward was his attempt to use the European concert as an instrument for ensuring stability by preventing revolutionary movements. The revolutions of the 1830s seemed to threaten Metternich's system, yet gave it, at least, a temporary new lease on life. The
Berlin Convention of 1833 was a fresh triumph for Metternich's diplomacy but also his last conspicuous intervention in the general affairs of Europe.
In domestic affairs, Metternich wasn't the whole-hearted reactionary for which he's often taken. He was too intelligent not to see the abuses inherent in the Austrian governmental system and would gladly have remedied some of them, since he'd worked for equal rights and opportunities for the various peoples in the Austrian Empire. Metternich even proposed the formation of a
parliament in which all the ethnic groups in the empire could be represented with seats determined by the group's percentage of the state's population. The real author of the incredibly reactionary and aggressive regime in Austria in the opening half of the 19th century was Emperor
Francis I. Metternich had declared himself more than once, and possibly believed himself, to be a
liberal. In any case, he lacked the ability to institute the reforms he felt necessary. Although for many years chancellor of Austria, he wasn't primarily interested in internal policy.
Resignation
The
Liberal Revolutions of 1848 marked the end of Metternich's career. The Vienna mob stood thundering at the door of his cabinet demanding his resignation. This resignation was accepted by the emperor on
March 18,
1848, after which Metternich and his family left for England. There he lived in retirement, at Brighton and London, until October, 1849, when he moved to Brussels. In May, 1851, he traveled to his estate of Johannesberg; in September he returned to Vienna. He died in Vienna on
June 11,
1859.
Legacy
Probably no statesman in his own day was as praised and spattered with abuse as Metternich. In one view, he was revered as the infallible oracle of diplomatic inspiration; in another, he was loathed and despised as the very incarnation of the spirit of obscurantism and oppression. The victories of
democracy have brought the latter view into fashion, and to the liberal historians of the latter part of the 19th century, the name
Metternich was synonymous with a system in which they could recognize nothing but senseless opposition. Reaction against this view found its fullest expression in the work of
Heinrich Ritter von Srbik. Of the techniques of diplomacy, for example, Metternich was a master; his dispatches were models of diplomatic style. They were certainly sententious, over-elaborate, and excessively lengthy, but their phrase-making was often the result of astute calculation.
Kissinger's studies
Metternich has earned the admiration of succeeding generations for his brilliant management of foreign policy.
Henry Kissinger idolized Metternich, and studied him closely. He wrote his
Harvard University Ph.D. dissertation, later published in 1957 under the title
A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of the Peace 1812-1822, on the European negotiations for achieving a balance of power after
Waterloo and praised Metternich's role in holding together the crumbling
Austrian Empire. It should be noted that Kissinger's work has generated controversy in academic circles by the likes of historian
Paul W. Schroeder, and others, drawing criticism for its absence of footnotes, among other issues.
Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich Coin
The prince has left such a legacy behind, that he was the main motive of one of the most famous silver collectors coins: the 20 euro
Biedermeier Period commemorative coin, minted in
June 11 2003. The reverse of the coin shows his portrait with the map of Europe as redrawn at the Congress of Vienna after the defeat of
Napoleon Bonaparte.
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