Klemens Wenzel von Metternich

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Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg-Beilstein (May 15, 1773 – June 11, 1859) was an Austrian politician, statesman, and one of the most important diplomats of his era. He was a major figure on the negotiations leading to 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.

Contents 1 Early life 1.1 Minister 1.2 Post-Napoleonic Europe 1.3 Resignation 2 Legacy 3 Kissinger's studies 4 Notes 5 See also 6 Bibliography 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Metternich was born in Coblenz, May 15, 1773. His father, Count Franz George Karl von Metternich-Winneburge zu Beilstein, was a diplomat who had passed from the service of the archbishop-elector of Trier to that of the court of Vienna; his mother was Countess Maria Beatrice Aloisia von Kagenegg.

At the time of his 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 which flourished in the small German courts that lay within the sphere of influence of France during the ancient regime.

In 1788 he went to 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 College of Counts to act as their Master of the Ceremonies at the coronation of the Emperor Leopold II at Frankfurt, a function which he again performed at the coronation of Francis II in 1792. He found employment in the chancery of the Austrian minister to the Government of the Netherlands.

After a long stay in England, Metternich went to Vienna; on September 27, 1795 he married the Countess Eleonore von Kaunitz, a grand-daughter of the notable 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 Rastadt, where he remained till 1799. In January 1801 he was appointed Austrian envoy to the elector of Saxony, where he came in touch with many Russian and Polish families of importance. In November 1803 he was appointed as ambassador to Berlin. He had made himself personally so agreeable to the French envoy that Napoleon requested that he be sent to Paris, where he took up his residence as ambassador in Aug. 1806. His influence in European politics grew rapidly henceforward. He integrated himself everywhere at the French Court and in society. In 1809, however, war broke out between France and Austria. He was arrested as a reprisal for the action of the Austrian Government in interning two members of the French embassy in Hungary, and in June, on Napoleon's capture of Vienna, he was conducted there under military guard. In July he was exchanged for the French diplomats. On July 8, he succeded Johann Philip Standion as minister of State. He was absent at the peace conference at Altenburg when the emperor signed the Treaty of Schonbrunn on Oct. 14, 1809, although he had been appointed Foreign Minister on October 8.

[edit] Minister

The position of Austria, reduced as she was by the Treaty of Schonbrunn to the level of a second-rate power, was one of great difficulty and danger, and of this Metternich was fully conscious. His first ambition was to gain time, and to separate Napoleon from the tsar. The power that seemed to suite him best was Austria's late enemy, although he was determined not to lose his freedom of action by any too great concessions. Napoleon's request for the hand of the Archduchess Marie Louis fitted Metternich's plans admirably. He accompanied her to Paris on March 13, 1810. The definite concessions which he established for Austria were quite small. Yet Metternich had restored Austria's freedom to move. Metternich hurried back to Vienna on Oct. 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 which France was now obliged to offer, he at once informed Russia that Austria's troops would only act on the defensive, and held out a prospect of a renewal of the old alliance of the conservative powers. When Napoleon suffered a catastrophe in Russia, Metternich extracted Austria from her alliance and 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 was now only interested in taking complete control of Austria and Russia stating, "We shall meet in Vienna." After this it was necessary to protect Austria. In the war that followed, he was chiefly anxious to ensure that the balance of power did not swing too far, nor strengthen overmuch either Russia or 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 consecrating the principle of concerted action of the Great Powers in the affairs of international interest, which after Napoleon's fall governed the European system.

[edit] Post-Napoleonic Europe

On April 10, Metternich arrived in Paris, ten days after its occupation by the allies. He was now at the height of his reputation. On Oct. 20, 1813, he had been created a Prince of the Austrian Empire. At the same time, the countship of Daruvar was bestowed on him. On May 30, Metternich set his signature to the Treaty of Paris. On July 18, he was back in Vienna, where the great congress was to meet in the autumn. At the congress Metternich's charm of manner and great social gifts gave him much personal influence; the ease and versatility with which he handled intricate diplomatic questions, too, excited admiration. Whatever the real wisdom of the decisions, he reached a settlement in Germany and Italy precisely in accordance with his wishes and emerged from the congress wholly content with his work. He was destined to spend much of the remainder of his life in an attempt to stabilize and make permanent the situation which he had 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 the stability of Europe by preventing revolutionary movements. The revolutions of the 1830s seemed to threaten the Metternich's system, yet gave it, at least, a temporary new lease of life. The Berlin convention of 1833 was a fresh triumph for Metternich's diplomacy, yet it was the last conspicuous intervention in the general affairs in Europe. His system had already passed away. In domestic affairs Metternich was not, indeed, the whole-hearted reactionary for which he is often taken. He was too intelligent not to see the abuses inherent in the Austrian governmental system, and would have gladly remedied some of them. He had 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 percent 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 was not, indeed, primarily interested in internal policy.

[edit] Resignation

The Liberal Revolutions of 1848 marked the end of his career. The Vienna mob stood thundering at the door of his cabinet demanding his resignation. The resignation was accepted by the emperor on March 18, 1848. Metternich and his family left for England. There he lived a great retirement, at Brighton and London, until Oct. 1849, when he went to Brussels. In May 1851 he went to his estate of Johannesberg; in September he returned to Vienna. He died in Vienna on June 11, 1859.

[edit] Legacy

Probably no statesman has, in his own day, been more beslavered with praise and bespattered with abuse than Metternich. By one side he was reverenced as the infallible oracle of diplomatic inspiration, by the other he was loathed and despised as the very incarnation of the spirit of obscurantism and oppression. The victories of democracy 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 that of a system in which they could recognize nothing but a senseless opposition. Reaction against this view found its fullest expression in the work of Srbik. Of the technique of diplomacy Metternich was a master. His dispatches are models of diplomatic style. They are, indeed, sententious, over-elaborate and excessively lengthy, yet their phrase-making was often the result of astute calculation.

[edit] 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 laboriously. He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation, which was 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, praising the role of Metternich in holding together the crumbling Austrian Empire.

[edit] Notes

• Note regarding personal names: Fürst is a title, translated as Prince, not a first or middle name. The female form is Fürstin.
• There is a sparkling wine named after him, Fürst von Metternich Riesling Sekt.

[edit] See also

• Age of Metternich

[edit] Bibliography

• Palmer, A., Metternich: Councillor of Europe. London: Orion, 1997 ed.
• Kissinger, H., "A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of the Peace 1812-1822". London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 15, Metternich, 1989

[edit] External links

1. Metternich on censorship
2. Fürst von Metternich sparkling wine

1. Castle Kynžvart (Königswart) in Western Bohemia - Metternich's residence with collections, now open to the public