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Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein (15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859), known as Klemens von Metternich (German: [ˈkleːmens fɔn ˈmɛtɐniç]) or Prince Metternich, was a conservative Austrian statesman and diplomat who was at the center of the European balance of power known as the Concert of Europe for ...
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- Franz Georg Karl, Count of Metternich-Winneburg, Countess Beatrix von Kageneck
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Klemens von Metternich (born May 15, 1773, Coblenz, Archbishopric of Trier [Germany]—died June 11, 1859, Vienna, Austria) Austrian statesman, minister of foreign affairs (1809–48), and a champion of conservatism, who helped form the victorious alliance against Napoleon I and who restored Austria as a leading European power, hosting the Congress of ...
Metternich, the descendant of an old Rhenish noble family, was the son of Franz Georg Karl, Graf (count) von Metternich-Winneburg and the Gräfin (countess) Beatrix Kagenegg. His father was then the Austrian envoy to the Rhenish principalities of the empire, and Metternich spent his youth in the Rhine-Moselle region, for which he retained a lifelong affection.
In 1788 he entered the University of Strasbourg, where he studied diplomacy, but the spread of the French Revolution prompted him to leave Strasbourg in 1790 and enter the University of Mainz. Before the French Revolutionary troops entered Mainz, he went to Brussels in the Austrian Netherlands, where his father was then chief minister. In 1794 he undertook a diplomatic mission to England, where he published a pamphlet calling for a general arming of the German people, but in October he rejoined his father, who had in the meantime fled to Vienna as the French invaded the Netherlands. In Vienna he occupied himself with natural, scientific, and medical studies, in which he always kept a lively interest and which he later did much to encourage.
In 1806 Metternich served as Austrian minister to France. In contact with Napoleon’s sister Caroline Murat and other ladies of Parisian society, he won a reputation for licentiousness. Nevertheless, from those ladies and from his relations with the foreign minister Talleyrand and with the Russian envoy, he obtained excellent reports on the state of affairs in France. Although Metternich’s successes in the negotiations leading up to the Franco-Austrian Treaty of Fontainebleau were insignificant, he used his time to acquire a deep insight into the emperor Napoleon I’s character. Yet he overestimated the impact of the Spanish rising of 1808 on the Napoleonic system, and his optimistic reports did much to induce Austria to undertake the disastrous war of 1809 against France. After the Battle of Wagram, he tried to obtain favourable terms in the peace negotiations but was rebuffed by Napoleon.
On October 8, 1809, the emperor Francis (at that time Francis I of Austria but no longer Holy Roman emperor) appointed Metternich minister of foreign affairs. Six days later the oppressive Treaty of Schönbrunn was signed with France. Austria was now in urgent need of a respite, which Metternich obtained by forming the project of a marriage between the archduchess Marie-Louise, a daughter of Francis I, and Napoleon, whose vanity Metternich cleverly exploited. It is not clear how far he expected that the marriage would restrain Napoleon from further campaigns of conquest, but at least he achieved a relationship between France and Austria loose enough to preserve Austria’s freedom of action: Austria neither joined the Confederation of the Rhine, a league of German princes under Napoleon’s protection, nor became one of the client states of the Napoleonic system. Utterly exhausted and debt-ridden, Austria could hardly have resisted any further demands of Napoleon, but it was then no longer the main object of Napoleon’s hostility.
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As early as 1811, in order to promote Austria’s internal development, Metternich wanted the state to be reorganized on federal lines instead of continuing under the centralized system that the emperor Joseph II had imposed. Yet Metternich could never overcome the objections of his strictly absolutist emperor. At the same time, the enthusiasm for arming the nation and for a German national rising against Napoleon, which he had felt as late as 1809, began to be superseded by a firm dislike for all popular movements. Agreeing with the emperor on that, he now came to regard those manifestations as a menace to the multinational Habsburg state. He became the strictest exponent of the doctrine of the balance of power in Europe—a doctrine instilled in him originally by Koch, latterly by his diplomat friend Gentz.
When Napoleon launched his invasion of Russia in 1812, Metternich obtained the status of an independent contingent for the Austrian forces under Karl, Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, that accompanied the French army. The disaster that befell Napoleon’s army came as a surprise to Metternich. On January 30, 1813, Schwarzenberg concluded an indefinite armistice with the Russians. But in view of the inadequacy of Austria’s armaments, Metternich could not make up his mind to change over to war on Russia’s side against Napoleon. Resisting all ill-considered projects, in particular those of the archduke John (who was put under house arrest for planning a premature anti-French rising in the Alps), Metternich firmly adhered to neutrality while Austria secretly rearmed. He even drew Saxony into the neutral camp for a time. When, later in 1813, Saxony’s return to the French side and Napoleon’s victory over the Russians and Prussians at Bautzen shook Metternich’s will to make war and stiffened Napoleon’s attitude, Metternich mediated an armistice between France, Russia, and Prussia. Even so, in the subsequent Treaty of Reichenbach, June 24, 1813, between Austria, Prussia, and Russia, Metternich undertook to bring Austria into the war against France if Napoleon rejected the peace terms that he was offering.
Klemens, prince von Metternich, (born May 15, 1773, Coblenz, archbishopric of Trier—died June 11, 1859, Vienna, Austria), Austrian statesman. He served in the diplomatic service as Austrian minister in Saxony (1801–03), Berlin (1803–05), and Paris (1806–09).
Klemens von Metternich, or Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein, was an Austrian diplomat who was the Austrian Empire's foreign minister (1809–1848) and chancellor (1821–1848). He is remembered for his role in the Napoleonic Wars and for hosting the ‘Congress of Vienna’ in 1814–1815.
Klemens von Metternich - Congress of Vienna, Diplomacy, Balance of Power: The Congress of Vienna (September 1814–June 1815) was the climax of Metternich’s work of reconstruction. The very fact that it was held in Vienna was in itself a great success for him.
A biography of the Austrian politician and diplomat who suppressed nationalistic and democratic trends in Central Europe and kept Europe at peace for a century. Learn about his life, career, views, and role in the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna.
Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg-Beilstein (May 15, 1773 – June 11, 1859) was an Austrian politician and statesman and perhaps the most important diplomat of his era. He was a major figure in the negotiations leading to the Congress and Treaty of Vienna and is considered both a paradigm of foreign policy ...
