Klemens Wenzel von Metternich
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Template:Confusing Image:Metternich.JPG Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneberg-Beilstein (May 15, 1773 – June 11, 1859) (sometimes rendered in English as Prince Klemens Metternich, or in some books, Clement Wenceslaus von Metternich) was an Austrian politician and statesman and perhaps the most important diplomat of his era.
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Biography
Name
The name Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar von Metternich-Winneberg-Beilstein reflects the impressive social aspirations that defined the lives of both Metternich and his father. "Klemens" and "Wencelas" refer to the elector of Trier under whom Metternich's father served, while "Lothar" refers to a former ruler of that same place of Metternich's house. "Winneberg" and "Beilstein" both refer to ancient keeps in the possession of the family.
Early life
Metternich was born in Coblenz into a Westphalian noble family; he was the son of Franz Georg Karl von Metternich in the Archbishopric of Trier. At the time, the Rhine region was deeply traditional but lacked any nationalist feeling or strictly ideological agenda. The experience of living there may have deeply affected Metternich's politics, and his origins in the Rhineland later caused problems for him amongst his Austrian peers.
In 1790, his father introducted him to the heir to Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor's throne. In 1792, Metternich fled the French invasion. One of his earliest diplomatic coups was to marry the granddaughter of the powerful and wealthy Austrian chancellor Count Wenzel von Kaunitz in 1795. Metternich's diplomatic skills soon won him posts as ambassador to Berlin, then in 1806 to Paris. He is considered the first practitioner of realpolitik.
Minister
Following Austria's disastrous defeat by Napoleon in 1809, Metternich was made Austria's Foreign Minister, replacing Johann Philipp von Stadion.
Following Napoleon's defeat in Russia in 1812, Metternich turned to a policy of neutrality and attempted to mediate a peace between Napoleon and his Russian and Prussian enemies. In June 1813, he famously met with Napoleon at Dresden, and by his own account, he afterwards told the intransigent Emperor that he was lost. Soon after, mediation having failed, Metternich brought Austria into the war against France. Metternich perhaps was now at the height of his juvenile powers, stating "But when will this condition of things cease, in which defeat and victory are alike reasons for continuing these dismal wars? If victorious, you insist upon the fruits of your victory; if defeated, you are determined to rise again." After a series of unsuccessful negotiations that Metternich described as "…the strangest farrago of heterogeneous subjects, characterized now by extreme friendliness, now by the most violent outbursts of fury" the Emperor of the French left with the words "We shall meet in Vienna."
As the war approached its end in the spring of 1814, Metternich quickly concluded that no peace with Napoleon was possible and abandoned his ideas of a Bonapartist regency under Marie Louise. He then lent his support to a Bourbon restoration, which brought him closer to Castlereagh, the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and Richard Le Poer Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty. At this time, Francis I of Austria elevated Metternich from the rank of count to that of prince.
Post-Napoleonic Europe
Metternich was a principal negotiator and dominant member at the Congress of Vienna. He also became one of the main supporters of legitimacy and intervention. During this period, Metternich developed a bitter personal enmity with Tsar Alexander I of Russia, whose Polish plans Metternich deeply feared and who competed with the womanizing Metternich for the affections of the beautiful Wilhelmina von Sagan. Metternich’s attempts to form a united front with Viscount Castlereagh and Hardenberg, the Prussian chancellor, to oppose Alexander's plans for a constitutional Kingdom of Poland under his own rule, came to nothing due to Prussia’s unwillingness to stand up to Alexander. Metternich then shocked the Prussians by signing an alliance with Castlereagh and Talleyrand, the French envoy, on January 3, 1815, to prevent Prussian annexation of Saxony, which was to be Prussia’s compensation for giving up Polish land to Alexander. This however may safely be attributed to the skillfulness of Talleyrand as a diplomat, matched only by Metternich himself. While this was successful in saving the King of Saxony, northern areas of the kingdom were ceded in perpetuity to Prussia and Alexander managed to get most of what he wanted in Poland — Austria never regained the land gained in the third partition of Poland.
At the same time, Metternich worked hard in negotiations with Prussia, Hanover, Bavaria, and Württemberg to resolve the organization of Germany, and the Germanic Confederation (Deutscher Bund) that resulted bore much of the stamp of Metternich’s ideas and was used like many other organisations of the period by Metternich as another means to achieving his ends.
Metternich’s most notable achievement in the years that followed the Congress was his conversion of the Tsar, who had seen himself as a protector of liberalism, to the protection of the old order, which culminated by the Tsar’s decision at the Congress of Troppau in 1820, when the Tsar assented to Metternich’s suppression of a Neapolitan rebellion and refused to aid Greek rebels against the Ottoman Empire. This is most aptly demonstrated by Metternich’s subversion of the Holy Alliance from an institution advocating Christian ideals in politics (which was described in 1815 variously as a "loud-sounding nothing" by Metternich and "a piece of sublime mysticism and nonsense" by Castlereagh) to an anti-revolutionary institution used as a bastion of conservatism.
Over the succeeding decades, Metternich came to be seen as a reactionary protector of the rights of Kings and Emperors in this era of rising democratic sentiment. He had a free hand in conducting the Austrian Empire’s foreign affairs for some 30 years, especially after Emperor Francis's death in 1835, when his feeble-minded son Ferdinand took the throne. However, a number of vital committee's were run away from Metternich’s control, and a number of matters of state business within the confines of domestic affairs were outside of Metternich’s reach; Francis I and Ferdinand I both were adamant about their absolute rights and were known to rebuff Metternich’s advances, while figures such as the court chancellor Count Kolowrat who mistrusted Metternich’s politics and birth took office in positions to oppose Metternich’s power.
Resignation
The Revolutions of 1848, however, marked the end of his rule. Mobs in Vienna demanded that he resign, and he did so on March 13. Metternich and his third wife had to flee to England with the help of the Rothschild Family and it is in this period that Metternich met his future equivalent, a young Otto von Bismarck. They returned three years later, and Metternich, although never resuming office, became a close personal advisor to Emperor Franz Joseph. He died in Vienna.
Metternich's conservative views regarding the nature of the state influenced the outcome of the Congress of Vienna. He believed that since the people have become acquainted with the old institutions, national revolutions such as those in France and Greece are illegitimate. The Legitimacy Principle played a vital role in the reinstallation of ancient states such as the Papal States in Italy, and the resurgence of the Bourbon monarchy in France under Louis XVIII. Through the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819, Metternich introduced policing in universities to keep a watch on the activities of professors and students, whom he held responsible for the spread of radical liberal ideas.
Before his resignation, Metternich revealed seemingly liberal positions on a number of issues of state; with regards to censorship, Metternich is known to have said "It is useless to close the gates against ideas. They overleap them." and yet supported the concept in 1808 in his memoirs. These opinions seem to stem from pragmatism rather than ideology.[1]
Considered an unreliable liar and an amatory dilettante by many of his contemporaries, much like his father, Metternich has nevertheless earned the admiration of succeeding generations for his deft management of foreign policy. His reactionary domestic policies remain controversial, much like those of Henry Kissinger, who studied Metternich's work.
Notes
- There is a sparkling wine named after him, Fürst von Metternich Riesling Sekt.
Bibliography
- Palmer, A., Metternich: Councillor of Europe. London : Orion, 1997 ed.
- Kissenger, H., "A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of the Peace 1812-1822". London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1999 ed.
External links
- Metternich on censorship
- Fürst von Metternich sparkling wine
- Reaction and Regeneration: Prince Klemens Von Metternich a National History Day-winning documentary on Metternichbg:Клеменс фон Метерних
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