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HARDENBERG, KARL AUGUST VON, PRINCE (...

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 942 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HARDENBERG, KARL See also:AUGUST VON, See also:PRINCE (1750-1822) , Prussian statesman, was See also:born at Essenroda in See also:Hanover on the 31st of May 1750. After studying at See also:Leipzig and See also:Gottingen he entered the Hanoverian See also:civil service in 1770 as councillor of the See also:board of domains (Kammerrat) ; but, finding his See also:advancement slow, he set out—on the See also:advice of See also:King See also:George III: on a course of travels, spending some See also:time at See also:Wetzlar, See also:Regensburg (where he studied the mechanism of the Imperial See also:government), See also:Vienna and See also:Berlin. He also visited See also:France, See also:Holland and See also:England, where he was kindly received by the king. On his return he married, by his See also:father's See also:desire, the countess See also:Reventlow. In 1778 he was raised to the See also:rank of privy councillor and created a See also:count. He now again went to England, in the See also:hope of obtaining the See also:post of Hanoverian See also:envoy in See also:London; but, his wife becoming entangled in an amour with the prince of See also:Wales, so See also:great a See also:scandal was created that he was forced to leave the Hanoverian service. In 1782 he entered that of the See also:duke of See also:Brunswick, and as See also:president of the board of domains displayed a zeal for reform, in the manner approved by the enlightened despots of the See also:century, that rendered him very unpopular with the orthodox See also:clergy and the conservative estates. In Brunswick, too, his position was in the end made untenable by the conduct of his wife, whom he now divorced; he himself, shortly after-wards, marrying a divorced woman. Fortunately for him, this coincided with the lapsing of the principalities of See also:Ansbach and See also:Bayreuth to See also:Prussia, owing to the resignation of the last See also:margrave, See also:Charles See also:Alexander, in 1791. Hardenberg, who happened to be in Berlin at the time, was on the recommendation of See also:Herzberg appointed See also:administrator of the principalities (1792). The position, owing to the singular overlapping of territorial claims in the old See also:Empire, was one of considerable delicacy, and Harden-See also:berg filled it with great skill, doing much to reform traditional anomalies and to develop the See also:country, and at the same time labouring to expand the See also:influence of Prussia in See also:South See also:Germany. After the outbreak of the revolutionary See also:wars his See also:diplomatic ability led to his See also:appointment as Prussian envoy, with a roving See also:commission to visit the Rhenish courts and win them over to Prussia's views; and ultimately, when the See also:necessity for making See also:peace with the See also:French See also:Republic had been recognized, he was appointed to succeed Count See also:Goltz as Prussian plenipotentiary at See also:Basel (See also:February 28, 1795), where he signed the treaty of peace.

In 1797, on the See also:

accession of King See also:Frederick See also:William III., Hardenberg was summoned to Berlin, where he received an important position in the See also:cabinet and was appointed See also:chief of the departments of See also:Magdeburg and See also:Halberstadt, for See also:Westphalia, and for the principality of See also:Neuchatel. In 1793 Hardenberg had struck up a friendship with Count See also:Haugwitz, the influential See also:minister for See also:foreign affairs, and when in 1803 the latter went away on leave (August-See also:October) he appointed Hardenberg his locum tenens. It was a See also:critical See also:period. See also:Napoleon had just occupied Hanover, and Haugwitz had urged upon the king the necessity for strong See also:measures and the expediency of a See also:Russian See also:alliance; During his See also:absence, however, the king's irresolution continued; he clung to the policy of See also:neutrality which had so far seemed to have served Prussia so well; and Hardenberg contented himself with adapting himself to the royal will. By the time Haugwitz returned, the unyielding attitude of Napoleon had caused the king to make advances to See also:Russia; but the mutual declarations of the 3rd and 25th of May 1804 only pledged the two See also:powers to take up arms in the event of a French attack upon Prussia or of further aggressions in See also:North Germany. Finally, Haugwitz, unable to persuade the cabinet to a more vigorous policy, resigned, and on the 14th of See also:April 1804 Hardenberg succeeded him as foreign minister. If there was to be See also:war, Hardenberg would have preferred the French alliance, which was the See also:price Napoleon demanded for the cession of Hanover to Prussia; for the Eastern powers would scarcely have conceded, of their See also:free will, so great an See also:augmentation of Prussian See also:power. But he still hoped to gain the coveted See also:prize by See also:diplomacy, backed by the veiled See also:threat of an armed neutrality. Then occurred Napoleon's contemptuous violation of Prussian territory by marching three French See also:corps through Ansbach; King Frederick William's See also:pride overcame his weakness, and on the 3rd of See also:November he signed with the See also:tsar Alexander the terms of an See also:ultimatum to be laid before the French See also:emperor. Haugwitz was despatched to Vienna with the document; but before he arrived the See also:battle of See also:Austerlitz had been fought, and the Prussian plenipotentiary had to make the best terms he could with the conqueror. Prussia, indeed, by the treaty signed at Schonbrunn on the 15th of See also:December 1805, received Hanover, but in return for all her territories in South Germany. One See also:condition of the arrangement was the retirement of Hardenberg, whom Napoleon disliked.

He was again foreign minister for a few months after the crisis of 1806 (April-See also:

July 1807); but Napoleon's resentment was implacable, and one of the conditions of the terms granted to Prussia by the treaty of See also:Tilsit was Hardenberg's dismissal. After the enforced retirement of See also:Stein in 1810 and the unsatisfactory interlude of the feeble See also:Altenstein See also:ministry, Hardenberg was again summoned to Berlin, this time as See also:chancellor (See also:June 6, 181o). The See also:campaign of See also:Jena and its consequences had had a profound effect upon him; and in his mind the traditions of the old diplomacy had given See also:place to the new sentiment of See also:nationality characteristic of the coming See also:age, which in him found expression in a passionate desire to restore the position of Prussia and crush her oppressors. During his retirement at See also:Riga he had worked out an elaborate See also:plan for reconstructing the See also:monarchy on Liberal lines; and when he came into power, though the circumstances of the time did not admit of his pursuing an See also:independent foreign policy, he steadily prepared for the struggle with France by carrying out Stein's far-reaching schemes of social and See also:political reorganization. The military See also:system was completely reformed, See also:serfdom was abolished, municipal institutions were fostered, the civil service was thrown open to all classes, and great See also:attention was devoted to the educational needs of every See also:section of the community. When at last the time came to put these reforms to the test, after the See also:Moscow campaign of 1812, it was Hardenberg who, supported by the influence of the See also:noble See also:Queen See also:Louise, determined Frederick William to take See also:advantage of See also:General Yorck's loyal disloyalty and declare against France. He was rightly regarded by See also:German patriots as the statesman wh6 had done most to encourage the spirit of See also:national See also:independence; and immediately after he had signed the first peace of See also:Paris he was raised to the rank of prince (June 3, 1814) in recognition of the See also:part he had played in the War of Liberation. Hardenberg now had an assured position in that See also:close See also:corporation df sovereigns and statesmen by whom See also:Europe, during the next few years, was to be governed. He accompanied the allied sovereigns to England, and at the See also:congress of Vienna (1814-1815) was the chief plenipotentiary of Prussia. But from this time the See also:zenith of his influence, if not of his fame, was passed. In diplomacy he was no match for Metternich, whose influence soon overshadowed his own in the See also:councils of Europe, of Germany, and ultimately even of Prussia itself. At Vienna, in spite of the powerful backing of Alexander of Russia, he failed to secure the See also:annexation of the whole of See also:Saxony to Prussia; at Paris, after See also:Waterloo, he failed to carry through his views as to the further dismemberment of France; he had weakly allowed Metternich to forestall him in making terms with the states of the See also:Confederation of the See also:Rhine, which secured to See also:Austria the preponderance in the German federal See also:diet; on the See also:eve of the See also:conference of See also:Carlsbad (1819) he signed a See also:convention with Metternich, by which—to quote the historian See also:Treitschke—" like a penitent sinner, without any formal quid See also:pro quo, the monarchy of Frederick the Great yielded to a foreign power a See also:voice in her See also:internal affairs.

" At the congresses of See also:

Aix-la-Chapelle, See also:Troppau, See also:Laibach and See also:Verona the voice of Hardenberg was but an See also:echo of that of Metternich. The cause See also:lay partly in the difficult circumstances of theHARDING, C. loosely-knit Prussian monarchy, but partly in Hardenberg's See also:character, which, never well balanced, had deteriorated with age. He continued amiable, charming and enlightened as ever; but the excesses which had been pardonable in a See also:young diplomatist were a scandal in an elderly chancellor, and could not but weaken his influence with so pious a Landesvaler as Frederick William III. To overcome the king's terror of Liberal experiments would have needed all the powers of an adviser at once See also:wise and in character wholly trustworthy. Hardenberg was wise enough; he saw the necessity for constitutional reform; but he clung with almost senile tenacity to the sweets of See also:office, and when the See also:tide turned strongly against Liberalism he allowed himself to See also:drift with it. In the privacy of royal commissions he continued to elaborate schemes for constitutions that never saw the See also:light; but Germany, disillusioned, saw only the faithful henchman of Metternich, an See also:accomplice in the policy of the Carlsbad Decrees and the Troppau See also:Protocol. He died, soon after the closing of the congress of Verona, at See also:Genoa, on the 26th of November 1822. See L. v. See also:Ranke, Denkwiirdigkeiten See also:des Staatskanzlers Fiirsten von Hardenberg (5 vols., Leipzig, 1877) ; J. R. See also:Seeley, The See also:Life and Times of Stein (3 vols., See also:Cambridge, 1878) ; E.

Meier, Reform der Verwaltungsorganisation unter Stein and Hardenberg (ib., 1881); Chr. See also:

Meyer, Hardenberg and See also:seine Verwaltung der Fiirstentiimer Ansbach and Bayreuth (See also:Breslau, 1892); Koser, See also:Die Neuordnung des preussischen Archivwesens durch den Staatskanzler Fiirsten v. Hardenberg (Leipzig, 1904).

End of Article: HARDENBERG, KARL AUGUST VON, PRINCE (1750-1822)

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