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HERTZBERG, EWALD FRIEDRICH, COUNT VON...

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 402 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HERTZBERG, See also:EWALD See also:FRIEDRICH, See also:COUNT VON (1725-1795) , Prussian statesman, who came of a See also:noble See also:family which had been settled in See also:Pomerania since the 13th See also:century, was See also:born at Lottin, in that See also:province, on the 2nd of See also:September 1725. After 1739 he studied, chiefly See also:classics and See also:history at the gymnasium at See also:Stettin, and in 1742 entered the university of See also:Halle as a student of See also:jurisprudence, becoming in due course a See also:doctor of See also:laws in 1745. In addition to this See also:principal study, he was also interested while at the university in See also:historical and philosophical (See also:Christian See also:Wolff) studies. A first thesis for his doctorate, entitled See also:Jus publicum Brandenburgicum, was not printed, because it contained a See also:criticism of the existing See also:condition of the See also:state. Shortly after-wards Hertzberg entered the See also:government service, in which he was first employed in the See also:department of the state archives (of which he became director in 1750), soon after in the See also:foreign See also:office, and finally in 1763 as See also:chief See also:minister (Cabinetsminister). In 1752 he married Baroness See also:Marie von Knyphausen, a See also:marriage which was happy, but childless. For more than See also:forty years Hertzberg played an active See also:part in the Prussian foreign office. In this capacity he had a decisive See also:influence on Prussian policy, both under See also:Frederick the See also:Great and Frederick See also:William II. At the beginning of the Seven Years' See also:War ,(1756) he took part as a See also:political writer in the See also:Hohenzollern-See also:Habsburg See also:quarrel, both in his Ursachen, See also:die S.K.M. in Preussen bewogen haben, sich wider die Absichten See also:des Wienerischen Hofes zu setzen and deren Ausfuhrung zuvorzukommen (" Motives which have induced the See also:king of See also:Prussia to oppose the intentions of the See also:court of See also:Vienna, and to prevent them from being carried into effect "), and in his Memoire raisonne sur la conduite des See also:tours de See also:Vienne et de See also:Saxe, based on the See also:secret papers taken by Frederick the Great from the archives of See also:Dresden. After the defeat at See also:Kolin (1757) he hastened to Pomerania in See also:order to organize the See also:national See also:defence there and collect the necessary troops for the See also:protection of the fortresses of Stettin and Colberg. In the same See also:year he conducted the See also:peace negotiations with See also:Sweden, and was of great service in bringing about the peace of Hubertsburg (1763), on the conclusion of which the king received him with the words, " I congratulate you. You have made peace as I made war, one against many." In the later years, too, of Frederick the Great's reign, Hertzberg played a considerable part in foreign policy.

In 1772, in a memoir based upon comprehensive historical studies, he defended the Prussian claims to certain provinces of See also:

Poland. He also took part successfully as a publicist in the negotiations concerning the question of the Bavarian See also:succession (1778) and those of the peace of See also:Teschen (1979). But in 1780 he failed to uphold Prussian interests at the See also:election of the See also:bishop of See also:Munster. In 1784 appeared Hertzberg's memoir containing a thorough study of the Furslenbund. He championed this latest creation of Frederick the Great's mainly with a view to an energetic reform of the See also:empire, though the See also:idea of See also:German unity was naturally still far from his mind. In 1785 followed " An explanation of-the motives which have led the king of Prussia to propose to the oth''er high estates of the empire an association for the See also:maintenance of the See also:system of the empire" (Erklarung der Ursachen, welche S.M. in Preussen bewogen haben, ihren hohen Mitstanden des Reichs eine Association zur Erhaltung des Reichssystems anzutragen), By upholding the Fiirstenbund Hertzberg made many enemies, prominent among whom was the king's See also:brother, See also:Prince See also:Henry. Though the Furslenbund failed to effect a reform of the empire, it at any See also:rate prevented the fulfilment of See also:Joseph II.'s old See also:desire for the See also:incorporation of See also:Bavaria with See also:Austria. The last See also:act of state in which Hertzberg took part under Frederick the Great was the commercial treaty concluded in 1785 between Prussia and the See also:United States. With Frederick, especially in his later years, Hertzberg stood in very intimate See also:personal relations and was often the king's See also:guest at Sans-Souci. Under Frederick William II. his influential position at the court of See also:Berlin was at first unshaken. The king at once received him with favour, as is clearly proved by See also:Hertz-See also:berg's See also:elevation to the See also:rank of count in 1786 ;and See also:Mirabeau would never have attacked him with such violence in his Secret History of the Court of Berlin, which appeared in 1788, if he had not seen in him the most powerful See also:man after the king. In this attack Mirabeau seems to have been influenced by Hertzberg's personal enemies at the court.

Hertzberg's political system remained on the whole the same under Frederick William II. as it had been under his predecessor. It was mainly characterized by a See also:

sharp opposition to the See also:house of Habsburg and by a desire to win for Prussia the support of See also:England, a policy supported by him in important See also:memoirs of the years 1786 and 1787. His See also:diplomacy was directed also against Austria's old ally, See also:France. Hence it was chiefly owing to Hertzberg that in 1787, in spite of the king's unwillingness at first, Prussia intervened in See also:Holland in support of the See also:stadtholder William V. against the democratic See also:French party (see HOLLAND: History). The success of this intervention, which was the See also:practical realization of a See also:plan very characteristic of Hertzberg, marks the culminating point in his career. But the opposition between him and the new king, which had already appeared at the See also:time of the conclusion of the triple See also:alliance. between Holland, England and Prussia, became more marked in the following years, when Hertzberg, relying upon this alliance, and in conscious See also:imitation of Frederick II.'s policy at the time of the first See also:partition of Poland, sought to take See also:advantage of the entanglement of Austria with See also:Russia in the war with See also:Turkey to secure for Prussia an See also:extension of territory by See also:diplomatic intervention. According to his plan, Prussia was to offer her See also:mediation at the proper moment, and in the territorial readjustments that the peace would bring, was to receive See also:Danzig and See also:Thorn as her portion. Beyond this he aimed at preventing the restoration of the See also:hegemony of Austria in the Empire, and secretly cherished the See also:hope of restoring Frederick the. Great's See also:Russian alliance. With a curious obstinacy he continued to pursue these aims even when, owing to military and diplomatic events, they were already partly out of date. His personal position became increasingly difficult, as deep-rooted See also:differences between him and the king were revealed during these diplomatic See also:campaigns:_ Hertzberg wished to effect everything by peaceful means, while Frederick William II. was for a time determined on war with Austria. As regards See also:Polish policy, too, their ideas came into conflict, Hertzberg having always been openly opposed to the See also:total annihilation of the Polish See also:kingdom.

The same is true of the attitude of king and minister towards Great See also:

Britain. At the conferences at See also:Reichenbach in the summer of 1790, this opposition became more and more acute, and Hertzberg was only with difficulty persuaded to come to an agreement merely on the basis of the status quo, as demanded by See also:Pitt. The king's renunciation of any extension of territory was in Hertzberg's eyes impolitic, and this view of his was later endorsed by See also:Bismarck. A See also:letter which came to the eyes of the king, in which Hertzberg severely criticized the king's foreign policy, and especially his plans for attacking Russia, led to his dismissal on the 5th of See also:July 1791. He afterwards made several attempts to exert an influence over foreign affairs, but in vain. The king showed himself more and more personally °hostile to the ex-minister, and in later years pursued Hertzberg, now quite embittered, with every See also:kind of See also:petty persecution, even ordering his letters to be opened. Even in his See also:literary interests Hertzberg found an adversary in the ungrateful king, for Frederick William, to give one instances made it so difficult for him to use the archives that in the end Hertzberg entirely gave up the See also:attempt. He ,found; however, some recompense for all his disillusionment and _discouragement in learning, and, Wilhelm von See also:Humboldt excepted,' he was the most learned of all the Prussian ministers. As a member of the Berlin See also:Academy especially, and, from 1786 onwards, as its See also:curator, Hertzberg carried on a great and valuable activity in the See also:world of learning. His yearly reports dealt with history, See also:statistics and political See also:science. The most interesting is that of 1784: Sur la forme des gouvernements, et quelle est la meilleure. This is directed exclusively against the See also:absolute system (following See also:Montesquieu), upholds a limited See also:monarchy, and is in favour of extending to the peasants the right to be represented in the See also:diet.

He spoke for the last time in 1793 on Frederick the Great and the advantages of monarchy. After 1783 these discourses caused a great sensation, since Hertzberg introduced into them a See also:

review of the See also:financial situation, which in the days of See also:absolutism seemed an unprecedented innovation. Besides this, Hertzberg exerted himself as an academician to See also:change the strongly French See also:character of the Academy and make it into a truly German institution. He showed a keen See also:interest in the old German See also:language and literature. A See also:special " German deputation " was set aside at the Academy and entrusted with the See also:drawing up of a German See also:grammar and See also:dictionary. He also stood in very See also:close relations with many of the German poets of the time, and especially with See also:Daniel See also:Schubart. Among the German historians in whom he took a great interest, he had the greatest esteem for See also:Pufendorf. He was equally concerned in the improvement of the state of See also:education. In 1780 he' boldly took up the defence of German literature, which had been disparaged by Frederick the Great in his famous See also:writing De la litterature See also:allemande. Hertzberg's See also:frank and See also:honourable nature little fitted him to be a successful diplomatist; but the course of history has justified many of ' his aims and ideals, and in Prussia his memory is honoured. He died at Berlin on the 22nd of May 1795. K.

Wittichen, Preussen and England, 1785–1788 (See also:

Heidelberg, 1902) .; F. Luckwaldt, Die englisch-preussische Allianz von '788 in den Forschungen zur brandenburgisch-preussischen Geschichte, Bd. 15, and in the Delbruckfestschrift (Berlin, 19o8); L. Sevin, System der preussischen Geheimpolitik 1790–17 1 (Heidelberger Dissertation, 1903); P. Wittichen, Die polnische Politik Preussens 1788-2790 (Berlin, 1899) ; F. Andreae, Preussische and russische Politik in Polen '787-1789 (Berliner Dissertation, 1905) ; also W. Wenck, Deutschland vor 100 Jahren (2 vols., 1887, 1890) ; A. See also:Harnack,, Geschichte der preussischen Akademie (4 vols., 1899) ; Consentius, Preussische Jahtbtcher (1904); J. Hashagen, Hertzbergs Verhaltnis zur deutschen Literatur," in Zeitschrift See also:fur deutsche Philologie for 1903. (J.

End of Article: HERTZBERG, EWALD FRIEDRICH, COUNT VON (1725-1795)

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