Biography of Karl August von Hardenberg, Prince

Name: Karl August von Hardenberg, Prince
Birth Date: May 31, 1750
Death Date: November 6, 1822
Place of Birth: Essenrode, Germany
Nationality: Prussian
Gender: Male
Occupations: statesman, prince, political leader

Karl August von Hardenberg, Prince

Prince Karl August von Hardenberg (1750-1822) served as chief minister of Prussia. He presided over the recovery of Prussia after the collapse of 1806 and guided the state's diplomacy.Karl August von Hardenberg was born in Essenrode on May 31, 1750, and, as a young man, served in the bureaucracies of a number of small German states, including Hanover, Braunschweig, and Ansbach-Bayreuth. When the last was incorporated into Prussia in 1791, he was taken into the Prussian services, with the chief responsibility for governing that province. He also distinguished himself in various diplomatic assignments, so that by 1804 he was appointed Prussian foreign minister. The policy he recommended--strict neutrality in the Napoleonic Wars, combined with an attempt to acquire Hanover--would have been possible only with the help of Napoleon and was, to say the least, contradictory. Hardenberg was soon dropped by Frederick William III.Hardenberg was recalled after the Prussian military collapse at Jena (1806) …showed first 150 words…

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…showed last 150 words…right time and led the Prussian delegation to the Congress of Vienna (1815), where Prussia recovered all of the territory it had lost at Tilsit in 1807. Thereafter, Hardenberg, while remaining chief minister until his death, forfeited much of his influence by his vain attempts to persuade Frederick William III to honor his promise to give Prussia a constitution after the successful conclusion of the war. The King and the temper of the times were drifting toward reaction, and Hardenberg found himself representing, unwillingly, Prussia at a number of international congresses devoted to the suppression of liberalism in Europe. He died in Genoa on Nov. 26, 1822. Further Reading In the absence of English-language biographies of Hardenberg, the student should consult W. M. Simon, The Failure of the Prussian Reform Movement (1955); K. S. Pinson, Modern Germany (1963; 2d. ed. 1966); Hajo Holborn, A History of Modern Germany, vol. 2 (1964); and Klaus Epstein, The Genesis of German Conservatism (1966).

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