Clemens von Metternich was the scion of an old noble family. In 1788 he entered the University of Strasbourg, where he studied diplomacy, but the spread of the French Revolution prompted him to enter the University of Mainz. In 1794 he undertook a diplomatic mission to England, and a year later, thanks to his marriage to the granddaughter of a former Chancellor of Austria, the doors to the high aristocracy were opened to him and he gained access to the high offices he desired.
In 1806 he served as Austrian minister to France and in 1809 he was appointed foreign minister. Agreeing with Emperor Francis I that the movements that had already begun to manifest themselves in his territorial domain posed a threat to the multinational Habsburg state, he would soon become the strictest exponent of the doctrine of the balance of power in Europe.
The culmination of Metternich’s diplomatic agenda and work was the Congress of Vienna (September 1814 – June 1815), held after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. His main objective was to secure Austria’s sovereignty by forming two confederations: one German and one Italian, with Austria as the leading power in both cases. At the same time, supported by the British foreign secretary, Robert Stewart, he tried to prevent the breakup of France, which he saw as a necessary counterweight to Russia. Likewise, he resisted the territorial aggrandizement of both Russia and Prussia, and was particularly opposed to the latter’s plans to annex all of Saxony.
In the end, Metternich was unable to fully realize these goals. While in the case of confederations he did not find the necessary support, he was more fortunate in his plans for the balance of power in Europe. Indeed, it was possible to keep Russia and Prussia in check thanks to the common front of Austria, England and France, which the Austrian diplomat had created. At the same time, by establishing the so-called Holy Alliance, which provided for intervention in case of revolutions, he hoped to maintain order and peace in Europe with the imperial regimes in power. But it would soon prove that it was not particularly effective.
Although he had been appointed Chancellor of Austria on 25 May 1821, his influence in Austria was greatly reduced by the appointment of Graf von Kolourat as Minister of State and Head of Cabinet Conferences five years later. Gradually, as his influence waned, Metternich became increasingly vain. This vanity of his led him to attempt to cover up the waning of his influence by taking responsibility for edicts which neither came from him nor agreed with his views. He soon ended up being the most “hated” symbol of repression and reaction, and as a result, on March 13, 1848, after the revolution that had broken out, he resigned. A great cycle in the field of politics and diplomacy was finally closing. Initially, he went to England, but in 1851 he returned to Vienna, where he finally died eight years later.
Column editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
