Karl august von hardenberg biography books

Ingo Hermann.Hardenberg: Der Reformkanzler. Berlin: Siedler Verlag, 2003. 448 S. EUR 24.90 (broschiert), ISBN 978-3-88680-729-1.

Reviewed by Karin Breuer (Department of History and Political Science, Centenary College of Louisiana)
Published on H-German (October, 2004)

The principal attraction of the Prussian Reform Movement for historians lies not so much in what it achieved, but in the causes of its failures. Despite the efforts of reformers to gain support from Prussian subjects through economic, social, and political changes, the status quo was, with few exceptions, reasserted in the reactionary era that followed the Napoleonic Wars. Since the nineteenth century, historians have assigned some of the blame for this failure to Karl August von Hardenberg, the Prussian chancellor who governed when reform turned into reaction.

In Hardenberg: Der Reformkanzler, journalist Ingo Hermann provides the first full-scale biography of Karl August von Hardenberg in over three decades. Intended more for general readers than academic specialists, this well-researched biography follows Hardenberg's life in an accessible and engaging manner. Hermann relied on some newly published sources, such as Hardenberg's journal, as well as unpublished materials in the Hardenberg family archives.

Hermann's narrative is generally chronological, beginning with Hardenberg's birth in 1750 and ending with his death in 1822. The author includes information about Hardenberg's scandalous personal life, including his first wife's liaison with the Prince of Wales, his second wife's extramarital affair and illegitimate child, and his third and final marriage to actress Charlotte Schoenemann. The book's main focus, however, is the political career of Hardenberg. Hermann traces Hardenberg's rise through the Hanoverian and Prussian administrative ranks, which culminated in an appointment to the chancellorship of Prussia in 1810. During the half decade that followed, Hardenberg was ab

Prussian statesman (1750–1822)

Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg (31 May 1750, in Essenrode-Lehre – 26 November 1822, in Genoa) was a Prussianstatesman and Chief Minister of Prussia. While during his late career he acquiesced to reactionary policies, earlier in his career he implemented a variety of Liberal reforms. To him and Baron vom Stein, Prussia was indebted for improvements in its army system, the abolition of serfdom and feudal burdens, the throwing open of the civil service to all classes, and the complete reform of the educational system.

Family

Hardenberg was the eldest son of Christian Ludwig von Hardenberg (1700-1781), a Hanoverian colonel, later to become field marshal and commander-in-chief of the Hanoverian Army under Elector George III from 1776 until his death. His mother was Anna Sophia Ehrengart von Bülow. He was born, one of eight children, at Essenrode Manor near Hanover in the Electorate of Hanover, his maternal grandfather's estate. The ancestral home of the knights of Hardenberg is Hardenberg Castle at Nörten-Hardenberg, which the family acquired in 1287 and owns to this day. They were created barons and, in 1778, counts.

Early life

After studying at Leipzig and Göttingen, he entered the Hanoverian civil service in 1770 as councillor of the board of domains (Kammerrat); but, finding his advancement slow, he set out, on the advice of George III, on a series of travels, spending some time at Wetzlar, Regensburg (where he studied the mechanism of the Imperial government), Vienna and Berlin. He also visited France, the Dutch Republic and Great Britain, where he was received kindly by the King (also Elector of Hanover). On his return, he married, at his father's suggestion, the Countess Christiane von Reventlow (1759–1793) in 1774. They had a son, Christian Heinrich August Graf von Hardenberg-Reventlow (1775–1841), and a daughter, Lucie von Hardenberg-Reventlow (1776-1854

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...