Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rietberg-Wikipedia

Wenzel Anton Fürst Kaunitz-Rietberg

Wenzel Anton Graf Kaunitz-Rietberg , ab 1764 Reichsfürst von Kaunitz-Rietberg (Born February 2, 1711 in Vienna, † June 27, 1794 in Mariahilf, then still suburb of Vienna), was an Austrian statesman of the enlightened absolutism, Reichshofrat and diplomat.

As a consultant and employee of the reforms of Maria Theresa and Joseph II and as the founder of the Austrian State Council, he was the leading voice of the reconnaissance party in the Habsburg monarchy and promoter of many domestic reforms. As a state chancellor (1753–1792), he was responsible for Austria’s foreign policy and, through the alliance with France, contributed to the Renversement of the Alliances in the run -up to the Seven Years’ War. Under Empress Maria Theresia, he had comprehensive powers in foreign policy. However, they were increasingly limited among the successors Joseph II, Leopold II and Franz II.

Coat of arms of Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz (1789), Church of the Resurrection in Austerlitz (Slavkov/Czech Republic)

The Kaunitz family in Austerlitz, today’s Slavkov in Moravia. His parents were Maximilian Ulrich von Kaunitz (1679–1746) and Marie Ernestine von Ostfriesland-Rietberg (1686–1758). Among other things, the father was a governor in Moravia. The mother was the inheritance of Count Ferdinand Maximilian of East Frisia and Rietberg in Westphalia, with whose father the House of Ostfriesland died out in male in 1690. The county then went to Wenzel von Kaunitz and received the name Beautiful . Wenzel Anton’s brother Karl Joseph (1715–1737) was the canon in various dioceses. His uncle Franz Karl (1676–1717) was Bishop in Ljubljana.

He married Maria Ernestine von Starhemberg in 1736 (1717–1749). She was the granddaughter of the former court chamber president Thomas Gundacker Graf von Starhemberg, who, as a member of the secret conference, is one of the most influential consultants of Emperor Charles VI. was. Seven children emerged from the marriage. Under these:

1. Ernst Christoph 2. Reich Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg (born June 6, 1737, † 1797), knight of the order from the Golden Vlies, K.K. Obersthofmarschall and Ambassador, Fidei Commissioner, married on November 12, 1741 with Maria Leopoldine Elisabeth Princess zu Oettingen-Spielberg (born November 28, 1741), daughter of Prince Johann Aloy I on Oettingen-Spielberg, her son Joseph Karl January Graf von Kaunitz -Rietberg, born in Naples on July 20, 1769, died in 1797. Her daughter Maria Eleonore, born after 1770, died on March 19, 1825, married on September 26, 1795 Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich Fürst von Metternich-Winneberg-Ochsenhausen from Metternich-Winnburg-Beilstein, Duke of Portella and others. On Königswart in West Bohemia, K.K. State Chancellor and Minister of the exterior, died in Vienna in 1859.
2. Dominik Anton Andreas Graf von Kaunitz-Rietberg-Questenberg (D.D. 1761) Sukz. 1797 as the 3rd prince and Fidei commissioner, (1740–1812); 1762 denied with Maria Bernhardine Gräfin von Plettenberg, daughter of Franz Joseph Graf von Plettenberg-Witten zu Mietingen (from Nordkirchen), heir marshal of the Principality of Münster. Their children were: 1) Maria Theresia (1763–1803), denied in 1784 with Count Rudolph von Wrbna and Freudenthal, on Groß-Waltersdorf, Horovice and Ginetz, Oberstkämer and Privy Councilor, Commander of the K.K. Bohemian Noblegarde (1813/1814) and President of the royal Bohemian Society of Sciences in Prague, died in Vienna in 1823; 2) Vinzenz, 4th Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg-Questenberg on Neuschloß (1764–1839) (Sukz. 1812); On February 15, 1801, married in Prague (parish of Maria de Viktoria) Pauline de Longueval, Countess of Buquoy, died after 1850; 3) Aloys Wenzel 5. Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg-Questenberg, Fidei commissioner (Sk. 1829) K.K. Privy Councilor and treasurer, (1774–1774) died as the last male namesake of the Moravian line of the princely house; 1798 denied with Franziska Ungnadin Countess von Weißenwolf (* 1773), daughter of Guidobald Ungnad Graf von Weißenwolf, Freiherr zu Sonneck and Ennseck.
3. Franz Wenzel Graf von Kaunitz-Rietberg (* 1742, † unforgettable 1825), General Feldzeugmeister.
4. Joseph Clemens (born November 22, 1743), K.K. Chamberlain, died.
5. Maria Antonia (born May 16, 1745); Referred in 1763 with Christoph Wilhelm Graf and Lord von Thürheim Freiherr von Bibrachzell. ^[first]

In 1724, the father obtained the entitlement to a position as the canon in Münster for reasons of care for his son by papal commission. However, this was not the intention of entering into the spiritual status. He resigned the position in 1733. ^[2] Wenzel Anton Graf Kaunitz studied law in Leipzig and graduated in 1731 with an excellent disputation. As a result, he undertook his Grand Tour, which led him to Berlin, the Netherlands, Italy and finally to Paris. He returned to Vienna in 1734, where he had long had the entitlement to a job in the Reichshofrat. In 1734 he was initially the regimental council in Lower Austria before he was able to take up his position at the Reichshofrat a year later.

He intended to enter the diplomatic service. However, his financial situation was not good enough for him to accept an ambassador post in a respected farm. He had to be satisfied with an legal in Italy to show the birth of the later emperor Joseph II (born March 13, 1741). Between 1742 and 1744 he was an extraordinary envoy in Turin. During this time he managed to stabilize the uncertain alliance with the Kingdom of Sardinia.

In 1744 he became minister at the general governor of the Austrian Netherlands Karl Alexander von Lorraine, the brother -in -law Maria Theresias, based in Brussels. Kaunitz has been the authorized minister there since 1745. In the absence of the general assistant, he also took over his function. It was soon clear to him that the Netherlands could not be held against France during the current War of the Austrian War of Succession. In fact, he had to surrender in 1746 and initially went to Antwerp, from where he returned to Vienna.

As an envoy in Austria, he was instrumental in the negotiations on the peace of Aachen in 1748. The course of the negotiations convinced him that the previous Austrian alliance partners England and the Netherlands were not interested in the recovery planned by Maria Theresia. He therefore began to rely on France. At times, Kaunitz was even ready to use the Austrian Netherlands in exchange against the political support of France.

From 1749 to 1750 he was a member of the secret council. During the secret conference of May 5, 1749, he formulated his political ideas for the first time. The goal of the recovery of Silesia was urgent afterwards. In order to achieve this goal, an alliance with France (then ruled by Louis XV) is necessary. This course was approved after a long debate.

He himself became a priority minister in Paris, where he remained as an Austrian ambassador until 1752. There he presented Austria as a new power that was only loosely connected to the Holy Roman Empire. He was able to gain confidence among the relevant forces in Paris, but an alliance did not come about. He therefore put the plan back for the time being. Instead, he got in close contact with some French enlighteners and operated an open salon. He had no contact with Voltaire. He met some of the encyclopedists. It was incorrectly claimed later that Rousseau was his secretary.

Seven years of war [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Around 1751, Maria Theresia secretly offered him the office of state chancellor (responsible for foreign policy). Kaunitz referred to his weak health, but agreed to take over the position for a short time. However, he had to get a free hand so that he could reorganize the authority until it works like clockwork. In fact, in tough negotiations, he managed to enforce as great skills that no minister in Austria had previously owned. Instead of only managing the office briefly, he remained under Maria Theresia, Joseph II and Leopold II. Both Maria Theresia’s husband, Emperor Franz I and other leading people had spoken out against Kaunitz. The ruler did not overlook his self -ity and hypochondric tendencies, but was convinced of his qualities.

First, he made the State Chancellery a smoothly functioning modern Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After the renovation of the official building on Ballhausplatz (today’s Federal Chancellery), the house, court and state archive was also integrated. ^[3]

Kaunitz pushed his power -German foreign policy under difficulty – a significant change in course in contrast to the policy of his predecessor Anton Corfiz Ulfeldt influenced by Freiherr von Bartenstein. After the clashes between France and England began overseas in 1754, he instructed the Austrian ambassador Georg Adam von Starhemberg to bring the alliance plans in Paris to the table again. When Westminster’s Prussian-English convention had occurred, Louis XV. on the suggestions, and in 1756 there was a defensive alliance between Austria and France. In addition, he was also able to win Russia as an alliance. When Frederick II attacked Saxony at the beginning of the Seven Years’ War, Kaunitz, France in 1757, managed to move an offensive alliance against Prussia. Russia and Sweden also occurred. The famous change of alliances (“Renversement of the Alliances”) and the end of the centuries -long hostility between France and Habsburg meant an important turning point in European political history.

During the war, Kaunitz was the closest consultant Maria Theresa, made numerous military decisions himself and initially went to the army. The State Chancellery headed military operations in the following years. However, he failed to move the allies to a coordinated military approach. Instead of the rather hesitant Leopold Joseph von Daun, he rely on Gideon Ernst von Laudon. But this was also not a decisive victory.

In 1760, an exhaustion of the forces began to be recorded on the Austrian side. For Kaunitz, there was a reason in the new administrative structures created by Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz. He pushed for the dissolution of the Directory in public and camerals And thus on the disempowerment of Haugwitz. He did not fundamentally reject the disempowerment of the stands and the reorganization, but saw the chance to increase his influence. So he enforced the formation of a State Council and the creation of ministries of department. The State Council advised on all problems of the individual authorities, but itself had no executive law. The board was canceled in 1761, instead a United Bohemian and Austrian Court Chancellery was set up. ^[4]

All of this did not help to improve Austria’s situation at short notice. After Russia under the new Tsar Peter III. In 1762 from the alliance, Kaunitz drove the peace efforts forward, which led to the peace of Hubertusburg in 1763 and the final waiver of Silesia.

The highlight of the influence [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

After the end of the war, Kaunitz planned extensive reforms. He had his share in the numerous changes of this time. So he was significantly involved in the centralization of the administration. Some of the reforms anticipated Josephinism. The Jesuit Ferdinand Maaß spoke of Beautiful . Especially the relationship between state and church ^[5] Employed Kaunitz during this time. Some of these were tested in the northern Italian possessions that were subject to the State Chancellery. In the opinion of Kaunitz, the church’s economic rights in particular were not to be agreed with a modern state. This included, for example, the tax exemption of the clergy and the possession of the dead hand. All of this inevitably made a Catholic state inferior to a Protestant, where these problems have not existed since the Reformation. Kaunitz used Jansenism as an ideological justification. In 1768 he presented a large memorandum in which he proposed the secularization of church ownership and the end of the tax exemption of the clerics. Kaunitz succeeded in shaking pious Maria Theresa on a state church course in lengthy negotiations. In fact, the clergy ‘tax exemption has been abolished since 1768.

Falling meaning [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Representation of Kaunitz at the Maria-Theresien monument in Vienna

After the sudden death of Emperor Franz I († August 18, 1765), the influence of Kaunitz on Maria Theresa still grew. Although her co -regent Joseph II took up many ideas from Kaunitz, there were conflicts with the state chancellor. There were differences, especially with regard to the realization of the goals. The impatient Joseph also could not stand the long -breath of the Chancellor. This was therefore in vain for the first time in 1766.

Despite the opposition to Prussia, Kaunitz stimulated a meeting between Joseph II and Frederick II, which took place in Neiße in 1769 and a year later in Moravian-Neustadt. At this second meeting, Kaunitz accompanied the emperor and obviously played a large part of the conversation; The Prussian king subsequently commented very critically about the Austrian Chancellor that “thinks he is an oracle in politics and everyone else to be the students he wanted to instruct”. ^[6] A consequence of this cautious approach was the first Polish division of 1772. Kaunitz represented this policy that was advocated by Joseph II against the opposing Maria Theresia. In the run -up to the Bavarian War of Succession in 1777, the emperor disrupted Kaunitz’s negotiations through his military action. When the failure of Joseph’s plans emerged, Kaunitz led peace negotiations without involving the emperor. These negotiations brought the Innviertel to Austria in 1779.

Kaunitz thought it was a mistake to leave Prussia’s initiative in Reich policy. He managed to enforce the Archduke Maximilian Franz von Austria as a coadjutor in Kurköln and the Hochstift Münster in 1780 after a long Wittelsbach dominance in Germania Sacra northwestern Germany. At the constant Reichstag in Regensburg, he managed to create an influential imperial -friendly party.

Maria Theresia’s death († November 29, 1780) brought a significant reduction in his influence for Kaunitz. The emperor was not interested in his balancing policy. Joseph dwelled in various foreign policy points without listening to Kaunitz. This included the plan to exchange the Austrian Netherlands with the Wittelsbachers for Bavaria in 1784. This plan ultimately failed and led to the isolation of Austria. The Fürstenbund, founded in 1785 at the instigation of Frederick II, was directed against Joseph. However, Joseph II had concluded an alliance with Russia against the Council of Kaunitz. Since this was the only backing of Austria in this situation, Kaunitz supported the participation in the Russian-Austrian Turkish War. The 1787/88 campaign was very expensive and lost for Austria; Emperor Joseph suffered from tuberculosis.

Kaunitz tried in vain to dissuade Joseph from his rush and all regional differences ignoring reform measures. After Joseph’s death on February 20, 1790, there were uprisings in Hungary and the Austrian Netherlands to fear a new war with Prussia and the war against the Ottomans threatened to fail.

The new Emperor Leopold II made Kaunitz responsible for the foreign policy heap. He did not release it, but limited his foreign policy skills. Kaunitz strictly rejected the policy of approaching Prussia. He realized that Prussia was no longer the strong power she had been under Frederick II. This assessment proved to be correct during the first coalition war (1792–1797 against France). He considered a military intervention against the revolutionary France to be wrong and really advised that an attack from outside France dignity. After the sudden death of Leopold II, his son Franz II became emperor in 1792; He took over Kaunitz as a state chancellor. Kaunitz had little influence at that time; He resigned on August 19, 1792. The preparation for the second Polish division of 1793 was agreed without his knowledge.

In 1746 he took over the reign of the county of Rietberg. Because of his work in Vienna, he was able to dedicate her little attention to her and, like his father, had her managed by agents. In the same year he had the parish church of St. Maria Immaculata built as the sovereign, which created the village of Kaunitz. A little later he initiated the construction of the St. Johannes-Nepomuk chapel in Rietberg and in 1792 the construction of the St. Anna church in Verl.

During the Seven Years’ War, the count’s officials had to flee and the state archive was lost. ^[7] In 1768 he issued a princely police and camera order for the county. In 1775 he had the first division of community and market. A building regulations followed two years later. In 1782, Kaunitz hired a “land physician” (country doctor) for the first time. A short time later, there was also an improvement in the education system.

In addition to these church buildings and education policy, Kaunitz also promoted the arts and sciences. He was an important art collector and sponsor of Christoph Willibald Gluck. He was just as important in the founding of the Académie Royale in Brussels as well as in the association of the various art academies in Vienna for the Academy of Fine Arts. He was a protector of the facility for over 20 years. ^[8] However, he was not able to establish a scientific academy in Vienna. ^[9]

Personally, he was considered a strong hypochondriac and extremely vain. Kaunitz first lived in a palace in Vienna’s Herrengasse and then the State Chancellery (now the Federal Chancellery) on Ballhausplatz and the Palais Kaunitz in today’s Amerlingstrasse 6, where he also died.

In 1749 he was recorded in the order by the golden fleece. On January 5, 1764 he was raised to the imperial prince and on June 27, 1776 for the Princely of the Land.

Kaunitz died in 1794 and is now buried in the Kaunitz family crypt under the St. Johannes-Der-Kirche in the Austerlitz/Slavkov cemetery. The prince rests in a wooden coffin under a glass plate and is dressed in a uniform and the large cross of the Hungarian Stephans Order. The body is dry and well preserved.

In 1862 the Beautiful named after him. In the Burgenland city of Pinkafeld, one also commemorates Beautiful To this statesman.

Source editions

• Sebastian Brunner (ed.): Intimate correspondences of Emperor Joseph II with his friend Count of Cobenzl and his Prime Minister the prince of Kaunitz. Kirchheim, Mainz 1871.
• Adolf Beer (ed.): Prince Kaunitz memoranda. In: AÖG 48, 1872, S. 1–158.
• Adolf Beer (ed.): Joseph II, Leopold II and Kaunitz. Your correspondence. Wilhelm Braumüller, Vienna 1873.
• Hanns Schlitter (ed.): Kaunitz, Philipp Cobenzl, and Spielmann. Your correspondence, 1779–1792. Adolf Holzhausen, Vienna 1899.
• Hanns Schlitter (ed.): Secret correspondence between Count A. W. Kaunitz -rietberg, imperial ambassador to Paris, and Baron Ignaz de Koch, secretary of the Empress Marie-Thérèse. 1750–1752. Plon, Paris 1899.

Older representations

• Constantin von Wurzbach: Kaunitz-Rietberg, Wenzel Anton Fürst . In: Biographical lexicon of the Kaiserthum Oesterreich. 11. Part. Imperial-Königliche Court and State Printing, Vienna 1864, pp. 70–86 ( Digitized ).
• Alfred Ritter von Arneth: Kaunitz, Wenzel Anton Fürst . In: General German biography (ADB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, pp. 487–505.
• Alfred von Arneth: Biography of the Prince Kaunitz: a fragment. In: Aeg. 88, 1900, S. 1–202. Digitized
• Georg Küntzel: Fürst Kaunitz-Littberg als Staatsmann. Diesterwerg, Frankfurt 1923.
• Elemér Malus: Kaunitz about the cultural policy of the Habsburg monarchy. In: Southeast German research. [now Southeast research] 2, 1937, pp. 1–16.
• Alexander Novotny: Chancellor Kaunitz as a spiritual personality. Hollinek, Vienna 1947.
• Friedrich Walter: Men at Maria Theresia. Holzhausen, Vienna 1951.
• William J. McGill: The Roots of Policy: Kaunitz in Italy and the Netherlands, 1742–1746. In: Central European History. 1, 1969, S. 131–149.
• William J. McGill: Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rittberg and the Conference of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748. In: Duquesne Review. 14, 1969, S. 154–167.
• William J. McGill: The Roots of Policy: Kaunitz in Vienna and Versailles, 1749–1753. In: Journal of Modern History. 48, 1971, S. 228–244.

Recent representations

• Grete Klingenstein: The rise of the Kaunitz house. Studies on the origin and education of state chancellor Wenzel Anton. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1975 (new edition: 1997, ISBN 3-525-35906-3).
• Grete Klingenstein, Hanna Begusch, Marlies Raffler, Franz A. J. Szabo (ed.): State Chancellor Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rietberg: 1711–1794. New perspectives on politics and culture of European Enlightenment. Schnider, Graz/ Esztergom/ Paris/ New York 1996, ISBN 3-900993-43-2.
• Franz A. J. Szabo: Chancellor Prince Kaunitz and the educational policy of Austria. In: Walter Koschatzky (ed.): Maria Theresia and her time. A representation of the era from 1740–1780 on the occasion of the 200th return of the Empress’s death. Residenz, Salzburg/ Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-7017-0236-5, pp. 40–45.
• I don’t know Tibor: I don’t know: Kaunitz or the diplomatic revolution. Chancellor Maria Theresa. Amalthea, Vienna 1984.
• Harm Klueting: The teaching of the power of the states. The foreign policy power problem in “political science” and in practical politics in the 18th century. (= Historical research. 29). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-428-06052-0.
• Reiner Pommerin, Lothar Schilling: Count of the Count Kaunitz on the Power Political constellation according to the Aachner Peace from 1748. In: Johannes Kunisch (ed.): Expansion and balance. Studies on the European Power Policy of the Ancien Régime. Berlin 1986, S. 165–239.
• Éva H. Balázs: Kaunitz and Hungary (doctoral thesis summary). Budapest 1990.
• Franz A.J. Szabo: Kaunitz and enlightened absolutism, 1753–1780. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1994.
• Lothar Schilling: Kaunitz and the Renversement of the Alliances. Studies on the foreign policy conception of Wenceslas Anton’s von Kaunitz. (= Historical research. 50). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994.
• G. Klingenstein, F. A. J. Szabo (ed.): State Chancellor Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rietberg 1711–1794. New perspectives on politics and culture of European Enlightenment. Graz u. to. nineteen ninety six.
• Michael Hochedlinger: … that enlightenment is the safest means of attaching the calm and attachment of the subjects. Chancellor Kaunitz and the ‘Franziszeische Reaction’ 1792–1794. In: Helmut Reinalter (ed.): Enlightenment – Vormärz – Revolution. Yearbook of the International Research Center Democratic Movements in Central Europe from 1770–1850 at the University of Innsbruck. 16/17, 1996/97, S. 62–79.
• Franz A. J. Szabo: Favorite, Prime Minister or “third head of state”? The Chancellor’s case Wenzel Anton Kaunitz. In: Michael Kaiser, Andreas Pečar (HRSG.): The second man in the state. Supreme official and favorite in the area of ​​the imperial princes in the early modern period. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11116-8, pp. 345–362.
• Angela:: Austria and the old kingdom. The imperial policy of the state chancellor Kaunitz under Maria Theresia and Joseph II. Böhlau, Cologne/ Weimar/ Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-412-10305-5.
• Gerlinde Gruber: ‘En un mot j’ai pensé à tout.’ The commitment of the Wenceslas Anton Kaunitz-Rietberg for the reorganization of the Gemäldegalerie in Belvedere. In: Yearbook of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 10, 2008, S. 191–205.
• Franz A. J. Szabo: Perspective from the Pinnacle: State Chancellor Kaunitz on Nobility in the Habsburg Monarchy. In: Gabriele Haug-Moritz, Hans Peter Hye, Marlies Raffler (ed.): Nobility in the “long” 18th century. Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2009, pp. 239–260.
• Karl Otmar Freiherr von Aretin: Kaunitz, Wenzel Anton Graf. In: New German biography (Ndb). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3, pp. 363–369 ( Digitized ).
• Konrad Fuchs: Kaunitz, Wentzel Anton Graf v. In: Biographical-bibliographical church lexicon (BBKL). Band 3, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-035-2, Sp. 1250–1252. ( Article/beginning of the internet archives )

1. ↑ For the descendants see: Roman of Procházka: Genealogical manual of expired Bohemian men’s stand families. Neustadt an der Aisch 1973, there: Kaunitz, origin, sub-tribe consequences and pedigree p. 138, ISBN 3-7686-5002-2.
2. ↑ Wilhelm Kohl: The dioceses of the church province of Cologne. The diocese of Münster. Band 4, Berlin 1982, S. 733.
3. ↑ Bertrand Michael Buchmann: Hof – government – city administration: Vienna as the seat of the Austrian central administration from the beginning to the fall of the monarchy. Vienna 2002, p. 65.
4. ↑ Bertrand Michael Buchmann: Hof – government – city administration: Vienna as the seat of the Austrian central administration from the beginning to the fall of the monarchy. Vienna 2002, p. 70.
5. ↑ See also Catholic Church in Austria#State Church of the Habsburg Monarchy
6. ↑ Quoted from Theodor Schieder: Frederick the Great. S. 403.
7. ↑ G. J. Rosenkranz: Contributions to the history of the state of Rietberg and its counts. In: Journal of Patriotic History and Antiquity. NF. Band 3 Münster, 1852, S. 185–192.
8. ↑ Kurt Haslinger: The Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in the 18th century – reforms under Kaunitz. 2008, Retrieved on July 5, 2011 .
9. ↑ Encyclopedia of the enlightenment. New York 2004, S. 322.