Wiener Congress – Wikipedia

The Congress of Vienna , which took place from September 18, 1814 to June 9, 1815, reorganized Europe after the defeat of Napoleon Bonapartes in the coalition wars. After the political map of the continent had changed significantly as an aftermath of the French Revolution, the congress in turn resolved numerous borders and created new states.

Under the direction of the Austrian Foreign Minister Prince Klemens of Metternich, politically authorized representatives from around 200 European countries, gentlemen, corporations and cities, including all the important powers of Europe, were advised. Russia, the United Kingdom, Austria and Prussia as well as the restored Kingdom of France and the church state played the leading role. In view of their complexity and its scope, the German questions were discussed separately from the other European affairs.

Delegate of the Vienna Congress in a contemporary copper engraving by Jean Godefroy after the painting by Jean-Baptiste Isabey
first  Arthur Wellesley, 1. Duke of Wellington, 2 Joaquim Lobo da Silveira, 3 António de Saldanha da Gama, 4 Carl Axel Löwenhielm, 5 Paul-François de Noailles, 6 Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich, 7 Frédéric-Séraphin de la Tour du Pin Gouvernet, 8 Karl Robert von Nesselrode, 9 Pedro de Sousa Holstein, ten  Robert Stewart, 2. Marquess of Londonderry, 11 Emmerich Joseph von Dalberg, twelfth Johann von Wessenberg, 13  Andrei Kirillowitsch Rasumowski, 14  Charles Vane, 3. Marquess of Londonderry, 15 Pedro Gómez Labrador, 16  Richard Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty, 17 Nikolaus von Wacken, 18 Friedrich von Gentz, 19 Wilhelm von Humboldt, 20  William Cathcart, 1. Earl Cathcart, 21 Karl August von Hardenberg, 22 Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, 23 Gustav Ernst von Stackelberg

History and start

Tin medal in 1814 with the busts of the monarchs and generals involved

Six times inscription with specification of the victories

After Napoleon’s fall in the spring of 1814, the first Paris peace ended the war between the powers of the sixth coalition and the French government, the restored bourbon monarchy under Louis XVIII. According to Article 32 of this peace treaty, a congress should come together in Vienna to decide on a permanent European post -war order. All countries involved in the war were invited.

The victorious kings and their leading ministers first met in London. In autumn 1814, the congress began in Vienna, to which delegations almost all states and powers of Europe came up. From September 1814 to June 1815, Vienna and above all the conference location, the Foreign Ministry (later also the State Chancellery) in the Palais on Ballhausplatz, the official seat of Metternich, became the political center of the continent. The host was Emperor Franz I of Austria.

The hosts tried to make the stay of the congress participants as pleasant as possible. The sequence of convivial events, balls and other amusements caused Charles Joseph Fürst von Ligne in a letter to the French statesman and diplomat Talleyrand on November 1, 1814:

Other contemporaries, although they complained about political immobility, were also impressed by the magnificent development. The Secretary General of the Assembly of Friedrich von Gentz ​​wrote in a letter dated September 27, 1814:

It is still controversial whether the congress in all pleasures – to create the framework for a permanent European peace regulations – or not, is still controversial. ^[3]

Marshal Blucher characterized the negotiations as follows:

The negotiations

The Vienna Congress developed, this was a negotiating novelty, its results in commissions. Among other things, there was a committee for Germans, one for European affairs, one for territorial issues, one for river shipping and a slave trade. A formal general assembly never occurred, the results were mostly recorded in bilateral contracts. The final acts of the congress ( Congress ) only bears the signatures of the eight main powers of Austria, Spain, France, Great Britain, Portugal, Prussia, Russia and Sweden (in this alphabetical order in French). The German Federal Act, whose general provisions (Article 1 to 11) are included in the congress files, was signed separately by the authorized representatives of the German states. ^[5]

The most important opponent of Metternich was Tsar Alexander I. In addition, the British envoy Castlereagh and the representative of the defeated France, Talleyrand, which had significant influence both under the old and the new French regime, also played the most important roles. Prussia was represented by Karl August von Hardenberg and Wilhelm von Humboldt and was able to record considerable gains on land (especially in the Rhineland and opposite Saxony) and expand his political position.

Principles and conflicts of interest

The frequently drawn image of harmony did not exist: In fact, the opposite contradictions of the (main) negotiating partners intensified in the course of the congress.

The congress worked according to five overarching principles, some of which are the subsequent construction of historians. The concept of legitimacy In this context, the liquidation of the Napoleonic State system and the reinstatement of the old dynasties (Bourbons, Welfen, etc.) denotes. If, of all things, Talleyrand emphasized the principle of legitimacy, he was primarily concerned with the recognition of France as equal and thus overcoming the status as a loser of war.

The principle of the Restoration of the pre -revolutionary political and social conditions. The restoration should not go so far that all of the changes that have occurred since 1789 should be reversed, but a stop should very well be put up for all future revolutionary efforts. This included not only the freedom, but also the national movements of the time.

To secure and enforce this goal, the delegations put on the one hand on a strong one monarchical authority inside and on the other hand on the intergovernmental solidarity the countries to the outside.

It was agreed in the creation of a European Equilibrium to prevent future wars.

Goals of the Vienna Congress (Scheme)

However, the practical implementation, especially of the latter goal, initially collided with the different interests of power policy. Metternich’s goal, for example, was an Austrian Central Europe that was supposed to form a counterweight to the winged powers of France and Russia. The main Russian goal was to win most of Poland. The Tsar played with the idea of ​​making Poland a pattern of a constitutional state. Similar to Metternich, the British envoy was striving for a conservative Europe and at the same time wanted to prevent Russia as possible. To protect its great power position, the French delegation also fought the unification efforts in Germany. Prussia, on the other hand, wanted to strengthen his own position through the acquisition of all of Saxony and a Prussian-Austrian hegemony in Germany. However, this contradicted the interests of the smaller German states and Austria. ^[6]

Poland, Saxony and new constellations

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

Despite all the solidarity of the monarchies, it looked as if the congress could end with no result. The main reason was the contrast between Austria, Prussia and Russia around Poland. In this diplomatic conflict, which took place on various levels, new allies of the states involved occurred. The plan of Alexander I to build a Polish kingdom under Russian rule in the field of Duchy of Warsaw was initially little approval. When in November 1814 the Prussian delegation on the instructions of Friedrich Wilhelm III. The Russian position supported without reservation, an alliance between Great Britain and Austria, which France also approached. ^[7] The associated recognition of France as a great power, while at the same time escaping the opposite of interests among the Allies, became a triumph of the Talleyrand’s negotiation skills at the turn of 1814/1815. The conflict shifted from Poland to the Saxon question. One also speaks of the Polish-Saxon question, since the King of Saxony was also Duke of Warsaw in Personal Union and thus head of state in the area that Alexander I was targeting. The continued existence of Saxony as a state was more than unsure about the detention of King Friedrich August I, to which the Allied collaboration with Napoleon. The Wettiner could only influence the discussions through middlemen.

At times there was even a war between the former allies, and Prussia already started with military preparations. On January 3, 1815, a secret agreement between Great Britain, Austria and France, which also included the Netherlands, Bavaria and Hanover, occurred against Prussia and Russia. The Prussian hopes that have been in Frederick II have been shattered for a complete acquisition of the neighboring state of Saxony.

The continued discrepancies about territorial questions were cleared relatively easily in various commission meetings. The negotiations were also continued when Napoleon Bonaparte returned from exile and restored his power in France in March 1815. The conclusion of the congress was signed nine days before Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo. ^[8]

Territorial reorganization

The decisions about which state had to submit which territories or which territories were struck for him, preliminary work of a “statistical commission” was based on. ^[9] In this commission, experts, including geographers, economists and population statisticians in elaborate small work, estimated the respective “territorial value”, in which the size of the territory, its population and its profitability incorporated. In this way, outgoing and obtained territories, demands and concessions were approximately offset. The territory of France had already been attributed to the borders of 1792 before the congress began in the first Paris Peace.

Austria and Luxembourg

Austria had to do without its former possessions on the Upper Rhine. Overall, Austria tends to withdraw from the west of German. For this it got Galicia again (including the Tarnopoler circle), while Krakow and the surrounding area became a Krakow Republic guaranteed by the three division powers. Illyria also fell back to Austria. With the possession of the former Republic of Venice and Lombardy, combined in the Kingdom of Lombardo-Venetia, as well as the assignment of the Tuscany to Archduke Ferdinand and the city of Parma to the Austrian wife of Napoleon Marie-Louise, the Habsburgs in Northern Italy had an even stronger position than before the Revolution. Salzburg and the Innviertel were added in the north. In comparison to the territorial grows of Prussia and Russia, however, the area growth of Austria appeared to be limited. In particular, the formerly Austrian Netherlands (from which Belgium later should emerge) were lost. These areas fell to the Netherlands and the United Kingdom of the Netherlands was created. In personal union, the House of Oranien-Nassau not only provided the Dutch king, but also the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. The Prince Nassau-Siegen gave up, which then fell on Prussia. Overall, Austria from Germany grew geographically “out”, but politically became leadership in the German Congress, which is also formed by the Vienna Congress, while the reverse path initially applies to Prussia.

Prussia

Contrary to the original plans and expectations, Prussia was not entirely Saxony, but only the northern part, which was partly struck. For this, it achieved considerable growth in the raw material west and was able to build the provinces of Jülich-Kleve-Berg, Grand Duchy of Lower Rhine and Westphalia. Poznan and the city of Gdansk were added in the east, but Prussia finally had to do without the acquisitions from the third party, which were lost in 1807 and partly from the second division of Poland. At Bavaria there were Ansbach and Bayreuth, the Kingdom of Hanover Ostfriesland, Hildesheim, Goslar and the larger part of the Unterichsfeld and received Swedish-Pomerania with Rügen from Denmark in exchange against the Duchy of Lauenburg. The allocation of the Rhineland and Westphalia on Prussia corresponded to the objectives of Talleyrand, which represented France in Vienna, and the wishes of Castlereagh, the British envoy, albeit from different foreign policy considerations. While France expected Prussia to succeed in permanently anchoring in the Rhinelands, so that the chance could be opened to push the French western border back on the Rhine, the United Kingdom assumed that the militarily strong Prussian French Expansion efforts will effectively put a stop. ^[ten] With the acquisition of the Rhenish areas, Prussia became a protective wall against France, which was still aimed at the Rhine border, which was also of the greatest security -political importance for the Palatinate and Rheinhessen on the left bank of the Rhine. The protective wall function against France was later cultivated, for example by the song The watch on the Rhine . Through the expansion and division of his territory into an eastern “old Prussia” and a “new Prussian” in the west, Prussia was forced to grow into Germany, and thus became the motor of economic and political unification. The historian Thomas Nipperdey even goes so far as to see a preliminary decision about the later German unification process in this relocation: “The transfer of Prussia to the Rhine is one of the most fundamental facts in German history, one of the foundations of the founding of the Reich from 1866/1871.” ^[11]

Bayern

Bavaria, which had just succeeded in the Alliance with Napoleon with the Treaty of Ried in good time, won the majority of Franconia in exchange against Tyrol and the Palatinate, which was newly created after difficult negotiations, with parts of the old Palatinate, but its territorial ambitions not quite realize. Only in the Treaty of Munich were the final boundaries of the Nachnapoleonic Bavaria in 1816. The Badisch-Bavarian border dispute over the right bank of the Rhine Palatinate with Mannheim and Heidelberg was then decided in favor of Baden at the Aachen Congress in 1818. For the founding of 1866/1871, the fact that the northern regions of Franconia and the Palatinate welcomed them majority became significant, thus exercising an additional force to the Bavarian government. Like Prussia, Bavaria, unlike Austria, was “grown into Germany” in 1815/16.

Saxony

The Kingdom of Saxony stood on the losing side of the congress. As it were, as a punishment for his too late moving from the alliance with France – in the Battle of Nations near Leipzig, it had fought on the Napoleon’s page ^[twelfth] -The kingdom lost about 60% of its area with around 40% of its inhabitants in the northern and eastern areas as well as in Thuringia through assignment to Prussia, which, however, passed on part of these Thuringian areas to the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach.

Other German states

The Kingdom of Württemberg, the Grand Duchy of Baden and Hesse as well as the Duchy of Nassau were able to claim their territorial population from the Rhine Confederation, only small border corrections took place until 1825.

The former Electorate of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (now raised to the Kingdom of Hanover), Braunschweig, Oldenburg, Hesse-Kassel, Hessen-Homburg and the Free Cities of Lübeck, Frankfurt, Bremen and Hamburg were re-established as sovereign states.

However, despite the protests of the princes concerned, the mediatization of the past years was not reversed, nor was the secularization of the spiritual territories. In this respect, the number of states remained significantly lower than in pre -revolutionary times.

Switzerland

Consequences of the Vienna Congress for Switzerland

Switzerland finally had to give up the Veltlin, Chiavenna and Bormio and the city of Mülhausen in Alsace. To compensate, however, the former Hochstift Basel, the Fricktal, the gentlemen Rhäzüns and Tarasp as well as some municipalities in the area of ​​Geneva were granted to her. The Vienna Congress recognized the inner and outer borders of Switzerland and its cantons as well as the belonging of the Valais, the Principality of Neuchâtel (Hohenzollern) and Geneva as new cantons. North Savoy was neutralized and should be occupied by Swiss troops in the event of war, but remained with the Kingdom of Sardinia. The rounding of the boundaries against the Grand Duchy of Baden near Schaffhausen and the recovery of the city of Constance as well as the return of the Veltlin, Chiavennas and Bormios in Graubünden could not be achieved. The recognition of the constant neutrality and its independence from every foreign influence by the European major powers had a decisive influence on the further history of Switzerland. This international recognition or obligation of Switzerland on neutrality still forms the decisive basis for Swiss foreign policy (see Swiss neutrality). ^{[13] [14]}

Other European states

Europe after the Vienna Congress in 1815

The former war opponent of the Allied, France, had to, as was to be expected in view of the principle of legitimacy, which was represented by Talleyrand itself, which can be reversed between 1795 and 1810. A great success, however, was the equal return to the European family of peers and the recognition as a great power.

Denmark had to give Norway to Sweden for his support for Napoleon (see Kiel Peace). However, it received Swedish-Pomerania as a balance. These territories were quickly ceded on Prussia. As a compensation for this, Denmark received the Duchy of Lauenburg (which Prussia had previously exchanged for East Frisia with Hanover) and money.

In Spain, Portugal and Naples, the old dynasties were restored. Likewise in Sardinia that Savoy, Piedmont and Nice received and also received Genoa. The church state was also restored and received a large part of its former areas. Metternich had planned a Italian covenant similar to the German Bund under the chairmanship of Austria, but was unable to prevail with this idea with Emperor Franz I and the Italian prince. ^[15] With this and due to the considerable Austrian gains in northern Italy, Italy remained fragmented and its union was denied to a nation state for decades.

Great Britain’s acquisitions from the British-French colonial conflict were also confirmed. Malta and Helgoland stayed with Great Britain. The Ionian Islands in the Mediterranean fell under British protectorate. ^[16]

Tsar Alexander I found himself in the east with a fourth division of Poland. However, the largest part was awarded to the so -called congress poles, and the recognition of its territorial profits in Finland (1808/09) and Bessarabia secured the previous expansion to the west.

The northern Netherlands (until 1795 Republic of the Seven United Provinces, later Batavian Republic and Kingdom of Holland) were united with the southern, formerly Habsburg-Austrian Netherlands and the former Hochstift Liège in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The German Confederation

The basis for negotiations on a state reorganization of the countries of the former Holy Roman Empire (German Nation) during the Vienna Congress was the Article VI of the first Paris Peace of May 30, 1814. There the German states became independent and the association through a federative Band guaranteed.

The committee on the consultations of German affairs, the so -called “German Committee”, met under the chairmanship of Prussia, Austria, Hanover, Bavaria and Württemberg. As a result, the committee opened all German states and free cities. Even if the congress was the principle of legitimacy and essentially aimed at restoring the pre -revolutionary conditions, these principles also had its limits. The mediatization initiated with the imperial deputation in 1803 was not reversed. The same applies to secularization and the end of the spiritual states, for the restoration of which the papal envoy ERCOLE CONSALVI in vain. The sovereignty of the former Rheinbund states was also recognized.

Karl August von Hardenberg

A reconstruction of the Holy Roman Empire was not seriously considered by the congress participants, not even by Freiherr vom Stein, who participated in the congress as a Russian envoy and supported the restoration of the imperial dignity. ^[17] Nevertheless, the search for a functional replacement for the 41 German states and free cities became one of the central questions of the congress.

At the beginning of the negotiations, both Metternich and the Prussian envoys assumed a comparatively strongly centralistic solution. Numerous proposals circulated, but only Hardenberg’s “41 articles” and the “12-point plan” emerged in cooperation with Metternich became influential. Both assumed a state -state order with strong central organs in the core. This included a collective executive, the “Council of the Colonel”, from representatives of the larger countries. This committee should be created in such a way that Prussia and Austria could majorize the other countries. The federal territory should be divided into seven circles, which should be responsible for the implementation of the federal resolutions and for the war and last instance judicial system. As a result, the small territories would have been de facto in fact. This project did not fail so much because of the violent resistance of the small states, but on the Saxon-Polish conflict described above. The expansion efforts of Prussia to be opened there led to the task of the plan on the Austrian side of striving for a double hegemony of the two countries.

The loose German Bund was finally created sovereign states with Austria as presidential power. As a constitution, the German Federal Act was adopted on June 8, 1815, one day before the Vienna Congress Act was signed. The first eleven articles of the federal acts were included in the Vienna Congress Act and thereby supposedly placed under the protection or guarantee of the signatural powers. ^[18] A strong executive as well as a highest federal court was abandoned. The provisions remained from the original considerations that each federal state had to give itself a state -owned constitution. ^[19] A whole series of countries also quickly met this requirement. But of all things, the two major powers within the German Confederation, Prussia and Austria, had no written constitution until 1848.

It was expressly stated that the German Bund was not the legal successor of the old German Reich. It was also emphasized that the federal government had purely defensive character and only served Germany’s external and inner security. The German federal government, even if a common active foreign policy was impossible, became a necessary part in the system of European balance.

Prussia and Austria only included the German Confederation with their former Reichlanders. This means that without the Polish, Hungarian, Southeast European and Italian areas, Prussia without West and East Prussia and Poznan. The King of Great Britain as King of Hanover, the King of the Netherlands as Grand Duke of Luxembourg and the King of Denmark as Duke of Holstein and Lauenburg, were the king of Great Britain, national princes in the Federal Assembly. ^[20]

Ostracism of the slave trade

In Article 118 of the congress files, the ostracism of the slave trade (“the declaration of powers on the abolition of negro trade”, from February 8, 1815), was defined in Article 118 of the Congress Act. The Convention waived a specific implementation date. With the decision of the major European powers, the end of one of the oldest businesses in history was initiated. It still took a good 150 years for the last countries to do without slave conservation. After the United States in 1865, Brazil completed slave farming in 1888 as the last state of the new world. ^[21] It was not until 1972 that the British protectorate Oman did slavery.

Signing and ratification

“Palais on Ballhausplatz”, conference building of the Vienna Congress (now the Federal Chancellery)

The decisions of the congress became the Vienna Congress in the Vienna Congress Act (Final Act) named, fixed in writing. It comprised 121 articles and also contained all contracts concluded in Vienna. ^[22]

The congress file was signed on June 9, 1815. The signatures of Austria, Russia, Prussia, Great Britain, France, Portugal, Spain and Sweden thus guaranteed the ratification of the decisions.

However, Baden only joined the contract on July 26 and Württemberg on September 1, 1815. France under Louis XVIII. Confirmed the contract on December 7, 1815. The signatar state of Spain, which was dissatisfied that the Queen of Queen of Etruria had not received any compensation in Italy, only concluded this agreement on May 7, 1817.

The Holy Alliance

The foundation of the Holy Alliance, which was closed on September 26, 1815, was not part of the official negotiation results of the congress, but is closely related to it and forms a decisive part of the Metternich system in the first half in 1815 of the 19th century. Prussia, Austria and Russia initially belonged to the Holy Alliance. This manifesto of the three monarchs called for Christian fraternity and thus stood in direct contrast to the revolutionary fraternity of the peoples. Metternich, who was extremely skeptical of this covenant, made an “alliance of the rulers” from the original draft, which spoke of an alliance of the “peoples and armies”, an “alliance of rulers”, which would be above the “peoples and armies”. The aim of the agreement was on the one hand the maintenance of the balance between the princes and on the other hand, for example in revolutionary movements, the intervention among the peoples. In addition to Great Britain (Parliament refused to join), the Holy Alliance and the church state restored by the congress under Pope Pius VII, which rejected the over -confessional concept, joined almost all European countries. ^[23]

Conclusion and consequences

Results of the Vienna Congress (Scheme)

The Vienna Congress had made future -oriented resolutions for the conditions of the time, especially at the overent level. The ostracism of slavery in Article 118 of the congress files was enforced on British pressure. In addition, an agreement on the freedom of international river shipping was made and a central commission for Rhine shipping was employed. A binding regulation of legation law ended the usual rank disputes under diplomats. The priority no longer had the one who represented the most respected state (because the question had repeatedly inflamed the question of which state this dignity had received). The Vienna Congress determined that ambassadors deserve first rank, the second, contractor of the third. Within these categories, the diplomat has the priority that is accredited or on duty for longer at the place of work (principle of “local ancientity”). ^[24] This regulation still applies today.

The congress had reached its main goal by withdrawing the conquest of the revolutionary and Napoleonic France. At the expense of France and through the renewed division of Poland, the great powers of Prussia, Austria and Russia were strengthened. Together with Great Britain and the defeated, but again in the concert of the great powers France, the pentarchy system, which was aimed at balance, was created.

After the previous decades of the coalition wars, it was an essential goal of the Vienna Congress to give the broken continent a new order, to avoid intergovernmental violence and to solve possible conflicts diplomatically in the future. This meant a historically new political quality. Until the Crimean War in the early 1850s, Europe was spared from wars between the great powers. The Sardinian War, the Italian Wars of Independence and the Schleswig-Holstein survey were related to the revolutions of 1848/49. However, the conflict about Poland and Saxony had shown in the course of the congress that the policy of compensation also had its limits.

As far as the design of the internal state conditions concerns, the congress was more of a restorative principles and fundamental skepticism towards all revolutionary, liberal and national efforts. For the German states, the creation of the German Confederation was the central result of the congress. In the eyes of many contemporaries, however, the German Confederation was primarily an instrument for the suppression of national and liberal movements. ^[25] However, it was not possible to eliminate the liberal bourgeois movements. They called for the nation state instead of an alliance of monarchical individual states.

The prescribed calm in Europe by the Vienna Congress, which was basically a return to the conditions before Napoleon and before the French Revolution of 1789, was not stable in the long term without any changes. The restoration, which the congress, the suppression of national and liberal and democratic endeavors, could not prevent the ideas of bourgeois right and national independence in the bourgeoisie.

Especially the year 1830 became a turning point in this regard:

• The Greek revolution ended in 1830 with the independence of Greece and the establishment of a nation state based on the constitution of 1824.
• The independence of Belgium, proclaimed in 1830, inevitably raised political questions from the Netherlands. The establishment of a new state in the middle of Europe and the reversal of an established ruling house is fundamentally against the principles of the Vienna Congress. The European major powers of 1815 had launched the United Kingdom of the Netherlands as a buffer against future French expansion desires. Belgium’s split off thus seemed to endanger Britain and Prussia’s foreign policy security. Paris, who had just had the July Revolution, was initially not interested in any foreign policy adventure. Louis Philippe I therefore admitted priority to domestic political consolidation and left the government in London the diplomatic leadership in the Belgian matter. On November 4, 1830, under the leadership of the British Foreign Minister, a conference of the major European powers occurred. ^[26] In December 1830, they enforced an end to the fights between Belgian and Dutch units. In January of the following year, the recognition of Belgian sovereignty followed and the commitment of Brüssels to strict neutrality in foreign policy. ^[27] The Belgian constitution became a model for the German liberals.
• The Poles never found themselves with the division of their country between Russia, Austria and Prussia. In the Polish provinces of these three states, national polish uprisings against the respective foreign rule occurred again and again. The November uprising in 1830 was particularly popular – also with the liberals and national movements of abroad.
• In France, the liberal July Evolution occurred in 1830, which led to the fall of the Bourbon king Charles X. This revolution also had an impact on neighboring countries. Regional uprisings in some German states and in Italian regions in the wake of the Julyevolution occasionally led to constitutions in individual principalities.
  In France, Louis Philippe was overturned 1848 in the February Revolution in 1848 after increasing the politics of St. Alliance. After his escape to British exile, the second republic was proclaimed in France in 1848.
• Despite massive repression (see also Karlsbad resolutions) and censorship measures, a liberal and national movement grew in the countries of the German federal federal state, in which the fraternities created from 1815 had a significant role in the March Revolution of 1848 to overcome the system introduced by Metternich led.

The idea of ​​an overall German state also established itself in conservative circles despite the suppression of the March Revolution in 1849. Following the German-Danish War in 1864 and the German War in 1866, the constitution of the northern German Confederation was created in 1867 the first state that included the German countries north of the Main line. After the Franco-German War in 1870/1871, the German Empire was called out as a small German solution (i.e. without Austria) under Prussian leadership in 1871.

After 1815 to 1870, various uprisings of the Risorgimento (German: Reorganity) flared up again and again in the Italian states and provinces with the aim of reaching Italy, which was finally fought in war against Austria between 1861 and 1870 (see Italian wars of independence). The Italian National Revolutionaries refused against the dominance of the Austrian Habsburgs in northern Italy and the Spanish Bourbons in southern Italy.

In Switzerland, the restoration with the federal contract was followed by the powers interested in the existence of Switzerland. This very simple Basic Law was to form the constitutional basis of the Swiss Confederation by 1847.

Delegations and important participants

Signatar states of the Paris Treaty (8 states)

France (15 people)

Charles Murry Tallyrand –egland – Works Joseph Wolfmation Rome Vaubont Fare ulturo Vau den

Great Britain (25 people)

Robert Stewart Viscount Castlereagh – Arthur Wellesley Herzog von Wellington – Richard Trench, 2. Earl of Clancarty – Charles Vane, 3. Marquess of Londonderry – William Cathcart, 1. Earl Cathcart – Stratford Canning, 1. Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe

Austria

Klemens Wenzel Fürst von Metternich-Friedrich von Gentz-Johann Philipp Freiherr von Wessenberg-Ampringen-Nikolaus von Wacken (Hofrat and Austrian Congress Secretary, “Design”)-Franz Binder von Krieglstein-Josef von Hudelist (Metternich’s representative during his long absence) – Joseph Pilat (private secretary Metternichs and editor of the Austrian observer) – Friedrich Schlegel

Portugal (4 person)

Pedro de Sousa Holstein – António de Saldanha da Gama

Prussia (46 people)

Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg – Wilhelm von Humboldt – Karl August Varnhagen von Ense – Friedrich August von Staegemann – Karl Friedrich von Denbeck

Russia (53 people)

Karl Robert Graf von Nesselrode – Ioannis Kapodistrias – Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom Stein – Gustav Ernst von Stackelberg – Andrei Kirillovich Rasumowski

Sweden (3 people)

Carl Axel Löwenhielm

Spain (5 people)

Pedro Gómez Labrador

Prince, free cities and sovereign states in Germany (33 countries)

Anhalt (4 people)

Baden (11 people)

Wilhelm Ludwig Leopold Reinhard Freiherr von Berstett

Bavaria (34 people)

Karl Philipp Fürst von Wrede to Napoleon’s return from Elba 1815, then Aloys Graf von Rechberg

Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (5 people)

Free city of Bremen (1 person)

Johann Smidt achieved the preservation of the independence of the Hanseatic cities and their admission to the German Confederation.

Free city of Frankfurt am Main (2 people)

Free city of Hamburg (2 people)

Hanover (4 people)

Ernst Graf von Münster – Ernst von Hardenberg

Hessen-Darmstadt (6 people)

Hessen-Kassel (8 people)

Hohenzollern-Hechingen (4 people)

Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (2 people)

Holstein-Oldenburg (10 people)

Liechtenstein

Lips

Free city of Lübeck (1 person)

Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1 person)

Leopold von Plessen (important negotiator of the German small states ^[28] )

Mecklenburg-Strelitz (3 people)

Adolf Horn

Nassau (7 people)

Reuss-Ebersdorf (3 people)

Reuss-Greiz (4 people)

Reuss-Schleiz (4 people)

Saxony (9 people)

Detlev von Einsiedel – Friedrich Albrecht von der Schulenburg

Saxony-Coburg-Saalfeld (7 people)

Franz Xaver Fischler from Treuberg

Saxony-Gotha (2 people)

Saxony-Hildburghausen (2 people)

Saxony-Meiningen (2 people)

Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach (17 people)

Schaumburg-Lippe (3 people)

Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1 person)

Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1 person)

Waldeck

Württemberg (22 people)

Georg Ernst Levin Graf von Wintzingerode

Non -German sovereign or formerly sovereign states (12 states)

Denmark (17 people)

Friedrich Wilhelm von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck-Niels Rosenkrantz

Knees (1 person)

Church state (4 people)

Ercole Consalvi

Massa and Carrara

Modena

Naples (4 people)

Netherlands (7 people)

Hans Christoph Ernst von Gagern – Gerrit Karel Spaen van Voorstonden

Sardinia (3 people)

Switzerland, Delegation of the Day Statute (3 people)

Hans von Reinhard – Johann Heinrich Wieland – Johann von Montenach

Switzerland, delegation of the cantons (9 people)

Charles Pictet de Rochemont – François d’Ivernois

Sicily (12 people)

Tuscany (1 person)

Mediatized imperial nobility (67)

Nobility from Swabia, Franconia, Rhine and Rhine; Arenberg; Aspremont lynden; Bassenheim; Bentheim-Steinfurt; Bentheim-Rheda; Bentinck; Boemelberg; Castell; Colloredo Mansfeld; Croÿ; German order of knights; Dietrichstein; Erbach; Eating and thorn; Friedberg; Fugger; Fürstenberg; Goertz; Hessen-Homburg; Hessen-Rheinfels-Rotenburg; Hohenlohe; Hohenlohe-Langenburg-Kirchberg; Prince of Isenburg; Count of Isenburg; Khevenhüller-Metsch; Königsegg-Saulendorf; Leiningen; Leiningen-Billigheim; Leiningen-Neudenau; Leiningen-Westerburg; from the Leyen; Lobkowitz; Loooz-Corswarem; Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg; Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort; Metternich-Winnburg-Ochsenhausen; Oettingen-Wallerstein; Ortenburg; Quadt; Right; Rheingrafen; Salm-Horstmar; Salm-Kyrburg; Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck; Salm-Reifferscheidt-Krautheim; Salm-Salm; Schaesberg; Slot; Schönborn-Wiesentheid; Schönburg-Waldenburg; Schwarzenberg; Sinzendorf; Solms brown rock; Solms-Laubach; Stadion -hannhausen; Stolberg; Thurn and Taxis; Toerring-Gutenzell; Truchsess of Waldburg-Wolfegg-Waldsee; Truchsess of Waldburg-Zeil-Zeil-Truchburg; Wartenberg-Rot; Wied-Neuwied; Wied-Runkel; Windisch-Graetz; Wittgenstein-Berleburg; Wittgenstein-Wittgenstein

Delegations with particular interests (28)

Prince -Bishopric of Basel; ^[29] Principality of Pruntrut; Fürstabei St. Gallen; German Catholics; Frankfurt Catholics; Royal Prussian St. Johanniter Order from the Hospital of Jerusalem; City of Bergamo; City of Biel; City of Como; City of Cremona; City of Gdansk; City of Kreuznach; City of Milan

City of Mainz (2 people)

Franz von Kesselstatt, Heinrich von Mappes

Bremen Jews; Frankfurt Jews; Hamburg Jews; Lübeck Jews; German bookseller; East Frisian landscape; Citizens of Solms-Braunfels; Duchy Bouillon; Former Count of Bormio (Worms); Former Duke of Piombino; Former prince of Elba; Former Queen of Etruria; Officials of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt

Sources

The complete documents of the Vienna Congress were under the title between 1815 and 1835 by Johann Ludwig Klüber Actions of the Vienna Congress in 1814 and 1815 published in nine volumes at the publisher J. J. Palm and Ernst Enke in Erlangen. The first eight volumes appeared between 1815 and 1818, supplements as a ninth volume in 1835. The volumes contained – in selection – as the most important files (with the digitists of the Bavarian State Library for volumes 1 to 8):

literature

• Alexandra Blake: The Metternich system. The reorganization of Europe to Napoleon. WBG, Darmstadt 2014, ISBN 978-3-86312-081-8.
• Manfred clearance: Reform, restoration and crisis. Germany 1789-1847. Modern German history (MDG). Published by Hans-Ulrich Wehler. Volume 4 (= Edition Suhrkamp: 1252 = N.F., Volume 252: New Historical Library), 4th edition, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1996, ISBN 3-518-11252-X, pp. 80–85.
• Manfred clearance: The Vienna Congress. Resignation to private life. Stone and the constant efforts of the Westphalian nobility (June 1814 – December 1818). In: Manfred cleaning up (HRSG.): Freiherr [Heinrich Friedrich Karl] vom [and to] stone: letters and official writings. Volume 1–8, Stuttgart 1957–1970, Volume 5, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1965.
• Peter Burg: The Vienna Congress: The German Confederation in the European State System (= dtv. Volume 4501). Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-423-04501-9.
• Anselm Doering-Manteuffel: From the Vienna Congress to the Paris conference (= Publications of the German Historical Institute London. Volume 28). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1991, ISBN 3-525-36313-3 (at the same time: Erlangen-Nuremberg, University, habilitation thesis, 1986).
• Hans-Dieter Dyroff (ed.): The Vienna Congress – the reorganization of Europe. DTV Documents, Munich 1966.
• Heinz Duchhardt: The Vienna Congress. The redesign of Europe 1814/15. Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-65381-0.
• Elisabeth Fehrenbach: Vom ancien rugime to whomians congress. Oldenbourg, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-486-49754-5.
• Wolf D. Gruner: The Vienna Congress 1814/15. Claim. Stuttgart 2014. ISBN 978-3-15-019252-8.
• Wolf D. Gruner: The German Bund 1815-1866. Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-58795-5.
• Michael Hundt: The minor German states at the Vienna Congress. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1996, ISBN 3-8053-1720-4.
• Michael Hundt (ed.): Sources of small -state constitutional policy on the Vienna Congre ß. Creams. Hamburg 1996. ISBN 3-89622-003-9.
• Agnes Husslein-Arco, Sabine Grabner, Werner Telesko (ed.): Europe in Vienna. The Vienna Congress 1814/15. Hirmer, Munich 2015. ISBN 978-3-7774-2323-4.
• Alexandra von Ilsemann: France’s politics at the Vienna Congress. Reinhold Krämer Verlag, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-89622-005-5.
• Marco Jorio: Congress of Vienna. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Thomas Just, Wolfgang Maderthaner, Helene Maimann (ed.): The Vienna Congress. The invention of Europe. Gerold, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-900812-52-2.
• David King: Vienna 1814. From Kaisern, Königen and the Congress that reinvented Europe. Piper, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-492-05675-5.
• Henry A. Kissinger: The balance of the great powers. Manesse Verlag, Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-7175-8062-0.
• Enno e. kraehe: Metternich’s German Policy. Band 2: The Congress of Vienna 1814–1815 . Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey 1983. ISBN 0-691-05186-0.
• Dieter Langewiesche: Europe between restoration and revolution (= Oldenbourg floor plan of history. Volume 13). 5th edition, Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-49765-6.
• Thierry Lentz: 1815. The Vienna Congress and the founding of Europe. From the French by Frank Sievers. Siedler, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-8275-0047-2.
• Hazel Rosenstrauch: Congress with women. Europe as a guest in Vienna 1814/1815. Czernin, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-7076-0506-8.
• Reinhard Stauber: The Vienna Congress. Böhlau, Vienna u. 2014, ISBN 978-3-8252-4095-0.
• Reinhard Stauber, Florian Kerschbaumer, Marion Koschier (ed.): Power policy and peace insurance. On the political culture of Europe in the sign of the Vienna Congress. Lit, Münster u. 2014, ISBN 978-3-643-50502-6.
• Eberhard Straub: The Vienna Congress. The big festival and the reorganization of Europe. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-608-94847-9.
• Brian Vick: The Congress of Vienna. Power and Politics after Napoleon. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 2014, ISBN 978-0-674-72971-1.
• Eckardt Treichel (editor): Sources on the history of the German Confederation. Department I: 1813–1830 . Oldenbourg de Gruyter, Volume 1: The emergence of the German Confederation 1813-1815. 2 volumes, Munich 2000, ISBN 978-3-486-56417-4.
• Eckhart Treichel (editor): Sources on the history of the German Confederation. Department I: 1815-1830 . Oldenbourg de Gruyter. Volume 2: Organization and inner design of the German Federation 1815-1819 . Munich 2016. ISBN 978-3-486-56702-1, EISBN (PDF) 978-3-486-99224-3.
• Sir Charles Webster: The Congress of Vienna 1814-1815 . Thames and Hudson, London 1963.
• Manfred Wilde, Hans Seehase (ed.): Under new rule. Consequences of the Vienna Congress 1815 (= Studies on German state church history , Volume 10). Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2016, ISBN 978-3-96023-007-6.
• Adam Zamoyski: 1815. Napoleon’s fall and the Vienna Congress. Beck, Munich 2014, translated by Ruth Keen and Erhard Stölting, ISBN 978-3-406-67123-4.

Collective briefing From several current publications for the Vienna Congress at H-SOZ cult.

Weblinks

Remarks

1. ↑ Quoted from Gerhard Geißler: European documents from five centuries. Leipzig 1939, p. 441, see Georg Büchmann: Winged words. The citat treasure of the German people. Haude & Spener’s bookstore (F. Weidling), Berlin 1898.
2. ↑ Quoted from Manfred Görtemaker: Germany in the 19th century. Lines of development. 3rd, revised edition, Opladen 1989, p. 69.
3. ↑ Braubach: From the French Revolution to the Vienna Congress. 1974, p. 151 denies the question
4. ↑ Quoted from Franz Mehring: 1813 to 1819. From Kalisch to Karlsbad. Stuttgart 1913, S. 72.
5. ↑ Actions of the Vienna Congress. Band 6, S. 12–96.
6. ↑ The highlighted principles and the Prussian objective follow: Siemann: From the state of the state to the nation state. 1995, S. 314–320.
7. ↑ Heinz Duchhardt: The Vienna Congress. Munich 2013, p. 87.
8. ↑ The presentation of the negotiations essentially (zzt.) Braubach: From the French Revolution to the Vienna Congress. 1974, S. 151–158.
9. ↑ Heinz Duchhardt: The Vienna Congress. The redesign of Europe 1814/15. C. H. Beck, Munich 2013, p. 90.
10. ↑ Alfred Oppenhoff: The Prussians came 175 years ago. The emergence of the Prussian Rhine Province, its government districts and circles . In: Home yearbook of the district of Ahrweiler . 1991, S. 98 ( Digitized )
11. ↑ Nipperdey, quoted from Siemann: From the state of the state to the nation state. 1995, S. 314.
12. ↑ Contrary to all the contemporary calculations by the state ranks, the king said that he would also keep his given promise as usual.
13. ↑ Wiener Congress: When Switzerland was rebuilt . In: NZZ , 12. August 2015
14. ↑ 200 years of Wiener Congress: The concert of the big ones . In: NZZ , March 21, 2014
15. ↑ Franz Zeilner: Constitution, constitutional law and teaching of public law in Austria until 1848. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2008, S. 45.
16. ↑ On territorial development in Germany and Europe: Botzenhart: Reform, restoration and crisis. 1996, S. 79–82.
17. ↑ Walther Hubatsch (editor): Freiherr vom Stein. Letters and official writings. Band 5: The Vienna Congress. W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 1964, pp. 274–276. See also Heinz Duchhardt: Stone. A biography. Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-402-05365-2, p. 338 f.
18. ↑ So affirmative, but without evidence, Siemann: From the state of the state to the nation state. 1995, p. 320. In contrast, after a detailed discussion of the international law basics, Nikolaus Dommermuth refused: The alleged European guarantee law about the German Confederation 1815 to 1866. Borna-Leipzig 1928.
19. ↑ Federal Akte Article 13: “A state constitution will take place in all states.”
20. ↑ See Siemann: From the state of the state to the nation state. 1995, S. 319 f.
21. ↑ On February 8, 1815, the slave trade was abolished at the Vienna Congress – slavery continued. TU Graz – Graz University of Technology
22. ↑ (1) Treaty between Austria and Russia on the regulation of Polish matters of May 3, 1815 (41 articles); (2) Additional contract between Prussia and Russia on the regulation of the Polish affairs of May 3, 1815 (43 articles); (3) Additional contract between Russia, Prussia and Austria via Krakow of May 3, 1815 (22 articles); (4) Treaty of peace and friendship between Prussia and Saxony of May 18, 1815 (25 articles); (5) Explanation of the King of Saxony on the protection of the rights of the Schönburg House of May 18, 1815 supplemented by an explanation of the five powers of May 29, 1815; (6) assignment and compensation contract between Prussia and Hanover of May 29, 1815 (13 articles); (7) Convention between Prussia and Saxony-Weimar on June 1, 1815; (8) Convention between Prussia and the Dukes and Princes of Nassau on May 31, 1815; (9) Final acts on the establishment of a German Confederation, pre -dated June 8, 1815 (20 articles); (10) Treaty between the Netherlands and Prussia, England, Austria and Russia on May 31, 1815 on the creation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the personal sovereignty of the Prince of Orana via Luxembourg (10 articles); (11) Explanation of the powers on the matters of the Swiss Confederation (Confédération Helvétique) of March 20, 1815 (10 articles) and membership files of the daily (diète) of May 27, 1815 (3 articles); (12) Protocol of March 29, 1815 on the assignments of the King of Sardinia to the canton of Geneva (6 articles); (13) Treaty between Sardinia, Austria, England, Russia, Prussia and France of May 20, 1815 about the creation of the territory about Viktor Emmanuel I (10 articles); (14) Files named: “Conditions of the connection of the states of Genoa to those of his Sardinian majesty” approved on December 17, 1814 by the Genoese delegates; (15) Explanation of the powers on the abolition of the negro trade (traite of the Nègre) of February 8, 1815; (16) Regulation on free shipping (9 articles); (17) Regulation on the ranking of the diplomats (7 articles).
23. ↑ See Siemann: From the state of the state to the nation state. 1995, S. 330 f.
24. ↑ Paul Widmer: The concert of the big ones. The Vienna Congress, the diplomacy and the redesign of Europe two hundred years ago. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, March 22, 2014, p. 63.
25. ↑ Vgl. to the newspapers seewa: clean up: Reform, restoration and crisis. 1996, S. 84.
26. ↑ Richard J. Evans: The European century. A continent in upheaval 1815-1914. Two, Munich 2018, S. 116.
27. ↑ Heinrich August Winkler: History of the West. From the beginning in antiquity to the 20th century . 2nd Edition. Beck, Munich 2010, p. 516.
28. ↑ VGL. Fritz Apian-Bennewitz: Leopold von Plessen and the constitutional policy of the German small states at the Vienna Congress 1814/15. Dissertation. Eutin 1930, DNB 571938906 .
29. ↑ The former Prince -Bishopric of Basel was represented with three delegations. On the one hand with a delegation (Melchior Delfils and Baron Conrad de Billieux), which tried to either rebuild the prince -bishopric or to found a canton of porrent truy in Switzerland. Secondly, a delegation of the French party of the Pruntrut (Sigismond Moreau) with the diffuse goal of forming a canton of Prince -Bishopric in Basel in Switzerland. Third, a delegation from the city of Biel (Friedrich Heilmann), who tried to establish a canton of Biel (with Erguel and La Neuveville) in Switzerland. All of these efforts were not coordinated, but the delegations intrigued. Ultimately, they were all unsuccessful; The former prince of Basel was part of the canton of Bern to compensate him for his losses in Vaud and Aargau. See Paul-Otto Bessire: History of the Bernese Jura and the former Bishopric of Basel. Moutier 1977, 238.