Secretary Of Europe; The Life Of Friedrich Gentz, Enemy Of Napoleon

349 Pages·1946·6.884 MB·English

by  Golo Mann

GENTZ AT FIFTY

Secretary of Europe
THE LIFE OF
FRIEDRICH GENTZ,
ENEMY OF NAPOLEON
By GOLO MANN
TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM H. WOGLOM
NEW HAVEN
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON • GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE • OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1946
Copyright, 1946, Yale University Press
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. This book may not be
reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form
(except by reviewers for the public press),
without written permission from the publishers.
TO J. F.

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
The translator’s best friend is his author, but in the present instance
this refuge and strength has been denied, for Dr. Mann is serving over­
seas with the armed forces of the United States and, it may be added,
serving with unusual distinction.
Before entering the army he had been teaching in Olivet College,
Olivet, Michigan, and before that had pursued an active editorial and
teaching career in Switzerland and France after having taken his Ph.D.
in history and sociology at Heidelberg.
In his absence it is fortunate indeed that he was able to persuade a
friend, Dr. Erich Kahler, himself a historian and an author of note,
to assume the responsibility of adviser. Dr. Kahler has faithfully com­
pared every word of the translation with the original manuscript, and
his familiarity with the author’s habit of thought, with the events of the
period under discussion, with its literary style, and even with its minor
characters has made easy and pleasant what otherwise might have been a
well-nigh impossible task. If errors have crept in despite all his care,
the fault is the translator’s alone.
The English version is an accurate reproduction of the German orig­
inal. Almost nothing has been omitted, and nothing added save a date
here and there, perhaps, or a footnote or supplementary word or two
where they seemed to facilitate the argument.
In some explanatory material that accompanied the manuscript
Dr. Mann points out that Friedrich Gentz has been described by an
American author as a fascinating personality, a brilliant and unscrupu­
lous man of the world who wielded a tremendous political influence;
by an English writer as the sole example of a political aspirant who, by
his pen alone, achieved a position of social equality with statesmen and
nobles in an aristocratic country and under a despotic government.
That he was far and away the greatest political writer ever produced
by Germany all those who know his work will agree. Yet he was not
a purely literary man, nor was he purely German. Since no parliamentary
career was possible in his native country he had to make a position of
his own, as a private correspondent of ministers and kings, as an inter­
national adviser, and as a writer of public manifestoes and secret
memoirs. For these activities he was paid by the British and Austrian
Governments, and at times by other European governments as well, but
he never did anything or wrote anything in violation of his convictions.
viii SECRETARY OF EUROPE
He was renowned, too, as a ladies’ man, though this part of his life
cannot well be emphasized in a political biography. To the final chapter
the love of the sixty-five-y ear-old high priest of conservatism for Fanny
Elssler, the famous ballerina, gives a touch of tragicomedy.
The. documentation is enormous, and most of it has been taken into
account. But the works of the “Secretary of Europe,” Metternich’s
right-hand man, have never been assembled and there exist only some
fragmentary Collected Writings, an edition of his letters that has never
been completed, and his diaries; hence most of the material had to be
drawn from such sources as lives and letters, and German, French, and
English periodicals.
Thus Dr. Mann.
Miss Ella Holliday of the Yale University Press guided the erring
feet of the translator through the dismal swamp of technique, Miss Ro­
berta Yerkes edited the manuscript, and Mr. Eugene Davidson presided
over the whole with all his accustomed geniality.
To each my heartfelt thanks.
W. H. W.
New York, February, 1946.
CONTENTS
Translator’s Preface vii
List of Illustrations xi
Introduction xiii
PART ONE. GENTZ IN PRUSSIA
I. Youth 3
IL The French Revolution 19
III. Prussian Politics 38
IV. Gentz and His Friends 51
V. Flight into Austria 69
PART TWO. GENTZ IN EUROPE
VI. London, 1802 85
VIL Stop Bonaparte! 97
VIII. Why Prussia Fell 123
IX. New Facts, New Ideas 145
X. Heyday of the Emperor 166
XL Triumph at Last 184
XII. Vienna Congress 207
XIII. Paris, 1815 232
PART III. GENTZ IN AUSTRIA
XIV. At Home 251
XV. Diplomacy of the Highway 259
XVI. Victa Catoni 279
XVII. July 293
Epilogue 308
Index 315