Karl August von Hardenberg

Karl August von Hardenberg (born May 31, 1750, Essenrode, near Gifhorn, Brunswick [Germany]—died November 26, 1822, Genoa [Italy]) was a Prussian statesman and administrator, who preserved the integrity of the Prussian state during the Napoleonic Wars. Domestically, he was able to continue the reforms introduced by Karl, Reichsfreiherr (imperial baron) vom und zum Stein. In foreign affairs, he exchanged Prussia’s alliance with France for an alliance with Russia in 1813, and in 1814–15 he represented Prussia at the peace negotiations in Paris and Vienna. Hardenberg vainly fought for the establishment of a constitution but gained lasting fame for his liberalization of financial, economic, and agricultural policies and for his conduct of foreign affairs, which created the political requisites for Prussia’s liberation from French rule in 1813–15.

Early years

Hardenberg’s father, Christian Ludwig, a member of an aristocratic family with estates in the southern part of the electorate of Hanover in Germany, was a general. Karl August was born on his mother’s estate near Brunswick, the eldest of seven children. He was tutored at home in languages, history, and geography and attended a prestigious private school in Hanover for a year (1762–63).

To prepare himself for a career in public administration, Hardenberg enrolled at the University of Göttingen in the fall of 1766. In 1768 he spent a year at the University of Leipzig. While there, Hardenberg attended lectures on archaeology, history, literature, mathematics, the natural sciences, and economics. He also took lessons in drawing and music, but his main field was law, in which Göttingen provided the best instruction in Germany—often paving the way for an appointment in the imperial civil service or in that of one of the German states.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

In 1770 Hardenberg left Göttingen and entered the Hanoverian Ministry of Justice. In order to advance his career he set out in the summer of 1772—on the advice of King George III of England, who was also elector of Hanover—on a year’s travel throughout the whole of Germany, primarily to widen his political horizons. In 1773 he went to England to be presented to King George III, who appointed him Hanoverian councillor.

In 1774 Hardenberg married the 15-year-old countess Juliane von Reventlow, who bore him a son and a daughter; they were divorced in 1788. Because his career had come to a standstill and his wife had involved him in a scandal by her liaison with the prince of Wales, Hardenberg left the Hanoverian service and entered that of the duke of Brunswick. There, however, he proved to be unsuccessful as head of the department of education; moreover, his personal life became the subject of public gossip, for immediately after his divorce he married Sophie von Lenthe, who had been divorced from her husband on Hardenberg’s account.

Prussian service

Hardenberg gladly accepted the post of Prussian provincial minister in Ansbach-Bayreuth that was offered him in 1790, a post in which he performed splendidly. He had the knack of selecting highly capable experts and attracting talented junior executives; among the former was the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who was in charge of the technical improvement of the mines. All in all, Hardenberg made a model Prussian province out of the two former margravates.

When, in 1798, he won the abiding trust of King Frederick William III of Prussia, he moved to Berlin. He was entrusted with the most important administrative and diplomatic tasks (e.g., serving as foreign minister from 1804 to 1806). Meanwhile, in Ansbach his second marriage had come to grief when he took his mistress into his household. She stayed with him for more than 20 years, going with him to Berlin and later to his estate in the province of Brandenburg. He married her in 1807, six years after he had been divorced from his second wife, but shortly before his death he also separated from her.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

Up to 1806 Hardenberg advocated neutrality toward France with a view to gains in Germany. In domestic affairs, he, like Karl vom Stein, aimed to abolish the “cabinet” system of government and to establish the departmental ministers at the expense of the cabinet counselors, by obtaining for them direct access to the king as the king’s most powerful advisers. This he finally achieved in April 1807.

Appointment as chancellor

After Prussia’s collapse in the war of 1806–07 against France, Hardenberg, at Napoleon’s behest, had to surrender his ministry and to withdraw from political life. When in 1810 Prussia was faced with insolvency and could hardly maintain payments of the indemnity to Napoleon, Hardenberg offered his services to restore the state’s finances. He held the trust of King Frederick William III and the sympathy of Queen Louise, and Napoleon, to whom payment of the indemnity mattered most, agreed to his reinstatement. Thus, in 1810 Hardenberg became prime minister with full powers. At the same time he supervised the ministries of the interior and finance.

In domestic matters Hardenberg began the second stage of the reforms inaugurated in 1807–08 under Stein. After his enforced dismissal in the summer of 1807, the king had charged Hardenberg to draw up a report on the reorganization of the Prussian state. He thereupon set out his fundamental principles for reform in the comprehensive “Riga memorandum.” He held fast to the absolute monarchy but showed sympathy for the liberal principles of the French Revolution and the administrative reforms in France, completed under Napoleon. His theme was “democratic principles in a monarchical regime.” He recommended these principles to the king as the only means of overcoming the crisis of the state. The reforming legislation of 1810–12, inspired by Hardenberg, grew from these convictions. This legislation simplified and unified the excise duties, which had hitherto been levied only in the towns, and sought to impose the property tax on the nobility, which had previously been exempted. It also introduced freedom of trade and a profit tax, regulated the redemption of peasant holdings from the great landed estates, and brought civic equality for the Jews. Further legislation gave greater and more rapid efficacy to the executive in the intermediary administrative spheres. Hardenberg even made a bold attempt to bring the people into closer contact with the affairs of state by inviting the cooperation of the upper middle-class citizens—in accordance with the French example—and preparing a representative assembly with consultative powers. He hoped thus to win public opinion for the government and its unpopular measures, so often necessary during the emergency. However, the opposition of the aristocratic landowners and their influence with the king often attenuated the scope of his plans. The reaction after 1815 was unfavourable to the reforms and brought the agricultural reorganization to a halt, and the establishment of a representative assembly, which Hardenberg urged until his death, was postponed until 1847.

If Hardenberg gave less of his energies to reform after 1812, this was because foreign policy made ever greater claims on him. Early in 1812 Prussia had to sign a military alliance with France. After Napoleon’s disastrous Russian campaign, Hardenberg preserved the appearance of the alliance but increased armaments and watched for the favourable moment for liberation. With great discretion, he advised the king to break away only when Prussia had an alliance with Russia. This was achieved, on the basis of the Russian proposals delivered by Stein in February 1813, in the alliance of Kalisz. Accommodating and ready for compromise, Hardenberg, who represented Prussia in numerous international negotiations between 1813 and 1822, steered his country through the conflicting interests of the great European powers. Particularly at the Congress of Vienna, during the crisis between the great powers over the “Saxon-Polish question,” he was able to bring about the rapprochement between Russia and Great Britain, the main adversaries: he yielded to pressure from Austria and Great Britain and waived the annexation of Saxony (which Prussia had stipulated as the price of consent to Russia’s designs on Poland) in return for compensation elsewhere. In foreign affairs, he associated himself, from 1815, with the conservative policy of the Holy Alliance. Hardenberg was created prince in 1814.

Legacy

As Hardenberg grew older, respect for his ideas increasingly declined in political circles. While patriots and reformers found him too accommodating and conciliatory, in the eyes of advocates of the return to absolutist rule he was too liberal. By 1822 his great diplomatic achievements and notable domestic reforms of 1810–13 had been largely forgotten. Later in the 19th century the great German historian Leopold von Ranke was to emphasize Hardenberg’s achievements as a statesman, pointing out that he had preserved the Prussian state when it was on the verge of destruction at Napoleon’s hands. Since then Hardenberg has been primarily remembered in that role. While the social progress achieved by his reform legislation had always been acknowledged, it was not until the 20th century that it was truly appreciated.