Commander of the Austro-Prussian army who issued the Brunswick Manifesto
On 25 July 1792 at Koblenz he issued a manifesto in his name warning that Paris and its people would face severe reprisals if the French royal family were harmed.
Ruling prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, a nephew of Frederick the Great and a Prussian field marshal, he took command of the combined Austrian and Prussian armies when war began in 1792. On 25 July he issued the Brunswick Manifesto at Koblenz; it bore his name, but the text is generally attributed to émigré circles. Meant to protect the king, the threat instead hardened feeling against the monarchy in Paris. He took Longwy and Verdun, then halted at Valmy on 20 September and withdrew from France. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Auerstedt in 1806.
Career timeline
1780Succeeded his father as ruling prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
1792As commander of the Austro-Prussian army he issued the Brunswick Manifesto on 25 July.
1792Took Longwy and Verdun, then halted at Valmy on 20 September and withdrew from France.
1806Commanded the Prussian army at Auerstedt, was mortally wounded and died at Ottensen on 10 November.
King of Prussia who signed the Declaration of Pillnitz and campaigned against France
In August 1791 he co-signed the Declaration of Pillnitz with Leopold II in support of the French king, and in 1792 he joined in person the campaign led by the Duke of Brunswick.
He succeeded his uncle Frederick II as King of Prussia in 1786 and, at home, turned away from his predecessor’s enlightened style towards tighter censorship and religious control. In reaction to the French Revolution he set aside the old rivalry with Austria: in August 1791 he joined Leopold II in the Declaration of Pillnitz, and a formal alliance followed in February 1792. He took part in person in the 1792 and 1793 campaigns against France, but was held back by lack of money while his advisers looked more to the partitions of Poland. He signed a separate peace with France at Basel in 1795 and died in 1797.
Career timeline
1786Became King of Prussia on the death of his uncle Frederick II.
1791Issued the Declaration of Pillnitz with Leopold II in August in support of the French king.
1792–1793Concluded a formal alliance with Austria in February 1792 and took part in person in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793 against France.
1793–1795Gained territory in the second and third partitions of Poland and made a separate peace with France at Basel in April 1795.
Prussian field marshal who led the federal army in Schleswig in 1848 and marched into Berlin that November to crush the revolution
Born in Stettin in 1784 into the Baltic German Wrangel family, he entered a dragoon regiment in 1796, won the Iron Cross in the wars against Napoleon and, commanding the division at Münster, put down the unrest of 1837 over the Cologne church dispute. From April 1848 to the Malmö armistice of 26 August he commanded the II Corps of the German Confederation's army in the First Schleswig War, refusing an order to withdraw on the grounds that he served the Regent of Germany rather than the king of Prussia. In the autumn he was made commander in the Marches, marched into Berlin on 10 November, proclaimed a state of siege and drove out the Prussian National Assembly. He became field marshal in 1856 and at eighty commanded the allied army in the Second Schleswig War of 1864. Known as "Papa Wrangel", he died in Berlin in 1877.
Career timeline
1796Entered a Prussian dragoon regiment
1848Commander of the federal II Corps in the First Schleswig War
1848Occupied Berlin and proclaimed a state of siege
Aachen businessman who was finance minister in Camphausen's March ministry of 1848 and founded the Disconto-Gesellschaft
Born in 1790 at Finkenwerder near Hamburg, the son of a Protestant minister, he built up businesses in Aachen from 1817 and promoted railway building in the Rhine Province, becoming vice-president of the Rhenish Railway Company. He entered the Rhenish provincial diet in 1843 and the United Diet in 1847, and was counted among the leading compromise-minded liberals. In Camphausen's March ministry of 1848 he became minister of finance, keeping the post under Rudolf von Auerswald until his resignation on 8 September. The Prussian nobility thought him a dangerous radical, while radicals saw him as a servant of the elite; Marx called him a "liberal lick-spittle". He left politics and in 1851 founded the Disconto-Gesellschaft. He died at Schlangenbad in 1864.
Commander of the Austro-Prussian army who issued the Brunswick Manifesto
On 25 July 1792 at Koblenz he issued a manifesto in his name warning that Paris and its people would face severe reprisals if the French royal family were harmed.
Ruling prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, a nephew of Frederick the Great and a Prussian field marshal, he took command of the combined Austrian and Prussian armies when war began in 1792. On 25 July he issued the Brunswick Manifesto at Koblenz; it bore his name, but the text is generally attributed to émigré circles. Meant to protect the king, the threat instead hardened feeling against the monarchy in Paris. He took Longwy and Verdun, then halted at Valmy on 20 September and withdrew from France. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Auerstedt in 1806.
Career timeline
1780Succeeded his father as ruling prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
1792As commander of the Austro-Prussian army he issued the Brunswick Manifesto on 25 July.
1792Took Longwy and Verdun, then halted at Valmy on 20 September and withdrew from France.
1806Commanded the Prussian army at Auerstedt, was mortally wounded and died at Ottensen on 10 November.
King of Prussia who signed the Declaration of Pillnitz and campaigned against France
In August 1791 he co-signed the Declaration of Pillnitz with Leopold II in support of the French king, and in 1792 he joined in person the campaign led by the Duke of Brunswick.
He succeeded his uncle Frederick II as King of Prussia in 1786 and, at home, turned away from his predecessor’s enlightened style towards tighter censorship and religious control. In reaction to the French Revolution he set aside the old rivalry with Austria: in August 1791 he joined Leopold II in the Declaration of Pillnitz, and a formal alliance followed in February 1792. He took part in person in the 1792 and 1793 campaigns against France, but was held back by lack of money while his advisers looked more to the partitions of Poland. He signed a separate peace with France at Basel in 1795 and died in 1797.
Career timeline
1786Became King of Prussia on the death of his uncle Frederick II.
1791Issued the Declaration of Pillnitz with Leopold II in August in support of the French king.
1792–1793Concluded a formal alliance with Austria in February 1792 and took part in person in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793 against France.
1793–1795Gained territory in the second and third partitions of Poland and made a separate peace with France at Basel in April 1795.
Austrian state chancellor whose "Metternich system" held down revolution for thirty years until the Vienna rising of 1848 drove him out
Born the son of a diplomat into the Rhenish House of Metternich, he studied at Strasbourg and Mainz. He became Austrian foreign minister in 1809 and led the Austrian delegation at the Congress of Vienna that shaped post-Napoleonic Europe. As state chancellor from 1821 to 1848 he aligned Austria with Russia and Prussia in the "Metternich system" against revolution and nationalism, policed German universities and press through the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819, and at home relied on censorship and a spy network. In the Vienna rising of 13 March 1848 he resigned at Archduke Ludwig's demand and fled to London. After exile in London, Brighton and Brussels he returned to the Viennese court in 1851 to advise Franz Joseph, and died in 1859 at the age of 86.
Career timeline
1809–1848Foreign minister of Austria
1814–1815Head of the Austrian delegation at the Congress of Vienna
Prussian field marshal who led the federal army in Schleswig in 1848 and marched into Berlin that November to crush the revolution
Born in Stettin in 1784 into the Baltic German Wrangel family, he entered a dragoon regiment in 1796, won the Iron Cross in the wars against Napoleon and, commanding the division at Münster, put down the unrest of 1837 over the Cologne church dispute. From April 1848 to the Malmö armistice of 26 August he commanded the II Corps of the German Confederation's army in the First Schleswig War, refusing an order to withdraw on the grounds that he served the Regent of Germany rather than the king of Prussia. In the autumn he was made commander in the Marches, marched into Berlin on 10 November, proclaimed a state of siege and drove out the Prussian National Assembly. He became field marshal in 1856 and at eighty commanded the allied army in the Second Schleswig War of 1864. Known as "Papa Wrangel", he died in Berlin in 1877.
Career timeline
1796Entered a Prussian dragoon regiment
1848Commander of the federal II Corps in the First Schleswig War
1848Occupied Berlin and proclaimed a state of siege
