Prince
Chancellor of Prussia
1750-1822
Born on May 31, 1750, in Hannover, Hardenberg
entered the service of the king of Prussia in 1792. In 1795 he
negotiated the Treaty of Basel, ceding Prussian territory west
of the Rhine to revolutionary France. He was foreign minister
from 1804 to 1806, when Napoleon, after defeating and occupying
Prussia, had him removed from office. Appointed chancellor in
1810, Hardenberg carried out extensive reforms, imposing a uniform
system of taxation, abolishing restrictions on internal trade,
easing the condition of the peasantry, and granting equality to
Jews. His attempt to establish a consultative representative assembly,
however, was thwarted by opposition from the aristocracy. After
Napoleon's hold on Europe was weakened by the failure of his Russian
campaign, Hardenberg formed an alliance with Russia (1813), beginning
Germany's War of Liberation against the French. In 1814-1815 he
represented Prussia at the Congress of Vienna, where the allies
redrew the map of Europe after Napoleon's downfall. His collaboration
with Britain and Austria in opposing Russian plans for the annexation
of Poland was repudiated by Prussia's King Frederick William III,
but he secured compensation for Prussia, which received parts
of Saxony (Sachsen) and the Rhineland. In Germany he agreed to
a confederation of states under the presidency of Austria. Hardenberg
died in Genoa, Italy, on November 26, 1822.
