Person1773 – 1859

Klemens von Metternich

Also called: Metternich

Austrian foreign minister and chancellor who presided over the Congress of Vienna and suppressed liberal and nationalist movements (the Vienna system) until the 1848 revolution drove him out

Austrian foreign minister from 1809, he steered his country through the Napoleonic era. Presiding over the Congress of Vienna, he designed a European order based on legitimacy and the balance of power and led the “Concert of Europe”, in which the powers settled disputes by conference. With the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819 he censored German universities and the press, suppressing liberal and nationalist movements. The Vienna revolution of March 1848 forced him out; he fled to England and returned to Vienna in 1851.

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2 related events

1
1814 – 1815Congress of Vienna and the Vienna Systemleader
After the Napoleonic Wars the European powers met in Vienna and agreed to restore the pre-revolutionary order. The conservative system led by Metternich (the Vienna system) suppressed liberal and nationalist movements.
2
1848 – 1849March Revolution and the Revolutions of 1848related figure
News of the February Revolution sparked the March revolutions in Vienna and Berlin, driving out Metternich and ending the Vienna system. The Frankfurt Parliament debated German unity, but the revolutions were eventually crushed.

People who appear alongside

Alexander I of Russia1777 – 1825
Emperor of Russia (1801–1825) who defeated Napoleon's invasion, attended the Congress of Vienna in person and proposed the Holy Alliance

Themes this person appears in

Revolutions and Nation-States1776 – 1871
From the Declaration of Independence to the German Empire — a century in which liberalism and nationalism toppled the old order in Europe and the Americas and built nation-states