Hardenberg, Prince Karl August von

Hardenberg, Prince Karl August von (1750-1822), chancellor of Prussia (1810-1817), who reformed the Prussian state and played a leading role in the coalition that defeated Napoleon. Born on May 31, 1750, in Hanover, 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 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.