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Count Beust and Germany, 1866–1870: Reconquest, Realignment, or Resignation?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Hans A. Schmitt
Hans A. Schmitt
Affiliation:
New York University
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Extract

On August 22, 1866, a month and a half after the disaster of Sadowa, Francis Joseph I of Austria wrote to his mother: “If you have the whole world against you and absolutely no friends, chances of success are few, but we must resist as long as we can, do our duty until the last, and finally perish honorably.” To his council of ministers he put it less dramatically and less plaintively on September I: For a long time to come Austria would have to eschew war in all forms and for all purposes.

Type
Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 1968 , pp. 20 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1968

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References

1. Franz, Schnürer, Briefe Kaiser Franz Josephs I. an seine Mutter 1838–1872 (Munich, 1930), p. 357.Google Scholar

2. Wagner, Walter, “Kaiser Franz Joseph und das Deutsche Reich” (unpub. diss., Vienna, 1950), p. 37. This excellent study deserves publication.Google Scholar

3. Historians of German unity from Sybel to Oncken accuse Beust of revanchism. One of the latter's disciples produced the first major study of Beust's German policy which propounded this traditional view: Erichsen, Ernst, Die deutsche Politik des Grafen Beust im Jahre 1870, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Reichsgründung (Kiel, 1927).Google ScholarGrob, Ernst, Beusts Kampf gegen Bismarck (Turbenthal, 1930), pp. 1–5,Google Scholar while deploring that historians have viewed the Austrian Chancellor “too onesidedly from the little-German point of view,” also concludes that his goal was to “nullify the Treaty of Prague.” Two unpublished Austrian dissertations, though written almost a quarter century apart, Baudisch, Ingeborg, “Die Politik Beusts nach dem Falle von Sedan” (Vienna, 1936),Google Scholar and Poppinger, Odo, “Bayrisch-Österreichische Beziehungen von Königgrätz bis Versailles” (Vienna, 1960), also agree that Francis Joseph's resentment against Prussia explains the appointment of Beust.Google Scholar More qualified and accurate assessments can be found in von Srbik, Heinrich Ritter, Aus Österreichs Vergangenheit von Prinz Eugen bis Kaiser Franz Joseph (Salzburg, 1949);Google ScholarWagner, Walter, “Kaiser Franz Joseph und das deutsche Reich,”Google Scholar and Schoenhals, Kai Peter, “The Russian policy of Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust, 1866–1871” (unpub. diss., University of Rochester, 1964), the latter of which overemphasizes. Beust's concern with the Eastern Question. A Beust biography remains to be written.Google Scholar

4. Chiff. Tel., Chotek to Mensdorff, July 3, 1866, Haus–, Hof– und Staatsarchiv, Vienna, Politisches Archiv, XL, 124. All unpublished documents used in this paper are from the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, which will not be cited hereafter. The Politisches Archiv will be cited as PA.

5. Francis Joseph to Beust, July 9, 1866, PA, XL, 52.

6. Mensdorff to Francis Joseph, Sept. 21, 1866. Kabinettsarchiv, Geheime Akten, Carton 6, Folder Mensdorff-Pouilly. At this very time Mensdorff had invited the Dutch minister of finance, van Bosse, to come to Vienna to discuss taking over the same jurisdiction in the imperial government. Van Bosse came, was received by the Emperor, but finally decided to turn down the offer because of the desperate state of Austrian finances, and because of the difficulties he expected to encounter as a foreigner dealing with jealous Austrian subalterns. Cf. private letter, Langenau (The Hague) to Mensdorff, Oct. 15, 1866, PA, XXIII, 17.

7. Ministerrathsprotokolle, July 21, 1866.

8. Rosler, Rozia, “Die Mission des Ferdinand Freiherren von Beust als österreichischer Minister im Jahre 1866” (unpub. diss., Vienna, 1936), p. 22.Google Scholar

9. Bihl, Adolf, “Beusts deutsche Politik und die Luxemburger Frage des Jahres 1867” (unpub. diss., Vienna, 1930), p. 17.Google Scholar

10. Ministerrathsprotokolle, October 29, 1866.

11. Schmalisch, Rainer, “Die Stellung der liberalen und konservativen Zeitungen zu Preussen und Frankreich zwischen den Kriegen von 1866 und 1870–1871” (unpub. diss., Vienna, 1963), pp. 275–76.Google Scholar

12. Srbik, Aus Österreichs Vergangenheit, pp. 192–93.

13. Count Leo Thun to Onno Klopp, Oct. 18, 1866, Nachlass Onno Klopp, Carton VIII, Fasc. 3.

14. von Beust, Friedrich Ferdinand, Aus drei Vierteljahrhunderten (Stuttgart, 1887), II, 433;Google ScholarCornelius, Friedrich, Der Friede von Nikolsburg und die öffentliche Meinung in Österreich (Munich, 1927), pp. 50–67.Google Scholar

15. Beust to Francis Joseph, undated, PA, XL, 52. The Emperor's marginal comment was dated Nov. 7, 1866, and read: “I agree completely with these views.”

16. Private letter, Dalwigk to Beust, Feb. 26, 1867, PA, VII, 61.

17. Beust to Hoyos (Darmstadt), Jan. 16, 1867, and Apr. 6, 1867, PA, XL, 126.

18. Cf. the transmission of reports from Austrian agents in Saxony to Beust through the Ministry of Police, Jan. 11, 1867, PA, XL, 126; Bihl, “Beusts deutsche Politik,” pp. 38–39. That he hoped to activate Ludwig II's suspicions against Hohenlohe is reflected in Beust's memorandum to Francis Joseph, Feb. 24, 1867, PA, XL, 53.

19. Beust to Wimpffen (Berlin), Feb. 23, 1867, PA, III, 97.

20. Beust to Wimpffen, Mar. 28, 1867, PA, III, 97.

21. Copy, anonymous memorandum, “Zur Frage einer Cession des Gross-Herzogthums Luxemburg,” Apr. 1, 1867, PA, XXIII, 18.

22. The sincerity of the Prussian offer has been a subject of controversy. Cf. Doeberl, Michael, Entwicklungsgeschichte Bayerns, III: Vom Regierungsantritt König Ludwigs I. bis zum Tode König Ludwigs II. (Munich, 1931), pp. 484–87.Google Scholar

23. Beust to Wimpffen, Apr. 19, 1867, PA, III, 97.

24. Beust to Wimpffen, Apr. 27, 1867, Kabinettsarchiv, Geheime Akten, Carton 17.

25. Beust to Wimpffen, Nov. 13, 1867, PA, III, 97.

26. Klindworth's report, “Süddeutsche politische Zustände,” Nov. 5, 1867, PA, IX, 85. On Klindworth, see Stern, A., “Georg Klindworth, ein politischer Geheimagent des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts,” Historische Vierteljahrsschrift, XXV (1931), 442–46.Google Scholar

27. On the April offer, see George, Otto, “Die französische Politik des Grafen Beust” (unpub. diss., Vienna, 1947), pp. 93–95;Google Scholar also draft, Francis Joseph to Nepoleon III, May 1868, Beust memorandum, July 1868, and Beust to Metternich (Paris), Nov. 6, 1868, all in PA, IX, 177.

28. Beust to Taaffe, Feb. 12, 1868, and Taaffe to Beust, Feb. 14, 1868, PA, XL, 128; Jutta, Füger, “Die Stellung der österreichischen Regierung zur welfischen Agitation 1866–1870” (unpub. diss., Vienna, 1943), pp. 59–80.Google Scholar

29. Beust to Wimpffen, Dec. 22, 1868, PA, III, 99; Beust to Metternich, Dec. 22, 1868, PA, IX, 177; Schübelin, Walter, Das Zollparlament und die Politik von Baden, Bayern und Württemberg 1866–1870 (“Historische Studien,” Vol. 262, Berlin, 1935), pp. 73–102.Google Scholar

30. Ingelheim (Munich) to Onno Klopp, May 29, 1869, Nachlass Onno Klopp, VIII, 3.

31. Beust to Metternich, June 9, 1869, PA, IX, 177. For a detailed account of this episode, see Houston, Douglas W., “The Negotiations for a Triple Alliance between France, Austria and Italy, 1869–1870” (unpub. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1959), pp. 59–140.Google Scholar

32. Beust to Wimpffen, Oct. 11, 1869, PA, III, 100.

33. Fischhof, Adolf, Österreich und die Bürgschaft seines Bestandes (Vienna, 1869), pp. 11–37.Google Scholar

34. See, e.g., Beust's letter to the Cisleithanian Ministry of Education on the appointment of a professor of aesthetics at Graz, Feb. 2, 1869, PA, I, 553.

35. Schuschitz, Harald, “Von Königgrätz bis zum Deutsch-Französischen Krieg im Spiegel der militärischen Presse Österreichs” (unpub. diss., Vienna, 1960), pp. 9–11, 73Google Scholar; Sbrik, Aus Österreichs Vergangenheit, p. 195.

36. See, e.g., Austria, Delegationen des Reichsrates, Stenographische Sitzungsprotokolle, III (1869), July 11, 1869.

37. Beust to Wimpffen, Jan. 20 and Feb. 3, 1870, PA, III, 102.

38. Beust to Metternich, May 18, 1870, PA, IX, 97. Gramont was named French foreign minister on May 15, but did not reach Paris from Vienna until the beginning of June.

39. Private letter, Beust to Metternich, July 5, 1870, PA, IX, 97.

40. Beust to Metternich, July 11, 1870, PA, IX, 97; Beust to Metternich, July 11, 1870, PA, IX, 177. For France's side, see Gramont to Beust, July 17, 1870, PA, IX, 177.

41. Erichsen, Die deutsche Politik des Grafen Beust im Jahre 1870, p. 24.

42. At this point the word “Germany” was crossed out and the phrase “effective guarantees of the European equilibrium” substituted in Andrássy's handwriting.

43. Ministerrathsprotokolle, July 18, 1870, also published recently in Diószegi, István, Ausztria-Magyarország és a Francia-Porosz Haború 1870–1871 (Budapest, 1965), pp. 257–265. There is no evidence in these minutes that the meeting featured a bitter clash between Beust the “hawk” and Andrássy the “dove.”Google Scholar

44. Beust to Vetsera (Darmstadt), July 21, 1870, PA, VII, 70.

45. Copy, Beust to Metternich, July 20, 1870, PA, IX, 97, italics mine: “Auszug aus den ungedruckten Memoiren [Graf Vitzthums],” no date, PA, IX, 177.

46. Ministerrathsprotokolle, Aug. 22, 1870; Beust to Wimpffen, Oct. 22, 1870, PA, III, 102.

47. Erichsen, Die deutsche Politik des Grafen Beust im Jahre 1870, pp. 7–273.

48. Schnürer, Briefe Kaiser Franz Josephs I. an seine Mutter, pp. 380–381.

49. Baudisch, “Die Politik Beusts nach dem Falle von Sedan,” pp. 62–63.

50. Quoted in Doeberl, III, 481.