Christian Graf von Haugwitz

Christian August Heinrich Kurt Graf von Haugwitz (11 June 1752 – 1832) was a German statesman, best known for serving as Foreign Minister of Prussia during the Napoleonic Wars.

Haugwitz was born at Peucke near Oels, a member of the Silesian (Protestant) branch of the ancient family of Haugwitz, of which the Catholic branch was established in Moravia. He studied law, spent some time in Italy, returned to settle on his estates in Silesia, and in 1791 was elected general director of the province by the Silesian estates. Upon the request of King Frederick William II of Prussia he entered the Prussian civil service and became ambassador at Vienna in 1792. At the end of the same year he became a member of the cabinet at Berlin.

Haugwitz, who had attended the young Emperor Francis II at his coronation and been present at the conferences held at Mainz to consider the attitude of the German powers towards the French Revolution, was opposed to the attitude of the French émigrés and to any interference in the internal affairs of France. After the War of the First Coalition broke out, however, the policy of the Committee of Public Safety made peace impossible, while the strained relations between Austria and Prussia on the question of territorial compensations crippled the power of the Allies to carry the war to a successful conclusion.

It was in these circumstances that Haugwitz entered on the negotiations that resulted in the subsidy treaty between Great Britain and Prussia, and Great Britain and the Netherlands, signed at the Hague on 19 April 1794. Haugwitz, however, was not the man to direct a strong and aggressive policy; the failure of Prussia to make any effective use of the money supplied broke the patience of Pitt, and in October the denunciation by Great Britain of the Hague treaty broke the last tie that bound Prussia to the Coalition. The Peace of Basel on 5 April 1795, was mainly due to the influence of Haugwitz.

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