Friedrich von Gentz
| Friedrich von Gentz | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Friedrich von Gentz
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| Born |
May 2, 1764 Breslau, Prussia |
| Died | June 9, 1832 (aged 68) Vienna, Austrian Empire |
| Occupation | Publicist, statesman |
Friedrich von Gentz (2 May 1764 – 9 June 1832) was a German publicist and statesman.
Gentz was born at Breslau.
His father was an official, his mother distantly related to the Prussian minister Friedrich Ancillon. On his father's transfer to Berlin as director of the mint, the boy was sent to the Joachimsthal gymnasium there; his brilliant talents, however, did not develop until later, when at the University of Königsberg he fell under the influence of Kant. But though his intellect was sharpened and his zeal for learning quickened by the great thinker's influence, Kant's categorical imperative did not prevent him from yielding to the taste for wine, women and gambling which pursued him through life. When in 1785 he returned to Berlin, he received the appointment of secretary to the royal Generaldirectorium, his talents soon gaining him promotion to the rank of councillor for war (Kriegsrath). During an illness, which kept him virtuous by confining him to his room, he studied French and English, gaining a mastery of these languages which opened up for him opportunities for a diplomatic career.
His interest in public affairs was, however, first aroused by the outbreak of the French Revolution. Like most quick-witted young men, he greeted it at first with enthusiasm; but its subsequent developments cooled his ardour and he was converted to more conservative views by Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, a translation of which into German (1794) was his first literary venture. This was followed, the next year, by translations of works on the Revolution by Mallet du Pan and Mounier, and at this time he also founded and edited a monthly journal, the Neue deutsche Monatsschrift, in which for five years he wrote, mainly on historical and political questions, maintaining the principles of British constitutionalism against those of revolutionary France. The knowledge he displayed of the principles and practice of finance was especially remarkable. In 1797, at the instance of English statesmen, he published a translation of a history of French finance by Francois Divernois (1757–1842), an eminent Genevese exile naturalized and knighted in England, extracts from which he had previously given in his journal. His literary output at this time, all inspired by a moderate Liberalism, was astounding, and included an essay on the results of the discovery of America, and another, written in French, on the English financial system (Essai sur l'état de l'administration des finances de la Grande-Bretagne, London, 1800). Especially noteworthy, however, was the Denkschrift or Memorandum he addressed to King Frederick William III on his accession (1797), in which, inter alia, he urged upon the king the necessity for granting freedom to the press and to commerce. For a Prussian official to venture to give uncalled-for advice to his sovereign was a breach of propriety not calculated to increase his chances of favor; but it gave Gentz a conspicuous position in the public eye, which his brilliant talents and literary style enabled him to maintain. Moreover, he was from the first aware of the probable developments of the Revolution and of the consequences to Prussia of the weakness and vacillations of her policy.
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