1773-1859
Austrian Statesman And Diplomat

Early Powerful Connections. Prince Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar von Metternich was born in Coblenz on 15 May 1773 to Count Georg, Austrian envoy of the court of Vienna at Coblenz, and Maria Beatrix, nee Countess von Kageneck. He studied philosophy at the University of Strasburg (1788- 1790) and law and diplomacy at Mainz (1790-1793). In 1795 he married Countess Eleonore Kaunitz, heiress and granddaughter of the former Austrian state chancellor Wenzel Anton, Graf von Kaunitz. The marriage connected him to the highest of the Austrian nobility and gave him access to positions of power that would have been otherwise unobtainable. Metternich began his public career in 1801 as Austrian ambassador to the court of Dresden. Though he had studied for a diplomatic career, he was fortunate in receiving an ambassadorial appointment as his first assignment. It is likely that his father...