Und Lodernd Brennt Das Firmament

Und lodernd brennt das Firmament

In der Völkerschlacht

That nice feeling when you’re finally getting out of an art-block with much inspiration and excitement for the future projects. :)

Due to the occasion comes victorious field-marshal as a warming up piece! Just to sum up that lengthy conversation started at the beginning of the week. 🇦🇹✨

And a poster-like appeal which suits the occasion perfectly! (Of course the font style called “Deutsch-Gotic” will have problems with Umlauts, of course… 🙄)

“Since their correspondence was personal, Metternich did not use a diplomatic cipher but instead went to elaborate lengths to try to ensure that it was not intercepted. He arranged for [Countess] Lieven’s letters to him from London to be sent by British diplomatic bag to the secretary of the Austrian embassy in Paris, Baron Franz von Binder. Inside each sealed package from the Countess, Binder found another package, also addressed to him, which contained a further sealed envelope with no address but which he had instructions to send via the Austrian diplomatic bag to one of Metternich’s secretaries in Vienna. Inside this sealed envelope was yet another, also unaddressed, which the secretary handed personally to Metternich, who was entirely unaware that the letter it contained from Countess Lieven had been secretly intercepted, copied, and resealed during transit by the Paris cabinet noir.”

— Christopher Andrew, The Secret World

Prince of Schwarzenberg

Good morning/day/evening/night to you, dear readers, and

Welcome to my TED-talk!

An enormous TED-talk about field-marshal Schwarzenberg, his military talents, the star-illness of tsar Alexander and Metternich and many other issues.

It all started with frustration about how emperor Alexander I wanted to reclaim the glory of the Sixth coalition “commander” and ended up with gigantic self-discourse based on my current knowledge of Napoleonic era, Austrian affairs at the time and incredible figure of field-marshal Schwarzenberg whom I adore with all my heart.

So, here is the main inflammation point.

"Alexander laughs at the armaments of Austria and said in front of Wolzogen and several other Russian generals: 'We'll see if I or Schwarzenberg was the greatest leader during the past campaigns.'"

"Wolzogen, who visited me yesterday, confirmed that Alexander would not be upset at all if he had an opportunity to demonstrate his talents as a military commander. According to his personal opinion - and then he fully echoed the words of his emperor - without the opportune intervention of Alexander, who had made adjustments to the imperfect disposition chosen by prince Schwarzenberg, the battle of Leipzig would have ended badly. Schwarzenberg, according to tsar, was made not to lead armies, but to conduct ministerial campaigns and other things alike."

…And now I’m ready to start (committing a mass murder) speaking out. 🇦🇹✨

***

As a person striving for the golden means in terms of historical objectivity, I’m obliged to make a remark - the question of Schwarzenberg's military merits is really not an unambiguous one. The prince himself revered the military path as his true vocation,

[Schwarzenberg to his wife, Maria Anna von Hohenfeld]

"How annoying I am to you, my Nani - I'm sorry, but you understand that we are allowed to perk up when it comes to the matters of the craft that we’ve been doing for a long time."

…although he served more out of a sense of duty, for his family and his fatherland, because of his high position in a society and not for the sake of "vain military tinsel" that many wanted to achieve through services in the army (it should be noted: this man had absolutely everything in his life by default, everything that other people, less wealthy and noble, dreamed of and for the sake of which they tore each other's throats, climbing the career ladder on their own).

[Schwarzenberg to Marianna]

"You are familiar with my principles, my Nani, you know that it is not at all a vain military tinsel that keeps me in my place; no one knows better than you that I am, perhaps, the only person in the army who serves solely out of conviction that it’s a duty that my position imposes on me. Our happiness depends entirely on the preservation of the social order (I immensely respect those rich aristocrats from the past, who were at least aware of what exactly their personal "happiness" depended on); unfortunately, my reputation in military circles, attached to that of a decent man, already sets me apart too much, which is why my desertion in reality will affect not so much the whole picture, but the effect it will produce in a society."

Anyway, questions of military nature ignited him much more than diplomatic and court routine, for sure. The latter... bored him usually.

[Schwarzenberg to Marianna]

"Foreigners are received here very courteously, I cannot but praise them for politeness with which they shower me, but such a lifestyle repels me in particular. To rack my head all day in order not to say something completely inappropriate, to constantly turn to the right, then to the left, to pirouette like a dancer, bowing to everyone who is present - this fatigue, this boredom make me sweat a lot day after day."

What’s immensely interesting, Schwarzenberg possessed the mind of a thorough and meticulous observer at the same time: despite boredom and regular ailments, he perfectly grasped all the trends looming on the political horizon. I believe these prudence and insight were the main reason why Metternich valued Schwarzenberg so much and therefore turned to him for cooperation on a common basis (not to mention the fact that both gentlemen considered themselves entitled to actively interfere in the political life of the country that was their native (after all, Klemens is a man of the Holy Roman Empire and therefore subsequently considered himself "his own" in Austria, although the Viennese court refused him this honor with enviable regularity)).

[Here is one of Metternich’s letters]

"The best way I can summarize all of the above is with the saying which I find in the last letter addressed to me by Prince Schwarzenberg: "The fall of a great man is heavyweight!“ This expression is so apt that all the calculations of Austria and the poor middlemen should be aimed at ensuring that we are not crushed."

[And here is a fragment of my favourite Metternich’s biography in Russian]

“On December 20, 1812, Schwarzenberg's auxiliary corps was advancing towards Warsaw to prevent the Prussians from invading deep into the territory of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Schwarzenberg's position can be judged by his own words: "The more both colossi [meaning Russia and France] mutually weaken each other, the better." With a soldier's straight-forwardness, he expressed what was now on Metternich's mind.”

However, Metternich remained a professional diplomat who did not combine this path with the military one, unlike many other employees of the imperial diplomatic corps - same Schwarzenberg, Bubna, Neyperg, etc. In fact, as Marshal Marmont later wrote, Klemens was never able to understand the "true essence" of the war, even if he had personally followed more than one major battle.

[Here is that brilliant characteristic Marmont gave him]

"Like many people, he [Metternich] had a great predilection to believe in what he wanted. Similarly, he had an exceptional claim to the honor of being born with a military genius, and - surprisingly - this is exactly what prince Metternich, who had been living during wartime for so long among the most outstanding generals of his era and had been following many armies, did not understand at all, when it came to the moral side of the war. A person, gifted with the qualities he possessed, had to unravel it immediately, as soon as he found himself on the battlefield, and had to be amazed at the mysteries that accompany it." (In other words, Klemens suffered from the same star-illness that struck poor emperor Alexander: it's hard to be a diplomat during the time of constant wars and not start wanting to snatch a piece of military glory to yourself. It’s very, very hard).

Prince Karl, on the contrary, perfectly delved into all the subtleties of war - his discretion in making decisions on which the lives of hundreds of thousands soldiers depended was worth a lot.

For Schwarzenberg, war was a "craft": he certainly knew how to kill (frenzied passion for hunting on the verge of obsession is a proof to that - it’s, of course, their house’s specialty (and a major trend for many aristocratic families at the time), but without personal inclination it wouldn’t last for long).

[Emperor Napoleon in one of his letters]

"... that if I invited Prince Schwarzenberg to hunt as a correction, it is primarily because of the wedding circumstances, and also because he is greatly amused by it as a military man."

And if we speak about prince's combat talents directly, we have to state that he, unfortunately, could not fully reveal himself as a supreme commander. The campaigns of 1813-1814 did not allow him to fully develop, even though during his military career Schwarzenberg managed to prove himself as a fairly capable field commander who won local victories with the help of those limited military forces he had at hand (Neervinden, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Ulm, Austerlitz, Wagram).

That is, he held himself with dignity in one-on-one battles. In terms of supreme command the same Archduke Karl probably surpassed him, it’s true. He just had much more experience in that field. And who, if not the emperor with the archdukes have to rule the armies! *sounds of sarcasm*

One way or another, we wouldn’t know the true military potential of Schwarzenberg, because, I repeat, in the wars of 1813-1814 (including 1812, although the auxiliary corps meant almost nothing at the time; and then prince Karl covered the retreat of the Grand Army brilliantly, as he was ordered, until Vienna recalled him in February 1813) the Austrians had a lot at stake. Therefore, Schwarzenberg behaved himself as carefully as he could, giving way to any diplomatic endeavours, which Metternich, for his part, conducted purely in the interests of the empire.

[Schwarzenberg to Metternich]

"Don't leave me, my dear friend. You promised me in Frankfurt, while I was actively implementing military operations, to launch peace negotiations; I kept my promise, but alas, how far behind you are!"

Thus, no such full-scale… massacre was taking place as in the campaigns of the Third and Fourth (and even the Fifth) Coalitions, where all sorts of marshals and generals were shining exceptionally bright and Schwarzenberg, at his turn, could prove himself at the higher commanding post.

Despite this uncertainty, I believe that Schwarzenberg certainly possessed greater military talents and experience in combat operations than AlexanderI. In the coalition ranks tsar was assigned with a powerful consolidating function. Actually, that’s why it was decided in the first place to choose an Austrian commander-in-chief for the Allied army - simply to glue everyone to each other. However, this same Austrian commander not only ruled the armies, receiving thousands of unnecessary tips and reprimands from all sides, but also reconciled everyone much more effectively than tsar, whom the glory of great generals of his time hit strongly in the head…

But it’s a completely different story, isn’t it, historians of my fatherland and some other historiographers?)))

The same Metternich, with his usual exorbitant self-esteem, eventually began to attribute the triumph over Napoleon exclusively to himself, to his own clever political moves. Alas, there was no place under the sun for his colleague whose incredible perseverance made this triumph even possible in the first place.

Three days of mourning after field-marshal’s death look truly indecent against all the efforts made by Prince Schwarzenberg, who absolutely ruined his own health in the name of the greater good and in the last years of his life lost all hope for a long happy old age surrounded by his beloved wife Marianna, their three sons Friedrich, Karl and Edmund, numerous relatives and friends (most of whom passed away quickly as well).

In my humble opinion, the willpower and dedication of this one-of-a-kind man should be admired to the depth of our human souls and serve as an example to us all. An example of what a long, persistent, thankless diligence in a field that does not bring you much enthusiasm where, after all the hard work you’ve done, you are denied even minor merits and recognition can lead to.

Dixi. 🏛

“The differences of birth neither gives nor takes any assets; everything depends on personal worth.”

The melancholic civilian on the throne of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm III.

(fairly long rant incoming, slightly biased and emotional, I am no historian and merely stating my opinion)

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Happy Birthday!!!!🥳🥳🥳