When I am asked who my favorite historical figure is, I cannot help but say Prince Klemens von Metternich. Throughout my life, the majority of the responses I’ve gotten to this have been incredulous.

The Habsburg Empire that dominated Central Europe from the Middle Ages until its collapse after World War I has long been seen as a byword for sclerosis and governmental ineptitude. Yet a recent wave ...

The legacy of Prince Clemens von Metternich (1773–1859), the Austrian foreign minister from 1809 and also chancellor from 1821 until 1848, has been a hotly debated issue among historians for decades.

Many figures in history have spawned an “ism” or an “era.” Clemens von Metternich is one of the few who have had a whole “system” named for them. For more than 30 years after the end of the Napoleonic ...

Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian Empire’s foreign minister from 1809 to 1848, has a bad reputation. Even Henry Kissinger, who famously defended the archconservative Austrian as the brilliant ...

This essay was originally written by David North and published in the Bulletin on March 13, 1972. North was at the time a member of the editorial staff of the Bulletin, the weekly newspaper of the ...

In a recent piece for Carnegie Europe, the Dutch journalist, Caroline de Gruyter, dismissively titled her essay “Austrian Acrobatics in Europe” outlining what she describes as the “ultrapragmatist” ...

THESE European reputations are often surprises to us when we discover what inspired them. “Congress Dances” happens to be an exception, for it is quite clear how the Old World found novelty and ...