“Recognized Leader of the German Opposition?” Mission of the Württemberg Envoy at the Bundestag Karl August von Wangenheim in 1817–1823

Abstract

The article is devoted to the diplomatic activities of Baron Karl August von Wangenheim, who served as the envoy of Württemberg in the Bundestag of the German Confederation in 1817–1823. During those years, when a positive attitude towards the German Union was gradually replaced by disappointment and scepticism, von Wangenheim consistently defended the existing “unionist” model and advocated its development in federal and constitutional directions, in many respects consonant with the requirements of national and liberal movements. The examination of Von Wangenheim's ideas presented in this article is based on his writings, personal letters, and diplomatic documents, in which he outlined both the general concept of Germany's development and specific measures to that end. Their implementation contradicted the protective course of K. von Metternich. The conflict between the two politicians is presented in the article through the case studies of several of its most striking manifestations: the issues of expanding the powers of the federal institutions, the widespread introduction of constitutions, and the creation of a federal army. The author pays special attention to the theoretical and philosophical foundations of von Wangenheim's programme: his liberal constitutionalist model and the theory of the “German triad” as the most balanced form of interaction between German states on different levels. Considering the main factors of the defeat of von Wangenheim's projects, the author notes that the main difficulty for von Wangenheim was not only the resistance of the all-powerful Austrian chancellor but also the lack of trust between the German states, as well as the ambitious foreign policy of the Württemberg king William I, which provoked a diplomatic crisis in the early 1820s that led to the resignation of von Wangenheim and his associates in the Bundestag and, as a consequence, to the preservation of the German Confederation in a weak form that did not meet its original goals.