page_title: Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg
section_title: Josephinism
hierarchical_section_title: Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg / State Chancellor / Josephinism
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of a statue of Graf Kaunitz. This statue is part of the monument of Maria Theresia, which stands in en:Vienna in the park between the Kunsthistorisches Museum ("Art History Museum") and the Naturhistorisches Museum ("Natural History Museum"). The picture was shot on March 20, 2003. presumed
context_page_description: Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg was an Austrian and Czech diplomat and statesman in the Habsburg Monarchy. A proponent of enlightened absolutism, he held the office of State Chancellor for about four decades and was responsible for the foreign policies during the reigns of Maria Theresa, Joseph II, and Leopold II. In 1764, he was elevated to the noble rank of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire.
context_section_description: The State Chancellor was a liberal patron of education and art, a notable collector, one of the founders of the Royal Academy in Brussels, and sponsor of Christoph Willibald Gluck. He worked towards the goal of subjecting the Catholic Church to the state, most notably against tax exemption and the traditional institution of mortmain ownership of real estates. Kaunitz followed the thoughts of Jansenism and the Age of Enlightenment; among his aims was also the better education of the commoners.
  Although Maria Theresa's son and heir, Emperor Joseph II generally shared such ideas, his reforms moved too fast and too thoroughly for Kaunitz. The ongoing disputes between the two men led to several resignation requests by the state chancellor. Kaunitz advocated a reconciliation with the former enemy Prussia; he accompanied Joseph II when he met Frederick II two times in 1769 and 1770. The Prussian king was annoyed by Kaunitz' arrogance and patronising manners, nevertheless the approach realised in the First Partition of Poland in 1772, backed by both Kaunitz and Joseph II against the concerns of Maria Theresa ("good faith is lost for all time").
  In 1777, Joseph's hasty military action led to the War of the Bavarian Succession. When the Austrian position became untenable, Kaunitz carried the peace negotiations on his own initiative; by the 1779 Treaty of Teschen, he won the Bavarian Innviertel region for Austria. In Imperial matters, he was able to dominate the Perpetual Diet of Regensburg; in 1780 he was also successful in placing the Habsburg Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria, Joseph's younger brother, as a coadjutor bishop in the Electorate of Cologne and the Prince-Bishopric of Münster.
  Kaunitz worked around the objections of Joseph II to initiate the Austro-Turkish War of 1788-91. The goal was to humiliate Austria's old enemy, Prussia. However, it misfired: it proved a costly military operation to help Russia, but it did not achieve any anti-Prussian objective. After Joseph II's death, Leopold II became emperor; the war was ended and Kaunitz's power collapsed. The renunciation of Kaunitz' balancing policies led to a serious deterioration of Austria's domestic and international affairs. Meanwhile, Prussia established the Protestant Fürstenbund league, and the Brabant Revolution broke out in the Austrian Netherlands.
caption: Prince Kaunitz-Rietberg (part of the Maria Theresa monument in Vienna)
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