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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: CAU-CHA |
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CHARLES AUGUSTUS [KARL AUGUST] (1757-1828) , grand-duke of Saxe- Weimar
Weimar
governor was Count Eustach von Gorz, a German nobleman of the old strait-laced school; but a more humane element
One of the first acts of the young grand-duke was to summon Goethe to Weimar, and in 1776 he was made a member of the privy council. " People of discernment," he said, " congratulate me on possessing this man. His intellect, his genius is known. It makes no difference if the world is offended because I have made Dr Goethe a member of my most important collegium without his having passed through the stages of minor official professor and councillor of state." To the undiscerning, the beneficial effect of this appointment was not at once apparent. With Goethe the " storm and stress " spirit descended upon Weimar, and the stiff traditions of the little court dissolved in a riot of youthful exuberance. The duke was a deep drinker, but also a good sportsman; and the revels of the court were alternated with break-neck rides across country, ending in nights spent round the camp fire under the stars. Karl August, however, had more serious tastes. He was interested in literature, in art, in science; critics, unsuspected of flattery, praised his judgment in painting; biologists found in him an expert in anatomy. Nor did he neglect the government of his little state. His reforms were the outcome of something more than the spirit of the " enlightened despots " of the 18th century; for from the first he had realized that the powers of the prince to play " earthly providence " were strictly limited. His aim, then, was to educate his people to work out their own political and social salvation, the object of education being in his view, as he explained later to the dismay of Metternich and his school, to help men to " independence of judgment." To this end Herder was summoned to Weimar to reform the educational system; and it is little wonder that, under a patron so enlightened, the university of Jena attained the zenith of its fame, and Weimar became the intellectual centre of Germany. Meanwhile, in the affairs of Germany and of Europe the character of Karl August gave him an influence out of all proportion to his position as a sovereign prince. He had early faced the problem presented by the decay of the Empire, and began to work for the unity of Germany. The plans of the emperor Joseph II., which threatened to absorb a great part of Germany into the heterogeneous Habsburg monarchy, threw him into the arms of Prussia, and he was the prime mover in the establishment
Napoleon
At the congress of Vienna Karl August was present in person, and protested vainly against the narrow policy of the powers in confining their debates to the " rights of the princes " to the exclusion of the " rights of the people." His services in the war of liberation were rewarded with an extension of territory and the title of grand-duke; but his liberal attitude had already made him suspect, and his subsequent action brought him still further into antagonism to the reactionary powers. He was the first of the German princes to grant a liberal constitution to his state under Article XIII. of the Act of Confederation (May 5, 1816) ; and his concession of full liberty to the press made Weimar for a while the focus of journalistic agitation against the existing order. Metternich dubbed him contemptuously " der grosse Bursche " for his patronage of the " revolutionary " Burschenschaften; and the celebrated " festival " held at the Wartburg by his permission in 1818, though in effect the mildest of political demonstrations, brought down upon him the wrath of the great powers. Karl August, against his better judgment, was compelled to yield to the remonstrances of Prussia, Austria and Russia; the liberty of the press was again restricted in the grand-duchy, but, thanks to the good understanding between the grand-duke and his people, the regime of the Carlsbad Decrees pressed less heavily upon Weimar than upon other German states.Karl August died on the 14th of June 1828. Upon his con-temporaries of the most various types his personality made a great impression. Karl von Dalberg, the prince-primate, who owed the coadjutorship of Mainz to the duke's friendship, said that he had never met a prince " with so much understanding, character, frankness and true-heartedness "; the Milanese, whenhe visited their city, called him the " uomo principe and Goethe himself said of him " he had the gift of discriminating intellects and characters and setting each one in his place. He was inspired by the noblest good-will, the purest humanity, and with his whole soul desired only what was best. There was in him something of the divine. He would gladly have wrought the happiness of all mankind. And finally, he was greater than his surroundings. . . . Everywhere he himself saw and judged, and in all circumstances his surest foundation was in himself." He left two sons: Charles Frederick (d. 1853), by whom he was succeeded, and Bernhard, duke of Saxe-Weimar (1792-1862), a distinguished soldier, who, after the congress of Vienna, became colonel of a regiment in the service of the king of the Netherlands, distinguished himself as commander
Augustus
Karl August's correspondence with Goethe was published in 2 vols. at Weimar in 1863. See the biography by von Wegele in the Allgem. deutsche Biographie. End of Article: CHARLES AUGUSTUS [KARL AUGUST] (1757-1828) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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