Aachen Congress

This article deals with the Aachen Congress of 1818. Before that there was already the

• Aachen Congress of 1668 (see: Peace of Aachen (1668) )
• Aachen Congress of 1748 (see: Peace of Aachen (1748) ).

Congress monument in Aachen

The Aachen Congress was held from September 29th to November 21st, 1818 in the city of Aachen . The Congress discussed measures to the revolutionary - democratic combat movements in Europe. The Aachen Congress is considered the first congress of monarchs and showed the European monarchies in the form of the great powers in unanimity that was not achieved again later.

Attendees

In addition to the Holy Alliance from Austria , Prussia and Russia , Great Britain and France also took part .

The representatives of the countries were Tsar Alexander I accompanied by Karl Robert von Nesselrode , Friedrich Wilhelm III. (Prussia) , Emperor Franz I of Austria accompanied by Christian Günther Graf Bernstorff , Clemens Wenzel Lothar Fürst von Metternich and Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg , as well as representatives of England Arthur Wellesley Wellington and Robert Castlereagh and, on the part of France, Armand Emmanuel du Plessis, Duke from Richelieu .

decisions

A memorandum on the current state of Germany was submitted to the Congress by the Tsar. It called for strict measures to monitor intellectual life and universities. This memorandum provided the impetus for the Karlsbad resolutions and the persecution of demagogues .

A treaty with France finally laid down the conditions that resulted from the Peace of Paris of 1815. The immediate withdrawal of the occupation troops from France - originally planned for 1820 - and the reduction of the war indemnities remaining for 1818/19 and 1819/20 from 280 to 265 million francs were determined. In a convention, the four victorious powers Russia, Prussia, Austria and England affirmed their determination to support the re-established monarchical Bourbon regime in France with armed force if necessary.

France should be involved in the negotiations in future. It thus re-entered the European concert as the fifth major power . The Aachen Protocol was passed on November 15, 1818 . The declaration, adopted on November 21, 1818, proclaimed the solidarity of the congress participants to guarantee the peace, faith and morality that had been "shaken by the misfortune of the times".

The signatories undertook to guarantee the borders and social conditions that have existed in Europe since 1815. A wide variety of issues had previously been settled, such as the slave trade . The Baden-Bavarian border dispute over the Palatinate on the right bank of the Rhine was decided in favor of Baden .

In addition, as a further development of the practice of the Congress of Vienna , the diplomatic hierarchy that has been in effect since then was established. This concerned in particular the principle of anciency among the envoys as well as the practice that the order in which contracts are signed should be based on that of the country names in the French alphabet.

memory

In Aachen the congress monument , the Kongressstrasse, the Alexanderstrasse, the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz, the Franzstrasse and the Gut Kaisersruh commemorate the gathering.

literature

• Stella Ghervas, Réinventer la tradition. Alexandre Stourdza et l'Europe de la Sainte-Alliance. Honoré Champion, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-74531-669-1
• Mark Jarrett: The Congress of Vienna and its Legacy: War and Great Power Diplomacy after Napoleon. IB Tauris & Company, Ltd., London 2013, ISBN 978-1-78453-056-3 .
• Heinz Duchhardt : The Aachen Congress 1818. A European summit meeting in Vormärz. Piper, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-492-05871-1 .

Web links

• From the Aachen Congress 1818 to the Karlovy Vary resolutions (PDF)
• Power congresses 1818–1822. Digital edition, ed. by Karin Schneider with the assistance of Stephan Kurz, Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Research on Modern Times and Contemporary History 2018. http://maechtekongresse.acdh.oeaw.ac.at/ Scientific digital edition of the conference files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Elisabeth Fehrenbach : From the Ancien Régime to the Congress of Vienna. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2001, ISBN 9783486497540 , p. 134. Restricted preview in Google Book Search
2. ↑ According to Memorandum A / CN.4 / 98 of February 21, 1956 drawn up by the UN Secretariat (PDF; 2.0 MB; Engl.)
3. ↑ A copy of the congress acts can be found at Charles Calvo : Le droit international théoretique et pratique précédé d'un exposé historique des progrès de la science du droit des gens . 5th edition, Rousseau, Paris 1896, vol. 3, p. 183f (French).
4. ↑ Wolfgang Burgdorf : Why the powers that be renounced the ceremonial from now on , Focus Online, October 19, 2014, accessed on November 2, 2015.
5. ↑ A commemorative medal was also issued .