!!!Gentz, Friedrich von

b. Wroclaw, Poland (then Breslau), May 2, 1764, 
d. Weinhaus near Vienna, June 9, 1832, important political author. 
From 1785 to 1802 in Prussian civil service, from 1802 in Austrian 
civil service. Contract writer and journalistic advisor, first in the 
campaign against Napoleon, then from 1815 worked closely with the 
Minister of Foreign Affairs and later Chancellor  Metternich, dealt 
with assignments of a diplomatic and journalistic nature. Secretary at 
the  Congress of Vienna ("Sekretaer Europas" = secretary of Europe). 
Founder of the "Wiener Jahrbuecher der Literatur" (1818), was the 
political inspiration behind and a regular contributor to the 
semi-official paper  "Oesterreichischer Beobachter" (1810-1848) 
originally edited by F.Schlegel. His attempt to establish a 
"Departement der oeffentlichen Meinung" (department of public opinion) 
in 1813 failed, and shortly thereafter he became Metternich's 
"Propagandaminister"; one of the founding fathers of the  Karlsbader 
Beschluesse in 1819, containing among other things a federal press law 
providing for strict preliminary censorship. G.'s works are important 
sources for political history.

!Works
Fragmente aus der neuesten Geschichte des politischen 
Gleichgewichtes in Europa, 1806. - Editions: Schriften, 5 vols., 
1838-1840; Tagebuecher, 4 vols., 1873/1874 and 1920; Briefe, 4 vols., 
1909-1913; government writings and letters, ed. by A. Eckart, 2 vols., 
1911; Gesammelte Schriften, ed. by G. Kronenbitter, 7 vols., 
1997-1998.

!Literature
G. Mann, F. v. G., 1947; G. Kronenbitter, Wort und Macht. 
F. G. als politischer Schriftsteller, 1994.



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