Metternich: strategist and visionary

A life in seven stages

Metternich's biographers across the generations

The risks and limitations of Srbik's biography of Metternich

Origins: family ties and the rise of the Metternichs

Metternich's generation: Ancien Regime and Enlightenment, 1773-1792

A double crisis: empire and revolution, 1789-1801

Between peace and war: life as an ambassador, 1801-1806

World war: outset and intensification, 1806-1812

World war: climax and crisis, 1813

World war: catastrophe and resolution, 1814

The end of an era and a new beginning for Europe: the Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815

Connoisseur of women and head of the entail

The construction of a new beginning: reform and reconstruction, 1815-1818

Defensive security policies: averting threats under the Vienna system, 1815-1829

The economist: Metternich as a capitalist with a social conscience

The spring of nations amid poverty, 1830-1847

The organization of rule: power centers, networks, interests, intrigues

Revolution, escape, exile, 1848-1851

At the observatory: twilight years in Vienna, 1851-1859.