Gentz - The Secretary of Europe
"Friedrich von Gentz - Herterich Collection" contains far more than just the bequests from the archives in Vienna, Prague and Cologne on the life and work of Friedrich von Gentz. Valuable materials from the Prussian archives in Berlin as well as a series of correspondences with contemporary publicists, statesmen and diplomats are available. The collection is divided into five parts: the first contains the works of Gentz, the second part contains the diaries, the third part the correspondence, the fourth part the secondary literature, the fifth part Herterich's own correspondence. In addition to many original documents Günter Herterich was able to acquire, he also collected copies of archival documents, which he partially translated and supplemented. The texts are stored in 432 files and 522 microfilms.
Information on the digital partial indexing of the Herterich Collection in "Gentz digital" - a cooperation between UCL Cologne and the Department of Early Modern History at the Historical Institute of the University of Cologne.
Biographical notes on Friedrich von Gentz (1764 - 1832)
Friedrich von Gentz was a prussian civil servant, publicist, financial expert and Austrian diplomat and statesman as well as a freelance writer, creator of political and intellectual networks within the framework of an anti-napoleonic movement, orientalist and leader of Ottoman politics in Austria. Born in Silesia in 1764, he came from a family of civil servants with Huguenot roots. He studied law and philosophy in Königsberg (under Kant). In 1785 he received a civil service post in Berlin. After the French Revolution he first published counter-revolutionary writings as a translator and worked as a public editor of journals such as the "Historisches Journal". In 1802 he went from Prussia to Austria and in the same year travelled to London, where he was celebrated by all English journals as the greatest political writer of his time. Two years later the Swedish king ennobled him and he was allowed to call himself "Chevalier de Gentz". After 1812 he worked as a close collaborator and "ghostwriter" of Clemens Fürst Metternich. In 1814 Gentz was secretary general and secretary of the Congress of Vienna and all other congresses of post-Napoleonic Europe up to the Congress of Verona in 1822. At the beginning of the 1830s Gentz distanced himself from Metternich's politics. After this break he spent the last years of his life retired in Vienna, where he died on 9 June 1832.
Many thanks to Mr. Raphaël Cahen, whose lecture text "Researcher's happiness: from scientific work with estates using the example of the Gentz Collection Herterich" is the basis of this collection description.
The Gentz Collector Günter Herterich (1939-2014)
Günter Herterich, a Gentz researcher and collector born in Stuttgart in 1939, was a Cologne SPD politician. From 1975 to 1980 he was chairman of the Cologne Council faction, a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament and from 1980 to 1987 a member of the Bundestag. As a local politician, Günter Herterich was significantly involved in the development of major urban development and cultural projects. These include the lowering and extension of the Rheinuferstrasse, the development of the Stollwerck site and, above all, the creation of the Cologne Philharmonic Hall and the "Museum Ludwig". Günter Herterich died in Cologne on 21 April 2014.
Over a period of almost 30 years, the historian had collected many documents by and about Friedrich von Gentz with great energy and care. His main focus was on the diplomat's extensive correspondence. In 2008 Günter Herterich made his archive available to the public and the scientific community. He chose the UCL Cologne as the home of the donation, which he also donated around 5,000 books from his extensive library. The books focus on modern German and Latin American history. All books are marked in the UCL catalogue with the reference "Günter Herterich Collection".
