Clovis of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst

Clovis Charles Victor, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst (Rotenburg an der Fulda, March 31, 1819-Ragaz, July 6, 1901), was a German nobleman and statesman who held the position of chancellor of the German Empire from October 29, 1894 to October 17, 1900.

First years of life

Clovis was born in Rotenburg an der Fulda, in Hesse, and was a member of the princely House of Hohenlohe. His father, Prince Franz Joseph (1787-1841), was Catholic; his mother, Princess Konstanze of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a Lutheran. In accordance with the customary compromise at the time, Chlodwig and his brothers were raised in his father's religion, while his sisters followed his mother's.

Marriage and children

Clovis married on February 16, 1847 in Rödelheim. He married Princess Maria of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, daughter of Ludwig Adolf Frederick, second prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn (son of the Russian field marshal Ludwig Adolf Peter, first prince of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg-Ludwigsburg) and his first wife, Princess Caroline (Stephanie) Radziwill. Mary was the heir to vast estates in imperial Russia. This led to two extended visits to Verkiai, Lithuania, from 1851 to 1853 and again in 1860 in connection with the management of these properties.

Children:

• Elisabeth (30 November 1847).
• Estefania (6 July 1851) married Arturo, IV count of Schönborn-Wiesentheid, head of a mediated family.
• Philipp Ernst (5 June 1853) married Chariclée, Princess Ypsilanti Henriette Gindra, Frau von Hellberg.
• Albrecht (14 October 1857).
• Alexander (6 August 1862), married Emanuela Gallone di Tricase Moliterno.
• Moritz, (6 August 1862), married Countess Rosa de Salm-Reifferscheidt-Krautheim-Dyck.

Public life

Early career

As the youngest son of a cadet branch of his house, Clovis had a profession to follow. For a time he thought about obtaining a position in the British army thanks to the influence of his aunt, Princess Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, half sister of Queen Victoria. Instead, however, he decided to enter the Prussian diplomatic service.

King Frederick William IV rejected Clovis's request to be excused from the preliminary steps, which involved several years of work in subordinate positions in the Prussian civil service. As an auscultator at the Koblenz courts, he acquired a taste for jurisprudence. He became a reference in September 1843 and, after a few months of traveling through France, Switzerland and Italy, he went to Potsdam as an official on May 13, 1844.

These early years were invaluable, not only because they gave him experience in practical matters, but because they allowed him to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the Prussian system. The immediate result was to confirm his liberalism. The Prussian principle of spreading illumination with a stick did not appeal to him; he recognized the confusion and lack of clear ideas in the highest circles, the tendency to make agreement with the opinions of the government the test of loyalty to the State; and he noted in his diary (June 25, 1844) four years before the revolution of 1848, "a slight cause and we will have an uprising." "The free press," he points out on another occasion, "is a necessity, progress is the condition for the existence of a State." Yes he was an ardent defender of German unity.

Chancellor of Germany

He ruled under the supervision of Emperor William II, who did not grant him excessive confidence or political freedom.

In his years of government he focused on fighting the liberal opposition and placing Germany on the world military scene, an objective he achieved by creating a very powerful fleet to the displeasure of the until then great naval power, England. This policy of state aggrandizement indirectly contributed to worsening European moods and creating a predisposition to the Great War. This time of supposed tranquility and due to the rearmament of all powers was called the Armed Peace.

Honors

He received the following orders and decorations:

Ancestors