GAGERN, HANS CHRISTOPH ERNST, BARON VON (1766-1852), German statesman and political writer, was born at Kleinniedesheim, near Worms, on Jan. 25, 1766. After studying law at the universities of Leipzig and Gottingen, he entered the service of the prince of Nassau-Weilburg. He was the prince's en voy at Paris until 181r, and in 1812 he took part in the abortive attempt to excite a second insurrection against Napoleon in Tirol. He joined the headquarters of the Prussian army (1813), and be came a member of the board of administration for north Germany. In 1814 he was appointed administrator of the Orange principal ities; and, when the prince of Orange became king of the Nether lands, Baron Gagern became his prime minister. In 1815 he repre rented him at the congress of Vienna, and obtained for the Nether lands a considerable augmentation of territory. From 1816 to 1818 he was Luxemburg envoy at the German diet, but was re called, at the instance of Metternich, owing to his too independent advocacy of state constitutions. In 1820 he retired with a pension to his estate at Hornau, near Hochst, in Hesse-Darmstadt, where he died on Oct. 22, 185 2. Baron von Gagern wrote some historical works, but the best known is his autobiography, Mein Anteil an der Politik, 5 vols. (Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1823-1845).
Of Hans Christoph von Gagern's sons three attained consider able eminence :