RADOWITZ, JOSEPH VON, Prussian general and statesman, b. Feb. 6, 1797, at Blank enburg, was the son of a nobleman of Hungarian descent, received his professional edu cation at Paris, and in the military school of the kingdom of Westphalia, which he left in 1813, in order to enter the Westphalian army as an officer. After the peace in 1815 he received an appointment as master of mathematical and military sciences in the military school of Cassel; but in 1823 he entered the Prussian service, and in 1830 became chief of the general staff of artillery. By his marriage with the countess Maria v. Voss (1828), he became connected with the Prussian aristocracy, and soon became the leader of the anti-revolutionary party. In 1830 Radowitz was sent as Prussian military commissioner plenipotentiary to the German diet at Frankfort. In 1842 he was named ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at the courts of Carlsruhe, Darmstadt, and Nassau; and in 1845 he was raised to the rank of maj.gen. Meanwhile his influence on public affairs in Germany became more and more conspicuous; above all, he was the confidant and adviser of king Frederick William IV. in his endeavors to
bring about a reform of the German diet, as his pamphlet, Germany and Frederick William IV. (Deutschland un.d Friedrich Wilhelm IV., Hamb. 1848), proves. His C071 veractions about State and Church, suggested by the present state of affairs (Gespr&ke a-us der Gegenwart fiber Slant and Kirge, Stuttg. 1846), may be taken as a manifestation of the intentions which tried to find a practical issue in the constitution of Feb. 3, 1847. When the revolution of 1848 broke out, a new field opened itself for Radowitz. The endeavors of Prussia to give a constitution to Germany. by means of the alliance of the three kings, was principally his work. He now obtained the leadership of the affairs of the union in the Prussian chambers as well as in the parliament, which assembled (March, 1850) at Erfurt, but was unable to prevent the failure of the union scheme. On Sept. 27, 1850, he became formally secretary for foreign affairs, hut in 1851 retired to Erfurt, where he wrote his Neue Gesprache aus der Gegenwart (2 vols., Erf. and Leip. 1851). He died Dec. 25, 1853.—Consult Frcnsdorff, Joseph v. B. A. (Leip. 1850).