GENTZ, gents, FRIEDRICH vox (1764-1832). A German publicist, horn at Breslau. He stud ied law at Frankfort and Kdnigsberg, became in 1786 Secretary of the General Directory in the Prussian service, and in 1793 was made a Prussian war councilor. A disciple of Kant and of Rousseau, he at first looked with favor upon the revolutionary movement in France; but was converted by the course of the ex tremists, and by the influence of Burke, whose essay on the French Revolution Gentz trans lated in 1794, together with the writings of Mallet du Pan and Mounier (1794-95). He spent some time in England, and became a strong advo cate of the English constitutional system. He founded two reviews, Neue Deutsche Monats schrift (1795-98), and the flistorisches Journal (1799-1800). His presentation of his constitu tional views in a letter to Frederick William III. on the latter's accession to the Prussian throne not being favorably received, Gentz en tered the Austrian service as an Imperial coun cilor (1802). He was a bitter opponent of Napoleon, and advocated the coalition with Eng land against France. In 1804 he wrote Frag mente aus der Geschichte des politischen Gleich gewichts von Europa, and he was the author of several of the proclamations directed against the French. After the Peace of Vienna, in 1809, Gentz dropped his liberalism, and became the facile instrument of Metternich's reactionary policy. He brought out, in 1818, a reactionary
review, the Wiener Jahrbacher der Litteratur, and was the secretary of the Austrian pleni potentiaries at the Congresses of Vienna (1815), Aix-la-Chapelle (1818), Troppau, Laibach, and Verona (1820-22). For these services he re ceived large pecuniary rewards, which he squan dered in dissipation. He was a political thinker of some ability, and his classic and vigorous literary style made his services sought for; but he was always mercenary, and wholly lack ing in fixed principles. He died at Vienna, June 0, 1832. His more important writings are contained in the collection edited by Weickz: Ausgewahlte Schrif ten (5 vols., Stuttgart, 1836 38) ; in the Kleine Schrif ten, edited by Schlesier (5 vols., Mannheim, 1838-40) ; and in the Me moires et lettres edited by Prokesch-Osten (4 vols., Vienna, 1873-74) ; also Briefwechsel zwisch en Friedrich Gentz lend Adam Muller, (Stuttgart, 1857) ; and Depeches inddites du Chevalier de Gentz aux hospodars de Valachie (Paris, 1876). For his biography, con sult: Schmidt-Weissenfels (Prague, 1859) ; Men delssohn-Bartholdy (Leipzig, 1867) ; and Four nier, Gentz and Cobemzl (Vienna, 1880).