Klemens von Metternich
Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein, KOGF (; 15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859) was an Austrian diplomat who was at the center of European affairs for four decades as the Austrian Empire's foreign minister from 1809 and Chancellor from 1821 until the liberal Revolutions of 1848 forced his resignation.
Electoral Palace, Koblenz
On 23 November 1786, Clemens Wenceslaus and his sister Maria Kunigunde of Saxony, Princess-Abbess of Essen, moved into the new palace. A year later, the new theatre was opened not far away. The banqueting hall and palace chapel were completed only later, the latter in 1792. Clemens Wenceslaus was at first open to reforms, but after the French Revolution broke out, in alarm cancelled all reforms and instituted strict rule. He was the uncle of the French king, Louis XVI; he offered refuge to French émigrés and fleeing members of the French court, particularly in Schönbornslust Palace, just outside the gates of Koblenz. Koblenz thus became a French Royalist centre.