Count Friedrich Ferdinand Von Beust - Posthumous Assessment

Posthumous Assessment

Beust had great social gifts and personal graces; he was proud of his proficiency in the lighter arts of composing waltzes and vers de société. It was more vanity than rancor which made him glad to appear even in later years as the great opponent of Bismarck. If he cared too much for popularity, and was very sensitive to neglect, the saying attributed to Bismarck, that if his vanity were taken away there would be nothing left, is very unjust. He was apt to look more to the form than the substance, and attached too much importance to the verbal victory of a well-written dispatch; but when the opportunity was given him he showed higher qualities.

In the crisis of 1849 he displayed considerable courage, and never lost his judgment even in personal danger. If he was defeated in his German policy, it must be remembered that Bismarck held all the good cards, and in 1866 Saxony was the only one of the smaller states which entered on the war with an army properly equipped and ready at the moment. That he was no mere reactionary, the whole course of his government in Saxony, and still more in Austria, shows. His Austrian policy has been much criticized, on the ground that in establishing the system of dualism he gave too much to Hungary, and did not really understand Austrian affairs; and the Austro-Hungarian crisis during the early years of the 20th century has given point to this view. Yet it remains the fact that in a crisis of extraordinary difficulty he carried to a successful conclusion a policy which, even if it were not the best imaginable, was possibly the best attainable in the circumstances.