Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein (25 October 1757 – 29 June 1831), commonly known as Baron vom Stein, was a Prussian statesman who introduced the Prussian reforms, which paved the way for the unification of Germany. He promoted the abolition of serfdom, with indemnification to territorial lords; subjection of the nobles to manorial imposts; and the establishment of a modern municipal system.
Stein was from an old Franconian family. He was born on the family estate near Nassau, studied at Göttingen, and entered the civil service. Prussian conservatism hampered him in his efforts to bring about changes. In 1807, he was removed from office by the King for refusing to accept the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs but was recalled after the Peace of Tilsit.
After it became known that he had written a letter in which he criticised Napoleon, Stein was obliged to resign, which he did on 24 November 1808 and retired to the Austrian Empire, from which he was summoned to the Russian Empire by Tsar Alexander I in 1812. After the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, Stein became head of the council for the administration of the reconquered German countries.
Stein was the ninth child of Karl Philipp Freiherr vom Stein, and Henriette Karoline Langwerth von Simmern. Stein is the descendant of an ancient imperial family. Like many of his generation, he greatly admired Frederick the Great.
In his old age, Stein would express his gratitude to his parents for the influence. He added:
My view of the world and of human affairs I gathered as a boy and youth, in the solitude of a country life, from ancient and modern history, and in particular I was attracted by the incidents of the eventful history of England.
In 1773 Stein went to the University of Göttingen to study jurisprudence. He also found time to pursue his studies in English history and politics.
In 1777 Stein left Göttingen and proceeded to Wetzlar, the legal centre of the Holy Roman Empire. He observed the workings of its institutions and prepare himself for a career in law. Next, after a stay at each of the chief south German cities, he settled at Regensburg to observe the methods of the Imperial Diet. In 1779 he went to Vienna. He proceeded to Berlin early in 1780.
In Berlin, his admiration for Frederick the Great, together with his distaste for the pettiness of the legal procedure at Wetzlar, compelled him to take service in the monarchy of Prussia. He gained a position in the department of mines and manufactures. At the head of that department was Friedrich Anton von Heynitz who was a master of economics and civil government. In June 1785, Stein was sent for a time as Prussian ambassador to the courts of Mainz, Zweibrücken, and Darmstadt. Between 1786 and 1787, Stein went on a tour in England where he pursued his research into commercial and mining affairs.
In November 1787, Stein was appointed Kammerdirektor, director of the chamber of war and domains, for the king's possessions west of the river Weser. From 1796 until 1803, he was supreme president of all the Westphalian chambers dealing with the commerce and mines of Prussian lands with a seat in Minden. One of the chief benefits he conferred on these districts was the canalization of the river Ruhr which became an important outlet for the coal of that region. He also improved the navigation of the Weser.
Stein's early training and his stern practical mentality made him completely impervious to the enthusiasm that his contemporaries had shown for the French Revolution. He disliked the methods of the revolutionaries which he saw as an interruption to the orderly development of peoples. Nevertheless, he carefully noted the new sources of national strength that arrose from reforms in France.
After being at war with France in 1792 to 1795, Prussia came to terms with the new revolutionary government in France at Basel in April 1795. The two nations remained at peace until 1806. However, Austria and southern Germany continued the struggle against France for most of that time. In Prussia, Frederick William III succeeded Frederick William II in November 1797. Unfortunately, Frederick William III listened to the advice of secret and irresponsible counsellors and persisted to undermine the Peace of Basle.
Stein in 1804 took office as minister of state for trade in Prussia. This made him responsible for indirect imposts, taxes, manufactures, and commerce. While in office he introduced useful reforms in his department, particularly by abolishing various restrictions on the internal trade of the nation, but he was hampered in his endeavors by the spirit of Prussian conservatism. Stein was not at ease with the effects of the Francophile policy by the chief minister Christian Graf von Haugwitz. Little came of Stein's protests, but he continued to protest. Prussian policy continued to progress on the path that led to the disaster at Battle of Jena starting on 14 October 1806.
Stein was offered the portfolio for foreign affairs, which Stein declined to accept on the ground of his incompetence to manage that department unless there was a complete change in the system of government. Stein desired for Karl August von Hardenberg to take that office and bring into effect, with Stein's own help, the necessary administrative changes. The Prussian king refused to accept Hardenberg and, greatly irritated by Stein's unusually outspoken letters, dismissed Stein altogether because he was "a refractory, insolent, obstinate and disobedient official". Stein spent the months in which Napoleon completed the ruin of Prussia in retirement.
Stein got to see Karl August von Hardenberg who had been called to office in April 1807. Important reforms were effected in the cabinet system. During the negotiations at Tilsit, Napoleon refused to act upon Hardenberg's recommendations and Hardenberg thereupon retired. Surprisingly, Napoleon, who had as yet no idea of Stein's deep and earnest patriotism, suggested Stein as a possible successor. No other strong man was at hand who could save the ship of state, and on 8 October 1807 Frederick William III of Prussia, utterly depressed by the terrible terms of the Treaty of Tilsit, called Stein to office and entrusted him with very wide powers.
Stein was now for a time virtually dictator of the reduced and nearly-bankrupt Prussian state. The circumstances of the time and his own convictions, gained from study and experience, led him to press on drastic reforms in a way that could not otherwise have been followed.
First came the October Edict, issued at Memel on 9 October 1807, which abolished the institution of serfdom throughout Prussia from 8 October 1810. Karl August von Hardenberg supported the October Edict. At the heart of the reform efforts was the conviction that the Prussian state could be reinvigorated if the most talented people in Prussia's society were actively involved in the work of government. In June 1807 Stein expanded on this thesis in the Nassauer Denkschrift. Stein in December 1807 wrote to Hardenberg, contemplating that it "is essential that the nation become accustomed to managing its own affairs, so that it will emerge from this state of infancy in which an anxious and officious government attempts to keep the people".
All distinctions affecting the land tenure, including land owned by the nobility and peasants' land, were swept away and the principle of free trade in land was established. The October Edict also abrogated all class distinctions respecting occupations and callings of any and every kind, thus striking another blow at the caste system that had been so rigorous in Prussia.