Karl Friedrich Reinhard

German by birth, born in Schorndorf (Württemberg) on October 2, 1761, Karl Friedrich Reinhard became a tutor in Bordeaux after completing his studies, where he made friends with the future Girondins (French revolutionaries). He followed them to Paris after their election, and through them entered the diplomatic career as an embassy secretary in London.

Fluent in five or six languages, and a protégé of Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, he quickly made a brilliant career for himself. He was head of division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1794, Minister Plenipotentiary in Hamburg in 1795, in Tuscany in 1798, and finally Minister of Foreign Relations on July 20, 1799.

Once his portfolio had been passed on to Talleyrand, after 18 Brumaire, he embarked on an ambassadorial career that took him to the Helvetic Republic, Cisalpine, Saxony, Moldavia and, from 1808 until the fall of the Empire, Westphalia, where he served as advisor to King Jerome Bonaparte.

Created Knight of the Empire in 1809 by Napoleon I, then Baron of the Empire, he was appointed Count during the Restoration and placed by King Louis XVIII at the head of the Chancellery of the Department of Foreign Affairs - on Talleyrand's recommendation. Reinhard remained neutral during the Hundred Days.

The king rewarded him with a place on the Council of State and the post of ambassador to the German Confederation. He remained there from 1815 to 1829, becoming a peer in 1832.

Karl Friedrich Reinhard died in Paris on December 25, 1837. His modest tomb is in the 14th division of the Montmartre cemetery .

His abundant correspondence with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose friendship he was proud of, was published in 1850 in Stuttgart under the title Briefwechsel zwischen Goethe und Reinhard, in den Jahren 1807 bis 1832.