The Unsent Letter
By M.A. — Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
How a quiet diplomatic proposal in 1777 nearly reshaped Europe’s balance of power.
In the winter of 1777, while Europe watched the uneasy tension between Austria and Prussia over the Bavarian Succession, a letter was written that might have spared the continent a war.
At its heart were two men: Count Karl von Zinzendorf, a thoughtful Austrian envoy, and Leopold von der Goltz, a Prussian attaché known for his wit and caution. They were friends in a time when friendship between envoys of rival courts was considered both a curiosity and a risk. The death of the Bavarian Elector Maximilian III Joseph without an heir had unsettled Europe. Austria, eager to extend its reach, made a claim for parts of his territories. Prussia, wary of Habsburg ambitions, prepared for war. Amidst this, in the quiet study of a Viennese townhouse, Zinzendorf and von der Goltz composed a proposal: Austria would renounce its claim to certain lands in return for Prussian neutrality in forthcoming Ottoman disputes.
The letter was never sent.
Some say von der Goltz hesitated, fearing Frederick the Great’s disdain. Others whisper that a watchful court chamberlain discovered it before dawn. However it happened, the document disappeared into the shadows of history — until it was rediscovered in 1954 in Vienna’s Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, folded among ordinary diplomatic notes.
The war came anyway. It was brief, relatively bloodless, and left few marks on the map of Europe. But the memory of the unspoken accord and its quiet failure remains one of those gentle turning points history so often hides.
Sources
- Hamish Scott, The Birth of a Great Power System, 1740–1815 (London: Routledge, 2006)
- Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv Vienna: Collection of Bavarian Succession materials, rediscovered document inventory no. 1954/23
- Reinhold Koser, Friedrich der Große als Politiker (Berlin: Verlag von Reimer, 1899)