Friedrich Klueder influenced Alexander I

Mme Krüdener’s intervention in Alexander I’s affairs is presented as an act of mystical self-assertion rather than a clearly defined political program. The episode illustrates how religious fervor can propel a woman into public action while leaving its purpose centered on the confirmation of her own inspired identity.

From Fervor to Action

The discussion distinguishes women who act with lucid aims from women who move toward action out of narcissistic fervor. Saint Catherine, Saint Teresa, and Joan of Arc know what goals they intend to reach and devise means to reach them; their revelations give objective form to existing convictions and encourage plans already carefully considered. Mme Krüdener is placed instead alongside Mme Guyon: after silent religious ardor, each could feel herself suddenly called to an apostolic state, without being comparably precise about the work that calling required.

Taking Alexander’s Destiny in Hand

Before intervening in Alexander I’s affairs, Mme Krüdener had appeared as an ambassador and novelist. The book describes her as having interiorized her sense of personal worth: her purpose in taking the emperor’s destiny in hand was not to see definite ideas triumph, but to have her status as God’s inspired one confirmed. Political influence thus becomes the arena in which an inward claim to divine election seeks recognition in the world.

Mission and Multiplication

The episode belongs to a broader account of women who interpret beauty or intelligence as signs of a holy character and, when they believe themselves chosen by God, experience themselves as bearers of a mission. Such a mission may lead them to preach doctrines the book calls dubious or eagerly to found sects. Through the members of a group they inspire, they can multiply their personality: what appears as apostolic activity also enlarges the reach of the self whose special calling it is meant to affirm.

The Limits of Individual Salvation

The book does not treat mystical fervor as incompatible with an active, independent life; it says that fervor, like love and narcissism, can be integrated into one. Its criticism concerns attempts at individual salvation when they remain enclosed in subjectivity. Such efforts either establish a relation with an unreal object, such as God or a double, or make an unreal relation with a real person; in either case, they fail to give the woman a grasp on the world, and her freedom remains mystified. Authentic freedom, the account concludes, requires projection through positive action in human society—a standard that makes Mme Krüdener’s intervention revealing both for its public reach and for the self-confirmation that motivates it.