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.

[1][3] 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.

[1] Stein's early training and his sternly, practical mentality made him completely impervious to the enthusiasm that his contemporaries had shown for the French Revolution.

[4] 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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

[citation needed] Stein issued a measure for municipal reform on 19 November 1808 which granted local self-government on enlightened yet practical lines to all Prussian towns and even to all villages possessing more than 800 inhabitants.

[6] While Stein's efforts were directed more towards civil affairs, he also furthered the progress of the military reforms, which are connected more especially with the name of Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst.

In August 1808, the French agents, who swarmed throughout the land, had seized one of his letters, in which he spoke of his hope that Germany would soon be ready for a national rising like that of Spain.

On 10 September, Napoleon gave orders that Stein's property in the new kingdom of Westphalia should be confiscated, and he likewise put pressure on Frederick William to dismiss him.

Thanks to the help of his former colleague, Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden, who gave him an asylum in his castle in the Riesengebirge, he succeeded in crossing the frontier into Bohemia.

When the miserable remains of the Grand Army reeled back into Prussia at the close of the year, Stein urged the Russian emperor to go on and free Europe from the French domination.

[citation needed] The energy that Stein infused into all around him contributed not a little to this important decision, which pushed on the king's government to more decided action than then seemed possible.

[citation needed] He recovered, however, in time to take part in the drafting of a Russo-Prussian convention (19 March 1813) respecting the administration of the districts that should be delivered from French occupation.

After the Battle of Leipzig (16–19 October 1813), Stein entered that city the day after its occupation by the Allies and thus expressed his feelings on the fall of Napoleon's domination: There it lies, then, the monstrous fabric cemented by the blood and tears of so many millions and reared by an insane and accursed tyranny.

Austria and the secondary German states resisted all unifying proposals, and Stein blamed the Prussian chancellor Hardenberg for vacillation.

[8] His chief interest was in the study of history, and from 1818 to 1820, he worked hard to establish the society for the encouragement of historical research and the publication of the Monumenta Germaniae historica, of which his future biographer, Georg Heinrich Pertz, became the director.

[citation needed] Research has shown that Stein's credit for originating many of the far-reaching reforms of 1807/8 must be shared with Theodor von Schön and many others.