Alois Lexa from Aehrenthal

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Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal (Baron, 1909 Graf, * 27. September 1854 in Castle United Skal in Bohemia ; † 17th February 1912 in Vienna ) was Austrian-Hungarian politicians and from 1906 to 1912 kuk Foreign Minister . During the Bosnian crisis he pushed ahead with the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, based on a secret agreement with the Russian Foreign Minister Isvolsky . The annexation destroyed the willingness of Russia and Austria to cooperate in the Balkans and fueled the chauvinism of parts of the Russian population who felt humiliated on an issue that seemed to them to be of vital importance.

Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal (1910)

Life

Origin and family

Aehrenthal in official uniform (1907)

His family was originally called "Lexa" and came from Prague . The Prague citizen and owner of goods registered in the land register Johann Anton Lexa, owner of an insurance company, was raised to the Austrian nobility with the predicate "von Aehrenthal" on June 9, 1790 and in 1792 to the imperial and Bavarian knighthood .

Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal's father, Johann Friedrich Freiherr Lexa von Aehrenthal (1817–1898), whose large estates in Doksany and Groß Skal included 5500 hectares, was a longstanding spokesman for the Bohemian feudal nobility. His mother, a Countess Maria Felicitas von Thun-Hohenstein (1830-1911) was a member of a family of the Austro-Bohemian nobility. In 1902 he married Countess Pauline Széchenyi (1871–1945) from a Hungarian noble family. His brother Felix Freiherr Lexa von Aehrenthal (1853–1918) was Vice President of the State Culture Council for Bohemia, a member of the state parliament and the Reichsrat.

Education and politics

As the second son who did not inherit his father's property in Bohemia , Lexa von Aehrenthal studied law and politics at the University of Bonn and the University of Prague and entered the diplomatic service of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy in 1877 . The then Foreign Minister Count Gustav Kálnoky promoted him and became his role model. Lexa von Aehrenthal's relationship with his successor, Count Agenor Gołuchowski the Younger , turned out to be more difficult and, in particular, was shaped by different opinions about a correct policy towards the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire . Foreign Minister Gołuchowski sought a compromise with Russia and the preservation of a weakened Ottoman Empire. Lexa von Aehrenthal advocated a more aggressive policy, especially in the Balkans. The Italian diplomat Count Carlo Sforza later described that Aehrenthal, according to his own admission, was bored in his first foreign post as attaché in Paris in 1877/78, during his subsequent activities in Saint Petersburg - first as attaché from 1878 to 1883, then as legation councilor from 1888 to 1894 1899–1906 as ambassador - and 1895–1898 as envoy in Bucharest would have harmed him rather than helped. In Saint Petersburg in particular, he learned to only fear and despise . Regardless of this, Aehrenthal had a good knowledge of the tsarist empire due to his long stays in Russia and had good contacts with the local ruling class until the Bosnian annexation crisis of 1908.

In 1906 Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal was appointed Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister by Emperor Franz Joseph as successor to Gołuchowski and remained so until his resignation on the day of his death in 1912. Because of his Hungarian wife, he was considered a contact person for the Magyar leadership. His foreign policy developed according to their expectations and was marked by a departure from the balancing policy towards Russia that Gołuchowski had striven for in Balkan policy. Aehrenthal's political aspirations sparked tensions in Southeastern Europe when Bosnia and Herzegovina were annexed in a crisis in 1908. The construction of the so-called Sandschakbahn line , from Bosnia to Saloniki , which at that time belonged to the Turkish-Ottoman Empire , was viewed by the southern Slavs and their protective power Russia as being directed against their interests.

Annexation crisis

End of the treaty with the Ottoman Empire

The Young Turkish Revolution in the Ottoman Empire raised fears in Austria-Hungary that the Ottomans could now act to reintegrate the province of Bosnia-Herzegovina , which was occupied by the Danube monarchy . Austria-Hungary had occupied the province for three decades after the great powers resolutions at the Berlin Congress of 1878 and had it administered by the joint Austro-Hungarian Ministry of Finance . It subsequently invested considerable funds in the country's infrastructure. The threat posed by the developments of the Young Turkish Revolution, which had found support in Bosnia, was resolved when the Ottoman Empire gave up its supremacy in exchange for compensation. This did not, however, settle the question of the attitude of Serbia and Russia.

Buchlau secret agreement of September 16, 1908

At the secret meeting between Austrian Foreign Minister Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal and Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Petrovich Iswolski on September 16, 1908 in the Moravian Buchlovice Palace , mediated by the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador in St. Petersburg, Count Leopold Berchtold , the representative of Russia agreed to the annexation on condition that Vienna, for its part, would support the Russians in opening the Ottoman Dardanelles to the Russian fleet , which requires international approval .

Izvolsky, however, did not expect the outcry from the nationalists in Russia, nor did he expect the negative reaction from London, which he only learned later on his visit to London. In retrospect he denied the secret agreement and accused Aehrenthal of having duped him, a lie by which he tried to save his position.

International crisis through annexation

Despite the protests, Aehrenthal had the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina carried out on October 5, 1908, thereby snubbing Russia and the other great powers, which, despite their guarantor status from 1878, had not been asked for approval.

The Kingdom of Serbia , which was also interested in Bosnia and Herzegovina , was now in the camp of opponents of the Danube Monarchy. Aehrenthal did nothing to establish better relations with Serbia. The annexation triggered an international crisis that led to a break in the good understanding with Russia, but not to a long-term impending war with Russia and Serbia, as Russia was weakened militarily and domestically after its defeat by the Japanese Empire and the revolution of 1905 and therefore gave way in early 1909. However, the Viennese procedure was just as unsettled in Saint Petersburg as it was in Belgrade .

Elevation to the rank of count

Count's coat of arms Lexa von Aehrenthal, awarded in 1909.

Because of his services to the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the first territorial expansion of the Habsburg Empire since 1846 and the reversal of the trend of severe territorial losses (1859 and 1866), the Emperor Aehrenthal was elevated to the rank of count in 1909.

Isolation of Austria and growing dependence on the German Reich

As a result of the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the foreign policy in Vienna, Serbia leaned closer to Russia, which triggered the Balkan Wars in 1912/13 and favored the outbreak of the First World War . Through the annexation crisis and his attitude to diplomatic questions in the Second Morocco Crisis and the passage through the Strait of the Dardanelles, Aehrenthal contributed to the isolation of Austria-Hungary from the European powers, while the dependence on the German Empire of the Hohenzollern grew.

Rejection of a preventive war against Italy

On the other hand, Aehrenthal resisted Chief of Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf , who repeatedly called for a preventive war against Italy against the Kaiser. In autumn 1911, under pressure from Aehrenthal, the Kaiser rejected the preventive war idea and dismissed Chief of Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf, who was only reappointed Chief of Staff after Aehrenthal's death in 1912 at the instigation of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este .

Consequences of the annexation

The consequences of the annexation for the European power and alliance relations and for the fragile dual monarchy were underestimated by Aehrenthal as well as by the anti-Serb Hungarian leadership and the Austrian war advocates around Chief of Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf and contributed to the worsening of the international situation before the outbreak of the First World War and thus contributed to the fall of the dual monarchy Austria-Hungary in 1918.

resignation

At the beginning of 1912, Aehrenthal submitted his departure for health reasons. After the emperor had appointed Berchtold as his successor, he accepted the resignation by handwritten on February 17, 1912 with "warmest thanks" and awarded Aehrenthal the diamonds for the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Stephen. Aehrenthal died of leukemia that same evening .

evaluation

The liberal member of the Reichsrat and kk Minister Josef Redlich described Aehrenthal in his diary:

“He was a personality, a powerful personality in this land of inherited possibilities and half-measures [...] He was the man who represented the old Austrian life in all its vitality better than any of the other men of the Franciscan -Josephine time. "

literature

Web links

Commons : Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christopher Clark: The Sleepwalkers. P. 86.
  2. ↑ Fay, p. 394.
  3. ↑ Solomon Wank: In the Twilight of Empire. Count Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal (1854–1912). Imperial Habsburg Patriot and Statesman. Volume 1: The making of an imperial Habsburg patriot and statesman. (= Publications of the Commission for Modern History of Austria. 102). Böhlau, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-205-78352-7 , pp. 27 and 35.
  4. ↑ Heribert Sturm (ed.): Biographical lexicon for the history of the Bohemian countries. Collegium Carolinum (institute) . Volume 1, Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-486-49491-0 , p. 7.
  5. ^ Carlo Sforza: Aehrenthal, the last servant. In: The same: Shaping and shaping today's Europe. Fischer, Berlin 1931, pp. 60-72.
  6. ↑ Christopher M. Clark: The Sleepwalkers. How Europe moved into World War I. DVA, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-421-04359-7 , p.
  7. ↑ Holger Afflerbach: The Triple Alliance. European great power and alliance policy before the First World War. Vienna 2002, p. 629, quoted from Christopher M. Clark: Die Schlafwandler. How Europe moved into World War I. DVA, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-421-04359-7 , p.
  8. ↑ Christopher M. Clark: The Sleepwalkers. How Europe moved into World War I. DVA, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-421-04359-7 , p.
  9. ^ Fritz Fellner (Ed.): Fateful Years of Austria 1908-1919. Josef Redlich's political diary. Volume 1, Graz / Cologne 1953, p. 125.
predecessor Office successor
Agenor Gołuchowski the Younger Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister
Oct. 24, 1906 - Feb. 17, 1912 		Leopold Berchtold
personal data
SURNAME Aehrenthal, Alois Lexa from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aehrenthal, Alois Lexa Freiherr von; Aehrenthal, Alois Lexa Graf von (from 1909)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-Hungarian diplomat and foreign minister
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Groß Skal Castle , Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH February 17, 1912
Place of death Vienna