Secret state conference
The Secret State Conference was a government-like council in Austria during the Metternich era .
Creation and influence of the Secret State Conference
After the death of Emperor Francis I on 2. March 1835 his mentally retarded son took over as Ferdinand I to the throne . According to the last will of Franz I, the Secret State Conference was constituted as an advisory body on December 12, 1836 to relieve Ferdinand , who was practically incapable of government . The powers of the State Conference and in particular of State Chancellor Clemens Wenzel Graf Metternich went far beyond the advisory role because of the emperor's intellectual weakness, so that one can certainly say that the real power in the Austrian monarchy from 1836 to 1848 came from the Secret State Conference .
Members of the Secret State Conference
- as chairman Archduke Ludwig (a brother of Franz I)
- Archduke Franz Karl (brother of Ferdinand I)
- State Chancellor Clemens Wenzel Graf Metternich
- Metternich's opponent Franz Anton Graf von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky
End of the secret state conference
While Count Metternich was responsible for foreign policy at the State Conference , his opponent, Count Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky, was responsible for domestic policy and finance . While Metternich became a symbol of reaction and oppression ( Vormärz ), Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky was considered liberal .
In the course of the Vienna March Revolution on March 13, 1848 , Metternich was forced to resign. The secret state conference also fell victim to the upheavals of the revolution . Metternich fled to England , while his intimate enemy Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky became the first constitutional prime minister from March 20 to April 19, 1848 .