Georg Wassilko von Serecki

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Georg Wassilko von Serecki 1907

Count Georg Wassilko von Serecki (born February 17, 1864 at Berhometh Castle , † March 24, 1940 in Czernowitz ) was an Austrian and Romanian politician from the Wassilko family . He was KuK chamberlain and real secret councilor , governor of the Duchy of Bukovina and hereditary member of the manor of the Austrian Imperial Council .

Autograph, March 29, 1918

biography

Political activity

Georg grew up at Berhometh Castle and graduated from high school (Abitur 1883) partly at the kk Ober-Gymnasium in Czernowitz, partly at the k. k. Theresian Academy (Theresianum) in Vienna . He studied law and economics at the universities of Vienna and Chernivtsi .

Even as a student, he was far from chauvinism and arrogance and so belonged to the international “Danubia” corps at the university. He was also very close to the liberal Romanian association "România Jună". The Romanian balls he organized and often served as committee chairman were legendary. He was honored as such by Crown Prince Rudolf on the occasion of the visit to one of these balls in a way that was much noticed at the time.

Georg as LH with State President Prince Hohenlohe , Berhometh Castle in 1904
Count Georg Wassilko as senator in 1920

Within the new Romanian political society, a struggle began in 1885 between the conservational wing of the large estates and the young intellectuals with George Popovici, Constantin Isopescul, Florea Lupul, T. V. Ştefanelli, Constantin Morariu, Johann von Flondor and others. The young student enthusiastically joined these people. These finally came to an agreement with the conservatives and, after the affair with the state president Anton Graf Pace in 1892, founded the political association "Concordia", a forerunner of the Romanian National Party, which advocated a spread of the social base through the establishment of the middle classes and the peasantry for a political activity with a marked national character.

After the death of his father, he became entrant  (1893). Afterwards he devoted himself to politics for decades, but also to the management of his property. Among other things, Bernese Simmenthal cattle were raised on a large scale .

The baron was elected as the successor to Baron Viktor von Styrczea in the House of Representatives of the Reichsrat on March 8, 1895 (until 1904), where he joined the Hohenwart'schen Klub until its disintegration. Then he founded the Romanian Club (Clubul Parlamentar Român) within the Imperial Council, together with George Popovici, Alexander Freiherren von Hormuzaki and the other Romanian MPs, within the Imperial Council, where he was deputy chairman. The government needed their votes in order to achieve a majority when passing various bills. In return, the Romanians received a number of advantages, such as the establishment of several Romanian parallel classes at the German grammar school in Chernivtsi, among other things. He also vehemently opposed the persecution of the Romanians in Transylvania. He was also the co-founder of the party's political mouthpiece, the newspaper "Gazeta Bucovinei" (1898).

In 1901, at the height of the “Czech crisis” and a torn Imperial Council, where Vasilko was able to prevent the Czech nationalist Klofač from attempting to bomb the president with a full inkwell during the session of March 6, 1901, Emperor Franz Joseph I complained briefly Some time later in a conversation with him: “The parliamentary situation is very serious again. It can not go on like this. It is to despair. Many MPs lack good will and courage. "

In October 1903 there was a scandal in the so-called Flondoraffaire, in which the deputy Johann von Flondor had the worst anti-Semitic hate speech written in the Bukovina journal . He had given his word of honor that he had nothing to do with the matter, but was convicted of being untruthful. Nevertheless, the Romanian Club stuck to him, which induced the baron to leave this society. He argued that he could not belong to a club that condoned and promoted sectarian agitation in a country, according to his political prejudice-free convictions. Many observers said that this was the end of his political career. But Wassilko founded the "middle party" and won the election campaign with it.

On September 14, 1904, Emperor Franz Joseph I appointed him governor of the Duchy of Bukovina , a service that he performed until July 1911. His term of office coincided almost exactly with that of the state president Octavian Regner von Bleyleben . The two personalities were in close contact. Not only did they tirelessly strive for a balance and peaceful coexistence between the various ethnic groups and religions, they also harmonized in economic decisions. For example, in order to avert an unforeseeable economic catastrophe, Georg worked out proposals for restructuring the Raiffeisen banks, which the state president had immediately implemented.

Georg did not want to work in this office afterwards and therefore did not run for a seat in the state parliament. The Bukovina Post wrote: “To the general regret of the country, Excellency Baron Georg Wassilko decidedly refused to be re-elected to the state parliament. A new man therefore had to hold the dignity of governor. ”Therefore, on May 27, 1911, Alexander Baron von Hormuzaki was appointed governor of Bukovina by the emperor.

First he was appointed permanent member on June 10, 1904, and later, on August 1, 1917, hereditary member of the manor house of the Austrian Reichsrat. Georg also became an honorary citizen of Berhometh on May 6, 1914.

Elisa, b. by Ohanowicz (1909)

The manor house had decided to reject and return the enabling law drawn up by the House of Representatives to it, and on June 10, 1917, a 36-member constitutional commission was set up with the aim of changing it. This also included the Bukovinian.

Georg was honored with the title of kuk chamberlain together with his brothers Stephan , Alexander and Viktor on December 19, 1905 , and by the highest resolution of August 29, 1918 in Eckartsau (diploma from October 19 in Vienna) by Emperor Karl I. because of his loyalty to the state and his personal sacrifices, also together with his brothers, elevated to the rank of count.

After Bukowina was annexed to Romania, he was elected by a large majority as a member of the Romanian parliament in 1919 for the Vijniţa district and in 1922 for the newly merged Vijniţa-Văscăuţi district and was Vice-President of the Romanian Senate.

Before and after the war, the count was a great patron and honorary chairman of the Romanian society "Junimea" , the most influential intellectual, cultural and political Romanian association of the 19th century.

family

The sons Alexander and Constantin Wassilko von Serecki (1903)

The eldest son of Baron Alexander Wassilko von Serecki married on October 5, 1890 at Mendyk Castle Elise (born April 20, 1874 at Mendyk Castle; † October 15, 1943 in Chernivtsi), daughter of Mendyk's owner Johann Ritter von Ohanowicz , who later became the bearer of the Elisabeth Order (1913,) with whom he had two sons, Constantin (born August 9, 1891 at Berhometh Castle; † December 25, 1932 in Chernivtsi) and Alexander (born November 17, 1893 at Berhometh Castle; † May 27, 1972 in Dumbrăveni).

The Count did not live to see the consequences of the Hitler-Stalin Pact and the Second World War. The rules of entails were retained after the count's death. As a result of the early death of the eldest son, Constantin, his younger brother Alexander assumed the legacy. From 1945 expropriation , forced evacuation and political persecution by the communist system followed. Today the descendants live in Germany, Canada and Romania.

Coat of arms 1918

medal

The Count was awarded the Grand Cross of the Franz-Joseph Order , the Knight's Cross of the Austrian Imperial Leopold Order and King Carol I of Romania with the Grand Cross of the Star of Romania (Steaua României).

Coat of arms (1918)

A blue shield, in which an upright arrow is surmounted by a crescent moon, the downward-facing tips of which are each studded with a six-pointed star, all of this golden. On the main edge of the shield rests the golden count's crown with nine visible pearl prongs, raised by an open, crowned tournament helmet, surrounded on both sides by blue, gold-backed ceilings. From the crown of the helmet emerges a natural peacock frond of two rows with five feathers each, shot right through by a golden arrow. Below the shield there is a bronze-colored arabesque on which two upright natural stags, facing each other and holding golden crosses between their antlers, stand as shield holders.

Picture gallery

  • Georg Wassilko von Serecki 1895

  • Constantin, Elisa, Xandi, Georg Wassilko von Serecki 1902

  • Georg Count Wassilko von Serecki

  • Berhometh Castle around 1912

  • Berhometh Castle 1915

  • Count Georg Wassilko von Serecki 1936

  • Gravestone of Count Georg Wassilko in Berhometh

  • Alexander Graf Wassilko (1893–1972), deer hunt on August 30, 1929

predecessor Office successor
Johann Lupul Governor of the Duchy of Bukovina
1904–1911 		Alexander Freiherr von Hormuzaki

Web links

Commons : Georg Wassilko von Serecki  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • The Gothaischen Genealogical Pocket Books of the Nobility S – Z, p. 606, GB 1919
  • Gothaisches Genealogical Pocket Book of the Count's Houses Part B, pp. 536-537, 114th year, 1941
  • The Flondora affair in the Bucovina parliament. According to the shorthand records. Chernivtsi 1903. Publishing house of the “Bukowinaer Post”, printed by Isidor Wiehler, Chernivtsi, 256 pp.
  • Ion Nistor, Istoria Bucovinei, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti 1991
  • Erich Prokopowitsch, The nobility in the Bukowina, publishing house "Der Südostdeutsche", Munich 1983
  • Ion Drăguşanul, Bucovina faptului divers, Vol. 1,2, Editura Bucovina Viitoare, Suceava, 2002
  • Mihai-Ştefan Ceauşu, Czernowitz 1892 in: Wladimir Fischer (ed.), Spaces and Borders in Austria-Hungary 1867-1918: Approaches to Cultural Studies, Francke Verlag 2010

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b "Bukowinaer Post" from September 15, 1904, leading article, p. 1
  2. ↑ Mihai-Ştefan Ceauşu, Czernowitz 1892 in: Wladimir Fischer (Ed.), Spaces and Borders in Austria-Hungary 1867-1918: cultural-scientific approaches, Francke Verlag 2010, p. 36 ff.
  3. ↑ supplementary volume history of the Austrian agriculture and forestry and their industries, from 1848 to 1898. Festschrift to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the accession to the throne on December 2nd, 1898. Sr. Majesty of Emperor Franz Joseph I; ed. under the protectorate of the kk agriculture ministry, Verlag M. Perles, Vienna 1901, p. 69
  4. ^ Ion Nistor, Istoria Bucovinei, Ed. Humanitas, Bucharest, 1991, p. 261, pp. 262-263
  5. ↑ Rochester NY Democrat Cronical, Friday, March 8. 1,901th
  6. ^ Gustav Kolmer, Parliament and Constitution in Austria: Vol. 1900–1904, Verlag C. Fromme, 1914, p. 166.
  7. ^ Gustav Kolmer, Parliament and Constitution in Austria: Vol. 1900–1904, Verlag C. Fromme, 1907, p. 381
  8. ↑ Die Grenzbote, Volume 61, Part 2, publisher. FL Herbig, Munich 1902, p. 177
  9. ↑ The Flondoraffaire in Bukovina diets. According to the shorthand records. Chernivtsi 1903. Publishing house of the “Bukowinaer Post”, printed by Isidor Wiehler, Chernivtsi, pp. 83, 88, 95-98.
  10. ↑ Bukowinaer Post No. 2782, from Sunday, December 17, 1911, p. 1 f.
  11. ↑ Bukowinaer Post No. 3167, from Tuesday, July 7, 1914, p. 1
  12. ↑ Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung No. 5278, from Saturday, August 11, 1917, p. 455
  13. ^ Gustav Kolmer, The mansion of the Austrian Reichsrat after the inventory at the end of 1906, Verlag C. Fromme, 1907, p. 381
  14. ↑ Bukowinaer Post No. 3141, from Sunday, May 10, 1914, p. 6
  15. ↑ Reichspost No. 321, from Saturday, June 11, 1917, p. 5
  16. ↑ Erich Prokopowitsch: The nobility in the Bukowina , Südostdeutscher Verlag, Munich, 1983, p. 130
  17. ↑ Letter of nobility 1918
  18. ↑ Ionas Aurelian Rus, “Variables affecting nation-building: The impact of the ethnic basis, the educational system, industrialization and sudden shocks”, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, 2008, p. 168
  19. ↑ Handbook of the highest court and the court of his K. and K. Apostolic Majesty, KK Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1913, p. 402
  20. ↑ Gothaisches Genealogischen Taschenbuch der Gräfliche Häuser part B, 114th year, pp. 536-537, 1941
  21. ↑ a b Letter of nobility for Georg Graf Wassilko, 1918
  22. ↑ Court and State Manual of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy: Volume 33, 1907, p. 871
  23. ↑ Neamul românesc, Volumes 2-3, Bucureşti, 1907, p 338
personal data
SURNAME Wassilko von Serecki, Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wassilko von Serecki, Baron Georg; Wassilko-Serecki, Georg Freiherr von; Wassilko-Serecki, Georg Graf von; Vasilco, baronul George; Vasilco de Serecki, baronul George; Vasilco, contele George; Vasilco de Serecki, contele George; Wassilko von Serecki, Count Georg (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Berhometh Castle
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 1940
Place of death Chernivtsi