Gustav Kálnoky

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Count Gustav Kálnoky (drawn by Jan Vilímek )

Gustav Sigmund Graf Kálnoky von Kőröspatak (Hungarian: Gróf kőröspataki Kálnoky Gusztáv Zsigmond ) (born December 29, 1832 in Lettowitz , Moravia ; † February 13, 1898 in Prödlitz , Moravia) was Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister from 1881 to 1895.

biography

Coming from an originally Transylvanian magnate family, he was born as the fourth of eleven children of Gusztáv Jozsef Count Kálnoky von Köröspatak (1799–1884) and Isabella Countess von Schrattenbach (1809–1875) at Lettowitz Palace. Kálnoky began the career of a cavalry officer at the age of 17 and was first lieutenant in the hussars . In 1854 he decided to pursue a diplomatic career . He was first attaché in Munich , 1857 in Berlin , from 1860 to 1870 legation secretary at the embassy in London . Subsequently as Counselor at the Vatican , he became envoy in Copenhagen in 1874 . In 1879 he was awarded the rank of general. In the summer of 1879 he was first provisional and, from January 1880, the definitive imperial and royal ambassador to Saint Petersburg . Here he became an expert in politics towards Russia , a policy that would dominate his later career. He was directly involved in the conclusion of the three emperor alliance of 1881, which brought about a temporary settlement with Russia in the Balkan inquiry.

In 1887, he was by Emperor Franz Joseph I to the Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece levied. He was privately entrant on Lettowitz with the Slatinka estate.

In 1897, Kálnoky, appointed by the emperor, became a member of the manor house of the Austrian Imperial Council , but spent most of the time in seclusion on the estate in Moravian Prödlitz, inherited from his mother.

Foreign minister

From November 20, 1881, Kálnoky acted as the successor to Heinrich Karl von Haymerle , as joint kuk minister of the imperial house and foreign affairs. He tried to use diplomatic means to maintain the monarchy's dwindling great power position. Kálnoky is described as a calm, level-headed and cautious diplomat, a master of the defensive, but if he tried to take an offensive approach, there were failures.

Kálnoky was instrumental in the construction of the Triple Alliance. After the Franco-Russian rapprochement at the latest , he succeeded in making the two alliance the dominant feature of Berlin politics. In addition to Germany and Italy, he also tried to at least neutralize Romania , Serbia , and Great Britain ( Mediterranean Agreement 1887 ) as a counterweight to Russia. By strengthening the foreign policy position of the Habsburg Monarchy, he tried to prevent war with Russia. Nevertheless, he always endeavored to achieve a policy of equalization with Russia. He mediated in the Battenberg affair and the Bulgarian crisis (1885–1887) between the Central European powers and the Balkan states . He achieved the containment of the dominant influence of the Tsarist Empire on Bulgaria. His program was to orient the Balkan states towards Central Europe and not allow any constellation of powers that would disadvantage the monarchy. Without expanding its own territory in the Balkans, Kálnoky carefully tried to push back Russian influence in the region, especially Bulgaria, and to protect economic interests. He rejected the division into zones of interest preferred by Otto von Bismarck .

With the Hungarian government he increasingly had state and church political as well as economic policy differences. On May 16, 1895, the Hungarian Prime Minister Dezső Bánffy forced Kálnoky's resignation as Foreign Minister because he considered his Balkan policy towards Russia to be too weak. Another reason was an affair about the interference of the papal nuncio in domestic Hungarian affairs ( civil marriage ), which had led to a conflict between Kálnoky and Bánffy.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Kálnoky by Köröspatak Gustav Sigmund Graf. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1965, p. 200.
  2. ^ Ernst Rutkowski: Letters and documents on the history of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy . Volume 1: The Constitutionally Loyal Large Estate 1880-1899 . Verlag Oldenbourg, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-486-51831-3 , p. 25.
  3. ^ A b c Ernst R. von Rutkowski:  Kálnocky, Gustav Graf von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , pp. 70 f. ( Digitized version ).
  4. ↑ Adalbert Král von Dobrá Voda : "The nobility of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia", genealogical-heraldic repetition of all class surveys, predicates, promotions, awards, coats of arms and coat of arms improvements of the entire nobility of the Bohemian crown with sources and coat of arms evidence, I. Taussig, Prague 1904
  5. ^ A b Berthold Molden:  Kálnoky, Count Gustav . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, pp. 1-25.
  6. ↑ Michael Gehler (Ed.): Unequal partners? Austria and Germany in their mutual perception. Historical analyzes and comparisons from the 19th and 20th centuries . Verlag Steiner, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-515-06878-3 , p. 297.
  7. ↑ Hans-Joachim Böttcher: Ferdinand von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha 1861-1948 - A cosmopolitan on the Bulgarian throne . Osteuropazentrum Berlin-Verlag (Anthea Verlagsgruppe), Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-89998-296-1 , p. 35-39, 63-66 et al. v. a .
  8. ^ Mathias Bernath (ed.): Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 1, Verlag Oldenbourg, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-486-47511-8 , p. 330.
  9. ^ Ernst Rutkowski: Letters and documents on the history of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy . Volume 1: The Constitutionally Loyal Large Estate 1880-1899 . Verlag Oldenbourg, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-486-51831-3 , p. 59.

literature

  • Walter Rauscher: Between Berlin and St. Petersburg. The Austro-Hungarian foreign policy under Gustav Graf Kálnoky 1881–1895 . Verlag Böhlau, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-205-98138-3 .
  • Walter Rauscher: Alliance problems and Austrian domestic policy under Kálnoky (1881–1895) . In: Helmut Rumpler (Hrsg.): The “two alliance” 1879. The German-Austrian-Hungarian alliance and the European diplomatic historians' talk Austria - Federal Republic of Germany 1994 . Verlag der Österr. Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-7001-2551-8 , pp. 119–144.
  • Ernst R. Rutkowski: Gustav Graf Kálnoky. A biographical sketch In: Mitteilungen des Österreichisches Staatsarchiv . 14, pp. 330-343 (1961).
  • Ernst R. Rutkowski: Gustav Count Kálnoky von Kököspatak. Austria-Hungary's foreign policy from 1881–1885 . 2 volumes, dissertation, University of Vienna 1952.

Web links

Commons : Gusztáv Kálnoky Kőröspataki  - collection of images, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Heinrich Karl von Haymerle Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister
November 20, 1881 - May 2, 1895 		Agenor Gołuchowski the Younger
personal data
SURNAME Kálnoky, Gustav
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kálnoky von Köröspatak, Gustav Sigmund; Kőröspataki Kálnoky, Gusztáv Zsigmond
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-Hungarian statesman and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Lettowitz
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1898
Place of death Prodlitz