Karel Schwarzenberg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karel Schwarzenberg in his tenure as Czech Foreign Minister (2007)Signature of Karel Schwarzenberg
Karel Schwarzenberg (2017)

Karel Schwarzenberg (German Karl Schwarzenberg ; born December 10, 1937 in Prague , Czechoslovak Republic ) is a Czech - Swiss politician , farmer and businessman .

As a politician, Schwarzenberg was Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic from 2007–2009 and 2010–2013. During his first term in office, he was also Chairman of the General Affairs Council (Foreign Minister) due to the Czech EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2009 . Schwarzenberg was chairman of the newly founded party TOP 09 from 2009 to 2015 . In the 2013 presidential election in the Czech Republic, he was defeated by Miloš Zeman .

Karel Schwarzenberg's first names are all in Czech Karel Jan Nepomuk Josef Norbert Bedřich Antonín Vratislav Menas . and in German Karl Johannes Nepomuk Josef Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Mena. In Austria he is also officially named Karl Schwarzenberg . Since 1979 he has been the head of the family of the historic Schwarzenberg dynasty .

Life

origin

Schwarzenberg came in 1937 as the second of four children in the Roman Catholic family of Karl Schwarzenberg (1911–1986; until 1918: VI. Prince of Schwarzenberg) and Antonie Leontine Schwarzenberg, nee. Princess zu Fürstenberg (1905–1988), to the world. His mother spoke fluent German and English and was also able to speak Czech, his father had a national Czech orientation.

Schwarzenberg attended Czech-speaking schools as a child, German and Czech were spoken at home, which Schwarzenberg speaks in a manner that seems somewhat antiquated to modern Czech ears.

In December 1948, about nine months after the communist overthrow of February 25th of that year, which was promoted by the Soviet Union , Schwarzenberg's parents and their family left Czechoslovakia , where, after the property restitution of 1945 until early 1948, they owned a few castles and several thousand hectares of land possessed. The family's emigration was made easier by their second, federal citizenship.

Youth in Austria

Schwarzenberg graduated from Kundmanngasse grammar school in Vienna and graduated in 1957 with the Matura . He has been a member of the K.Ö.ML Tegetthoff zu Wien student association in the MKV since 1953 . After graduating from high school, he began to study law and forest sciences in Vienna , Graz and Munich , but did not complete them.

In 1960, Karl was adopted by his distant relative Heinrich Schwarzenberg, the younger brother of the then head of the Schwarzenberg Primogeniture family , Joseph (III). This decision within the family brought inheritance advantages for Schwarzenberg. In 1979 he took over the inheritance of his uncle Joseph, became the head of the Schwarzenberg family and united the two lines of the family (primogeniture and secondary education ) in his person .

First political and economic activities in Vienna

In the 1960s Schwarzenberg was politically active in Austria. According to Paul Lendvai , he was involved behind the scenes with Hermann Withalm and Josef Klaus in the reform of the ÖVP in the years before the National Council election in 1966 , in which the ÖVP achieved an absolute majority. Lendvai also reported on ultimately unsuccessful efforts in the ÖVP to transfer the Austrian Foreign Ministry or a State Secretariat to Schwarzenberg in the mid-1960s.

Schwarzenberg himself remembered this time in 2010 with the words: "At that time I belonged to a group of young people who consciously sought a conversation with the other side [...] whether it was Heinzi Fischer , whether it was Rupert Gmoser [...] ], it went without saying that we are not stuck to any dogmas. "

In 1969/70 Schwarzenberg was involved as a lender in Oscar Bronner's founding of the Austrian business magazine trend . It was first published in January 1970. A few months later, Bronner had the news magazine profil follow.

Helsinki Federation

Schwarzenberg supported the resistance against the communist government in Czechoslovakia at an early stage. After the crackdown on the Prague Spring in 1968, he stood up for the opposition and campaigned for human rights on an international level. Among other things, he was President of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights from 1984 to 1991 at the suggestion of Bruno Kreisky . In 1986 he founded the Documentation Center for the promotion of independent Czechoslovakian literature at Schwarzenberg Castle in Scheinfeld .

In 1989 he and Lech Wałęsa received the Council of Europe's Human Rights Prize .

Politicians in Czechoslovakia or in the Czech Republic

Karel Schwarzenberg with former President Václav Havel , "the friend and companion for many years" (2008)
Karel Schwarzenberg in his role as Czech Foreign Minister presents US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with a framed photograph of a meeting between US President Bill Clinton , his wife Hillary and Czech President Václav Havel in Prague (December 2012)
Karel Schwarzenberg as laudator for Hanna Suchocka , winner of the International Adalbert Prize 2015 (May 2015)

After the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia and the election of Václav Havel as President , Schwarzenberg acted from July 10, 1990 to 1992 as his office manager with the title of Chancellor. His official residence was in Prague Castle .

In 1996 he acquired the liberal weekly magazine Respekt, which has been published in Prague since 1990 . In November 2004 he was elected to the Czech Senate for six years in the Prague 6 district, nominated by the Freedom Union - Democratic Union (US-DEU) party. Until its dissolution in 2007 he was a member of the Democratic Citizens Alliance (ODA) party.

On January 9, 2007, Schwarzenberg was sworn in by President Václav Klaus as Foreign Minister and was thus a member of the Mirek Topolánek II cabinet . He was nominated by the Czech Greens . Since then he has been one of the most popular Czech politicians.

With the inauguration of the interim government under Jan Fischer on May 8, 2009, he was replaced as Foreign Minister by Jan Kohout . Schwarzenberg then joined the new party TOP 09 initiated by the Finance Minister of the Topolánek government, Miroslav Kalousek , and was elected chairman of this party on June 11, 2009, at the 4th party congress of TOP 09 he was elected honorary chairman on November 28, 2015 , he was succeeded by Miroslav Kalousek. In the parliamentary elections in May 2010, he was elected to the House of Representatives - after which he gave up his seat in the Senate prematurely.

On July 13, 2010 Schwarzenberg moved into the center-right government of Prime Minister Petr Nečas again as Foreign Minister in the Palais Czernin . Nečas resigned on June 17, 2013. In the transitional cabinet of Neča's successor Jiří Rusnok , which was held until the early elections on 25/26. In October 2013 , Jan Kohout Schwarzenberg succeeded him as Foreign Minister. TOP 09 received 12.0% of the votes and thus 26 of the 200 seats. Schwarzenberg has been an opposition politician in the House of Representatives since then. In November 2015 he handed over the chairmanship of the TOP 09 to Miroslav Kalousek due to age .

Schwarzenberg ran for the 2013 presidential election in the Czech Republic and received the second-highest percentage of votes in the first ballot on January 11 and 12, 2013 with 23.4%. The difference to the share of the vote of the first place winner , the SPOZ honorary chairman and former Prime Minister Miloš Zeman , was less than one percentage point. Since none of the candidates achieved an absolute majority , a runoff election took place two weeks later between the two, which Schwarzenberg lost.

Schwarzenberg is one of 89 people from the European Union against whom Russia imposed an entry ban in May 2015 .

Criticism from politics

In connection with the privatization of the liquor manufacturer Becherovka , there were allegations from the ranks of the political opposition in the Czech Republic that Schwarzenberg had gained advantages in the privatization of the plant through his work in Czech politics. In 1997 the Salb consortium, supported by Pernod Ricard , whose shareholders included Schwarzenberg, acquired 30% of the shares plus a voting right for a further 21% from the Czech state. 59% of the shares initially remained with the state. In 2001, 89% of the state shares were sold to Value Bill GmbH , whose shareholders are Bank Patria Finance and Pernod Ricard with 40% each and Schwarzenberg with 20%.

Private person Schwarzenberg

family

Schwarzenberg was married from 1967 to 1988 and has been married again to the doctor Therese, née Hardegg (* 1940) since 2008 . Three children were born in the marriage: Johannes Nepomucenus (Czech Jan; * 1967), Anna Carolina married. Morgan (Czech Anna-Carolina; * 1968) and Karl Philipp (Czech Karel-Filip; * 1979). The latter was adopted by his biological father Thomas Prinzhorn in 1987 and now bears the name Karl Philipp Prinzhorn. The family had their main residence in Murau Castle for 10 years after the couple married .

His siblings are Marie Eleonore von Bredow (* 1936, married to Leopold-Bill von Bredow, a great-grandson of Otto von Bismarck ), Friedrich Schwarzenberg (* 1940) and Anna Maria Freifrau von Haxthausen (* 1946).

Schwarzenberg comes from the Schwarzenberg secondary school , that is, from the younger Schwarzenberg-Orlik line. He was Heinrich Schwarzenberg, an Austrian members of the older prince line to Schwarzenberg Fraunberg ( primogeniture ), adopted , but retained Czech citizenship, without the Austrian accept. In 1965 he took over the estates in Austria and Germany as the future heir after his adoptive father and has been the heir since the death of his uncle Joseph in 1979 as head of the entire Schwarzenberg family , who had bestowed Emperor Leopold I with the hereditary title of Imperial Prince in 1670 . The Czechoslovak citizens lost this title in 1918 and the Austrian ones with the nobility annulment law of 1919.

family name

In what was then Czechoslovakia , the nobility was abolished on December 10, 1918 and the use of corresponding titles was prohibited. As a result, Schwarzenberg already became the official family name of the parents without any further additions and thus also from Karel Schwarzenberg's birth. Regardless of this, in the Czech Republic and beyond, he is often referred to in the media as kníže ze Schwarzenbergu (or Prince of Schwarzenberg in German  ) in a mixture of distance and recognition .

From an aristocratic point of view, Schwarzenberg's full German-speaking name is Karl Johannes Nepomuk Joseph Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Mena, Prince of Schwarzenberg, Duke of Krumau, Count of Sulz, Prince Landgrave in Kleggau (= today Klettgau ).

Nationalities

  • Karel / Karl Schwarzenberg became a Czechoslovak (in today's successor state: Czech ) citizen when he was born in Prague in 1937 .
  • Despite moving to Vienna in his youth in 1948 and the long time he had lived in Austria , Schwarzenberg never became an Austrian citizen .
  • The members of the Schwarzenberg family since the 16th century have the Zurich civil rights and since 1848, according to the Swiss citizenship , the federal nationality. Schwarzenberg has therefore also been Swiss since he was born, and part of the family still lives in Switzerland today.

Residences and assets

Schwarzenberg is a forester and hotelier and has residences in Prague as well as in Dřevíč Castle and Orlík Castle on the Vltava River in Bohemia , in Switzerland , in the Schwarzenberg family castle in Scheinfeld in Middle Franconia , in Obermurau Castle in Styria and in the Schwarzenberg Palace on Schwarzenbergplatz in Vienna .

Schloss Obermurau is owned by the Fürstlich Schwarzenberg'schen Family Foundation with its headquarters in Vaduz and, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Schwarzenberg Holding GmbH, is the administrative headquarters of Schwarzenberg's operations in Austria and is also the museum and residence of the Karl Schwarzenbergs family.

In the annual ranking of the richest Austrians by trend magazine , the Schwarzenberg family was in 87th place with their fortune with a determined fortune of 280 million euros, including real estate, agriculture and forestry with 18,961 hectares of land in Styria and Salzburg with 10,000 hectares of land in the Czech Republic and 21 castles. In the 2018 ranking, the family was in 84th place and was valued with assets from real estate, agriculture and forestry between 400 and 150 million euros, which are issued as inheritance assets (EV) .

Property provision in the Czech Republic after 1989

After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, a restitution law was passed in what was then Czechoslovakia. Schwarzenberg then got back considerable parts of his father's former forest property and agricultural land, Orlík Castle on the Vltava River and other properties. However, he refused to demand the return of the ancestral seat of the princes zu Schwarzenberg. Frauenberg Castle (Hluboká) had previously been owned by the Schwarzenberg family for more than three centuries.

Property restitution after 1989 was possible because Schwarzenberg's parents declared themselves to be the first Czechoslovak republic and did not opt ​​for being Germans, when the German Reich occupied most of the country in 1938 and 1939 (excluding Slovakia and Carpathian Ukraine ) and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Bohemia , which he established in violation of international law Moravia incorporated. The commitment of both Schwarzenberg family branches (including the so-called Primogenitur, the Frauenberg line) to the Czech Republic meant that their possessions were confiscated during the Nazi regime, but that the family members undoubtedly had Czechoslovak citizenship in 1945 and afterwards; Most of the other German-speaking citizens opted for the German Reich in 1938/39 and were therefore considered foreigners, expropriated and expelled in 1945.

Quotes

Schwarzenberg, who, when he means (the state) Czech Republic, still says Bohemia (“'Bohemia can't do this in fast motion', says someone who has worked like no other to ensure that Germans and Czechs find each other.” - “ I am no longer aiming for an office in Bohemia, but if I should be needed, I will help where I can. ”), Was characterized in an article in the daily newspaper Die Welt in 2002 by its chief commentator Jacques Schuster as follows:

“It was the Czech and Swiss with German, Prague and Vienna residence [...] who, as head of the Prague Presidential Chancellery alongside Havel , initiated the German-Czech rapprochement from 1990 onwards. To this day - long since freed from office - he urges Bohemian friends to be truthful and Germans to be patient. Remaining and displaced people are equally close to him. 'I just have several patriotisms.' Karl Schwarzenberg - the wanderer between the worlds, one who is reminiscent of Joseph von Trotta from the ' Radetzkymarsch ', but also of Schwejk and the characters from Nestroy's Viennese reality; in short, a Central European who thinks in terms of regions, not states, someone who has been vaccinated with suspicion against the infection of patriotic enthusiasm . Who, if not he, would be able to calm things down on both sides behind the scenes? 'I am no longer aiming for an office in Bohemia, but if I should be needed, I will help where I can.' "

- Jacques Schuster : Die Welt, February 2002

When asked how he, Schwarzenberg, should be addressed: “He is an innkeeper and forester, explains the Landgrave, Duke and Prince. Should he be called Your Highness ? 'I'm blunted,' he replies in Viennese style . "

honors and awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Karel Schwarzenberg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Karl zu Schwarzenberg  - Quotes

References and comments

Individual evidence
  1. ^ A b c d e Karl Johannes Nepomuk Josef Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Mena Fürst zu Schwarzenberg announces his candidacy for the office of president. In: Presse Stammhaus Montfort, October 23, 2011. Accessed on June 19, 2015: "The Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg (his official name in the Czech Republic) ..." "Schwarzenberg is a Czech and Swiss citizen."
  2. ^ Václav "Jimy" Císař: Karel Schwarzenberg - biography. Entry in the Czech-Slovenian film database (Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze), accessed on May 2, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB), p. 1711. In it: “2005 | Czech Republic | SCHWARZENBERG Karl | Senator in the Czech Republic for the constituency of Prague 6 (presented by HBP on September 13, 2005, 2 p.m.) | Large silver medal on ribbon | BM f. external information "
  4. ↑ a b c cf. Till Janzer: Time of decline - the Bohemian nobility in the 20th century. In: Czech Radio. Radio Praha, December 27, 2008, accessed on May 2, 2019 .
  5. ^ Ian Willoughby: Karel Schwarzenberg - a prince with his eye on the Castle. In: Czech Radio. Radio Praha, December 13, 2013, accessed on May 2, 2019 (English).
  6. ↑ Karel Schwarzenberg: The bad pupil visits his school. In: kurier.at , January 2019, accessed on April 4, 2019.
  7. ^ Paul Lendvai : My Austria - 50 Years Behind the Scenes of Power , 4th edition, Ecowin Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 3-902404-46-9 , p. 89
  8. ^ In conversation with Karl Schwarzenberg. In: Helene Maimann (Ed.): About Kreisky. Conversations from a distance and near. Falter Verlag, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-85439-455-6 , p. 98.
  9. ^ In conversation with Karl Schwarzenberg. In: Helene Maimann (Ed.): About Kreisky. Conversations from a distance and near. Falter Verlag, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-85439-455-6 , p. 101.
  10. ↑ a b c Jacques Schuster: Central Europeans best tradition: Karl Schwarzenberg. (“A Czech and Swiss resident of German, Prague and Vienna: to this day, the former head of the chancellery Vaclav Havels urges Bohemian friends to be truthful and Germans to be patient - portrait.”) In: Die Welt , February 20, 2002, accessed on 2 May 2019.
  11. ↑ Election to the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic held on 5.11. - 6.11.2004. In: Results of Elections and Referendums (volby.cz; English). Czech Statistical Office (Ed.), Accessed on May 2, 2019: Karel Schwarzenberg in the election results of the 2004 senatorial election.
  12. ↑ Schwarzenberg Chairman of the new party in the Czech Republic - Miroslav Kalousek founds the TOP 09 conservative party as announced ( Memento from June 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: Czech Republic-online, June 11, 2009, accessed on June 26, 2009.
  13. ↑ Miroslav Kalousek se stal šéfem TOP 09, strana má v nově zvoleném vedení padesát procent žen. In: Hospodářské Noviny (Czech), November 29, 2015, accessed on May 2, 2019.
  14. ^ Election of the President of the Czech Republic held on 11-12 January 2013. In: Results of Elections and Referendums (volby.cz; English). Czech Statistical Office (Ed.), Accessed on May 2, 2019: Karel Schwarzenberg in the results of the 2013 presidential election.
  15. ^ Karl-Peter Schwarz: Czech presidential election: The Prince and the Machiavelli. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 13, 2013, accessed on May 2, 2019. (Print edition on January 14, 2013, p. 5.)
  16. ^ Klaus Brill, Prague: Runoff election in the Czech Republic: Milos Zeman elected President of the Czech Republic. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 26, 2013, accessed on May 2, 2019.
  17. ↑ Andreas Borcholte: EU vs. Russia: Sharp protest against Putin's entry bans. In: Spiegel Online. May 31, 2015, accessed May 2, 2019 .
  18. ↑ RUS: Russian "Visa blacklist" from RAM on May 27th. handed over to EU delegation Moscow. (PDF 23 kB) In: yle.fi. May 26, 2015, accessed May 2, 2019 .
  19. ↑ a b c d Karel Schwarzenberg - The Minister of Foreign Affairs. ( Memento of April 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Biography entry on the website of the Government of the Czech Republic in the version of April 11, 2009.
  20. ↑ a b c d e Karl Johannes Prince of Schwarzenberg. Short biography on the website of the municipality of Murau in Styria, undated, accessed on May 2, 2019.
  21. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Schwarzenberg, the princely house, genealogy . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 33. Part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing House, Vienna 1877, p. 2 ( digital copy ).
  22. ↑ a b A Swiss Czech. ("The Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg also has a Swiss passport. How did the 69-year-old Prince come to this, although he lived mainly in Austria and the Czech Republic?") In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , January 9, 2007, accessed on January 2, 2007. May 2019.
  23. ↑ See Wolfgang Wieland: Exclusive: Noble Wedding in Murau. In: Murtaler Zeitung / mein district.at. Wochenzeitungs GmbH Steiermark (Ed.), April 13, 2017, accessed on May 2, 2019.
  24. ↑ The richest Austrians 2017 - TOP 100 rich list. Source: business magazine “trend” June 30, 2017. In: ReadSmarter Business- & Lifestyleblog, November 25, 2017 in the version October 13, 2018, accessed on May 2, 2019.
  25. ↑ The 100 richest Austrians 2018 - rich list of Austria. Source: business magazine “trend” 07/27/2018. In: ReadSmarter Business- & Lifestyleblog, September 18, 2018, accessed on May 2, 2019.
  26. ^ Thomas Gack [Hluboka]: Lord of the castle without a castle. How Czech Foreign Minister Schwarzenberg brought his colleagues into contact with his own family history. In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 29, 2009.
  27. ↑ Czech Foreign Minister Schwarzenberg receives the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Press release of the Federal Foreign Office , December 12, 2008, accessed on May 2, 2019: "... the Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg receives the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of his special services to German-Czech relations."
  28. ↑ Saxony awards the Czech Foreign Minister with an Order of Merit. ( Memento of December 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Freie Presse / dapd , December 7, 2012.
Remarks
  1. ↑ The magazines trend and profil , founded in 1970, still exist today.
  2. ^ Next to Prague Castle is the Renaissance Schwarzenberg Palace , which has not been in the family's possession since 1948.
  3. ↑ Václav Klaus had expressed concerns about his appointment in advance due to Schwarzenberg's "ties" to Austria.
  4. ↑ Cf. Robert Schuster: How the Bohemian nobility got their bad reputation. In: Radio Praha, August 14, 2010. Accessed on June 19, 2015: “The society of the First Czechoslovak Republic also had its problems with the historical aristocratic families. One of the first laws passed by the National Assembly at that time ordered the abolition of all titles of nobility in December 1918. The use of the title of nobility, however, was not initially made a criminal offense. That only happened later in the course of an amendment to this law. From then on, wearing titles of nobility was forbidden with a fine of up to 15,000 kroner or 24 hours in prison. In the course of a major land reform in 1919, large parts of the estates of Bohemian aristocrats were also confiscated. "
  5. ↑ Deviating in the genealogical manual of the nobility , volume series Princely Houses (shown in italics): Karl Johannes Nepomuk Josef Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Mena Prince of Schwarzenberg, Duke of Krummau, Prince Count of Sulz and Landgrave in Kleggau.
  6. ↑ Since Schwarzenberg was never an Austrian citizen, the question of the applicability of the Austrian Nobility Repeal Act is superfluous .
  7. ↑ Due to his Czech-Swiss dual citizenship, the name of Karl / Karel Schwarzenberg in Switzerland is based on their international private law and therefore corresponds to the Czech official name; see. International private law - VII. Name law - 1. The name (PDF, p. 14).
personal data
SURNAME Schwarzenberg, Karel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schwarzenberg, Karel Jan (extended name in Czech); Schwarzenberg, Karl (name in German); Prince of Schwarzenberg, Duke of Krumau, Count of Sulz, Prince Landgrave in Kleggau, Karl Johannes Nepomuk Josef Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Mena (full nobility historical name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech politician (item 09), member of the House of Representatives, Foreign Minister
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague