Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart

Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart (born February 12, 1824 in Vienna ; † April 26, 1899 there ) was an Austrian statesman .

Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart
(by Josef Löwy , before 1900)

Life

Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart, Count von Gerlachstein was the son of Count Andreas von Hohenwart and the nephew and heir of Count Franz Josef Hannibal Count von Hohenwart, who was wealthy in Carniola , and the great-nephew of Sigismund Anton von Hohenwart , the Archbishop of Vienna . He became important as the leader of the Federalist Party in Austria.

In the course of his civil servant career, von Hohenwart became the head of the county in Fiume , head of the state in Carinthia , governor in Upper Austria and, after the overthrow of the centralized ministry Leopold von Hasner - Carl Giskra and after a short interim government, Alfred Józef Potocki unexpectedly became Prime Minister in 1871, head of a government in which Karl Habietinek , Albert Schäffle , Josef Jireček and others.

Von Hohenwart's government developed a proposal to reform the structure of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Fundamental Articles : These provided that the Bohemian Landtag recognized the sovereignty of the Reichsrat and its decision-making powers with regard to budget law and the military, but otherwise would receive extensive legislative powers. The Czech and German languages were to be put on an equal footing and Franz Joseph was also to be crowned King of Bohemia. This would have meant a solution similar to the settlement with Hungary in 1867, which established the constitutional structure of the dual monarchy . Von Hohenwart gave the state parliaments to the cisleithan half of the empire the freedom to express their wishes and interests: the Moravian state parliament only agreed to this regulation under certain conditions and the Silesian one completely rejected it. The Hungarian government also rejected this proposal outright because it feared for the unique selling point of the Kingdom of Hungary . The failure of this plan led to the equally unexpected dismissal of his ministry that same year. Since then, Hohenwart has been the leader of the “right-wing party” in the Austrian Reichsrat, which gained a majority in the Reichsrat through its coalition with the Old Czechs and Poles and the formation of an executive committee chaired by von Hohenwart. Hohenwart was appointed President of the Supreme Audit Office in 1885, which he remained until his death. In 1891 he founded the "Hohenwartklub", which was politically influential in the Reichsrat and brought together clerical and conservative MPs of Bohemian , German , Slovenian , Croatian , Romanian and Ruthenian origins.

coat of arms

Coat of arms of the Counts von und zu Hohenwart

Squared shield with heart sign. Heart shield: In silver on a red three-hill, a blue, after others a silver, three times tinned watch tower with an elongated window opening struck under the cornice. Main shield - 1 and 4 in gold two upright ibex horns placed side by side, with their tips outwardly curved at the top; 2 and 3 in red two silver bowls, of which the upper overturned covers the lower. The shield is covered by four crowned helmets. On the right are the horns of 1 and 4, which are studded in five rows with ten black and gold ostrich feathers made from alternated tinctures. From the second helmet grows an inward-looking silver swan with a black beak, whose neck is studded with four red balls. On the third helmet there is a double battle ax on a black handle studded with silver above and below, which is set in four rows with eight silver and black ostrich feathers made from exchanged tinctures. On the left are the bowls of 2 and 3. The helmet covers are gold and black on the right, red and silver on the left.

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Hohenwarth, Karl Sigmund Graf . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 28th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1874, p. 354 ( digitized version ).
• Hohenwart Karl Sigmund Count of. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 2, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1959, p. 396.
• Robert A. Kann :  Hohenwart, Karl Graf von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 495 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Rudolf Gustav Ardelt: Hohenwart zu Gerlachstein, Karl Sigmund Graf von . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 2. Munich 1976, p. 173 f.

Web links

Commons : Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography of Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart on the server of the federal state of Upper Austria .
• Entry on Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Hohenwarth, Franz Erasmus . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 9th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing House, Vienna 1863, p. 205 ( digital copy ).