Otto Czernin

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Otto Czernin (born August 27, 1875 in Dimokur , Bohemia , † June 14, 1962 in Salzburg ; born Otto Rudolf Theobald Ottokar Maria Graf Czernin von und zu Chudenitz ) was an Austro-Hungarian diplomat before and during the First World War .

Life

Czernin was a member of the aristocratic Bohemian family Czernin von Chudenitz and younger brother of the kuk Minister of Foreign Affairs Ottokar Czernin . After studying at the diplomatic academy, the Theresianium , he joined the foreign service of Austria-Hungary and was sent to London as secretary of the embassy and to Rome in 1904 . His tutor was the future Foreign Minister Alois Lexa von Ährenthal , whose activist expansive policy he supported, for example in the Bosnian annexation crisis.

In 1903 Czernin married Lucy Katherine Beckett , daughter of Ernest William Beckett, 2nd Baron Grimthorpe in London . The marriage, from which three sons emerged, was divorced shortly after the outbreak of war in 1914. In 1939 he married Marialisa Pfeiffer (1899–1983) in Pressburg .

Before the beginning of the war he was legation counselor and interim chargé d'affaires (ambassador) at the embassy in Saint Petersburg and, as a direct negotiating partner of Russian Foreign Minister Sasonov, was directly involved in the July crisis and thus the development of World War I.

Back in Vienna , Czernin was used in the communications department of the Austro-Hungarian Army and found out about the real situation on numerous visits to the front, where he also took part in combat operations whenever possible.

As envoy of the monarchy in Sofia from January 1917 to November 4, 1918, Czernin had a significant influence on Bulgarian politics within the Central Powers alliance. In the opinion of many, the “beautiful count” was a better diplomat than his charismatic, erratic brother Ottokar.

After the war, Czernin resigned from civil service in 1919 and represented the interests of aristocratic German-speaking landowners in Czechoslovakia . He and his peers tried largely unsuccessfully to fend off expropriations and to win Anglo-American capital.

In the 1930s he apparently sympathized with the NSDAP , because in December 1933, as envoy, he quietly published an article in the smear magazine Der Stürmer under the "aggressive title" Pan-Juda in the dress of Pan-Europe . After the Second World War, Otto Czernin approached the pan-European movement and the Habsburgs again in numerous encounters with Otto von Habsburg in Bavaria .

His son Manfred , born in 1913, went to Italy with his mother after his parents divorced and was educated in the United Kingdom . Manfred was an RAF pilot and from 1943 a member of the British Secret Service Special Operations Executive (SOE) and officer responsible for operations in Austria.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Nobility Repeal Act 1919
  2. ↑ Ralph Melville (Ed.): Germany and Europe in the modern age. Festschrift for Karl Otmar Frhr. von Aretin for his 65th birthday. Steiner, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-515-05053-1 , Volume 1, p. 663.
  3. ^ Hans Friedrich von Ehrenkrook (ed.): Genealogical manual of noble houses. Volume 28, Starke, Limburg 2005, ISBN 3-7980-0838-8 , p. 146.
  4. ^ Heinrich Benedikt: Back then in old Austria. Memories. Amaltea, Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-85002-109-2 , p. 292.
  5. ^ Elisabeth Kovács: The fall or salvation of the Danube monarchy? Volume 2: Political documents on Emperor and King Charles I (IV.) From international archives. Böhlau, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-205-77238-5 , p. 322.
  6. ↑ Erwin Matsch (Ed.): November 1918 on Ballhausplatz. Memories of Ludwig Baron von Flotow, the last head of the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Service 1895–1920. Böhlau, Vienna 1982, ISBN 3-205-07190-5 , pp. 108 and 321.
  7. ^ Eagle Glassheim: Noble nationalists. The transformation of the Bohemian aristocracy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) 2005, ISBN 0-674-01889-3 , p. 109.
  8. ↑ Michael Gehler: The long way to Europe. Austria from the end of the monarchy to the EU. Studien-Verlag, Innsbruck / Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-7065-1537-7 , p. 497.
  9. ^ Stephan Baier, Eva Demmerle: Otto von Habsburg. The authorized biography. Amaltea, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-85002-486-5 , p. 216.
  10. ↑ Peter Pirker (ed.), Patrick Martin-Smith: Resistance from Heaven. Operations in Austria by the British secret service SOE 1944. Verlag Czernin, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7076-0182-X , p. 36ff.
personal data
SURNAME Czernin, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Czernin von und zu Cudenitz, Otto Rudolf Theobald Ottokar Maria Graf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-Hungarian diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Dimokur
DATE OF DEATH June 14, 1962
Place of death Salzburg