Johann Bernhard von Rechberg und Rothenlöwen
Encyclopedia
Count Johann Bernhard von Rechberg und Rothenlöwen (17 July 1806 – 26 February 1899) was an Austrian
statesman.
Born at Regensburg
the second son of the Bavarian
statesman Count Aloys von Rechberg und Rothenlöwen
(1766–1849), Johann Bernhard was destined for the Bavarian public service, his elder brother being a hereditary member of the Upper House in the parliament of Württemberg
. He was educated at the universities of Strassburg
and Munich, but he incurred the displeasure of King Ludwig I of Bavaria
by the part he played as second in a duel
, and in 1828 he transferred himself to the Austrian diplomatic service.
After being attached to the embassies in Berlin
, London
and Brussels
, he was appointed envoy at Stockholm
(1841) and at Rio de Janeiro
(1843). Returning to Europe in 1847, on the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848
in Vienna
he was of great service to State Chancellor Prince Klemens von Metternich, whom he accompanied and assisted in his flight to England. In July 1848 he was appointed Austrian plenipotentiary in the German Frankfurt Parliament
, in 1851 became Austrian internuncius at Constantinople
, and in 1853 Radetzky's
civilian colleague in the government of Lombardy-Venetia. In 1855 he returned to Frankfurt as Austrian representative and president of the federal diet. As a pupil of Metternich he would have wished to preserve the good understanding with Prussia
which seemed the necessary foundation for a conservative policy; he was, however, made the instrument for the anti-Prussian policy of Buol
, the foreign minister; this brought about constant disputes with Bismarck
, at that time Prussian envoy at the diet, which were sharpened by Rechberg's choleric temper, and on one occasion nearly led to a duel. Bismarck, however, always expressed a high appreciation of his character and abilities. In May 1859, on the eve of the war with France and Piedmont, he was appointed Austrian minister of foreign affairs and minister-president, surrendering the latter post to the Archduke Rainer
in the following year.
The five years during which Rechberg held the portfolio of foreign affairs covered the war with Piedmont and France, the insurrection in Poland
, the attempted reform of the German Confederation through the Frankfurt Fürstentag, and the Austro-Prussian war with Denmark
. After the defeat of Magenta
Rechberg accompanied the emperor to Italy, and he had to meet the crisis caused by a war for which he was not responsible. He began the concessions to Hungary
and in the Polish question, and was responsible for the adhesion of Austria to the alliance of the Western Powers. In the German question Rechberg's policy was one of compromise. To the project of the Fürstentag he was altogether opposed. The project had been suggested to the emperor Franz Joseph
by his son-in-law, the hereditary prince of Thurn und Taxis, and the preliminary arrangements were made without Rechberg being informed. When at last he was told, he tendered his resignation, which was not accepted, and he accompanied the emperor to the abortive meeting at Frankfurt (August 1863). The attempt made by Rechberg at the subsequent ministerial conference at Nuremberg
to establish a German league without Prussia was equally unsuccessful, and he now returned to the policy, which in opposition to Schmerling he had throughout advocated, of a peaceful arrangement between Prussia and Austria as the indispensable preliminary to a reform of the Confederation.
At this juncture the death of King Frederick VII of Denmark
(15 November 1863) opened up the whole Schleswig-Holstein
question. In the diplomatic duel that followed Rechberg was no match for Bismarck. It suited Austrian policy to act in concert with Prussia against Denmark; but Rechberg well knew that Bismarck was aiming at the annexation of the duchies. He attempted to guard against this by laying down as a condition of the alliance that the duchies should only be separated from Denmark by common consent of the two German powers. Bismarck, however, insisted that the question of the ultimate destination of the duchies should be left open; and, when he backed his argument with the threat that unless Austria accepted his proposal Prussia would act alone, Rechberg gave way. His action was made the object of violent attacks in the Austrian Lower House (28–30 January 1864), and when the war was victoriously concluded and Prussia's designs on the duchies had become evident, public opinion turned more and more against him, demanding that Austria should support the Duke of Augustenburg even at the risk of war. Rechberg yielded so far as to assure the duke's representative at Vienna that Austria was determined to place him in possession of the duchies, but only on condition that he did not sign away any of his sovereign rights to Prussia. The outcome of this was that the duke refused the terms offered by King William and Bismarck.
On 22 August there was a meeting of the emperor Franz Joseph and King William at Schönbrunn, both Rechberg and Bismarck being present. Rechberg himself was in favor of allowing Prussia to annex the duchies, on condition that Prussia should guarantee Austria's possession of Venice and the Adriatic coast. On the first point no agreement was reached; but the principles of an Austro-Prussian alliance in the event of a French invasion of Italy were agreed upon. This latter proposal was, however, received with violent opposition in the ministry, where Rechberg's influence had long been overshadowed by that of Schmerling; public opinion, utterly distrustful of Prussian promises, was also greatly excited; and on 27 October Rechberg handed in his resignation, receiving at the same time the Order of the Golden Fleece
from the emperor as a sign of special favor. He had been made an hereditary member of the Upper House of the Reichsrat
in 1861, and as late as 1879 continued occasionally to take part in debates. He died at his chateau (Schloss Altkettenhof) of Kettenhof (today: Schwechat
) near Vienna on 26 February 1899. He had married, in 1834, Barbara Jones, eldest daughter of the 6th Viscount Ranelagh
, by whom he had one son, Count Louis (b. 1835).
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
statesman.
Born at Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
the second son of the Bavarian
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
statesman Count Aloys von Rechberg und Rothenlöwen
Rechberg and Rothenlöwen
Rechberg and Rothenlöwen was a country in the Holy Roman Empire. Rechberg and Rothenlöwen was a renaming of Osterberg, and it inherited Osterberg in 1767. Rechberg and Rothenlöwen was mediatised to Württemberg in 1806. The family of the Grafen von Rechberg und Rothenlöwen would be an important one...
(1766–1849), Johann Bernhard was destined for the Bavarian public service, his elder brother being a hereditary member of the Upper House in the parliament of Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
. He was educated at the universities of Strassburg
University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....
and Munich, but he incurred the displeasure of King Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I was a German king of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states.-Crown prince:...
by the part he played as second in a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
, and in 1828 he transferred himself to the Austrian diplomatic service.
After being attached to the embassies in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, he was appointed envoy at Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
(1841) and at Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
(1843). Returning to Europe in 1847, on the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848
Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas
From March 1848 through July 1849, the Habsburg Austrian Empire was threatened by revolutionary movements. Much of the revolutionary activity was of a nationalist character: the empire, ruled from Vienna, included Austrian Germans, Hungarians, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians,...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
he was of great service to State Chancellor Prince Klemens von Metternich, whom he accompanied and assisted in his flight to England. In July 1848 he was appointed Austrian plenipotentiary in the German Frankfurt Parliament
Frankfurt Parliament
The Frankfurt Assembly was the first freely elected parliament for all of Germany. Session was held from May 18, 1848 to May 31, 1849 in the Paulskirche at Frankfurt am Main...
, in 1851 became Austrian internuncius at Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, and in 1853 Radetzky's
Joseph Radetzky von Radetz
Johann Josef Wenzel Graf Radetzky von Radetz was a Czech nobleman and Austrian general, immortalised by Johann Strauss I's Radetzky March...
civilian colleague in the government of Lombardy-Venetia. In 1855 he returned to Frankfurt as Austrian representative and president of the federal diet. As a pupil of Metternich he would have wished to preserve the good understanding with Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
which seemed the necessary foundation for a conservative policy; he was, however, made the instrument for the anti-Prussian policy of Buol
Karl Ferdinand von Buol
Karl Ferdinand von Buol was an Austrian diplomatist and statesman, who served as Foreign Minister from 1852 to 1859.-Biography:Buol was born in Vienna, a scion of a Grisons noble family descending from Fürstenau. His father Johann Rudolf von Buol Karl Ferdinand von Buol was an Austrian...
, the foreign minister; this brought about constant disputes with Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
, at that time Prussian envoy at the diet, which were sharpened by Rechberg's choleric temper, and on one occasion nearly led to a duel. Bismarck, however, always expressed a high appreciation of his character and abilities. In May 1859, on the eve of the war with France and Piedmont, he was appointed Austrian minister of foreign affairs and minister-president, surrendering the latter post to the Archduke Rainer
Archduke Rainer of Austria
Rainer Joseph of Austria was a Viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia from 1818 to 1848. He was also an Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia.-Biography:...
in the following year.
The five years during which Rechberg held the portfolio of foreign affairs covered the war with Piedmont and France, the insurrection in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, the attempted reform of the German Confederation through the Frankfurt Fürstentag, and the Austro-Prussian war with Denmark
Second War of Schleswig
The Second Schleswig War was the second military conflict as a result of the Schleswig-Holstein Question. It began on 1 February 1864, when Prussian forces crossed the border into Schleswig.Denmark fought Prussia and Austria...
. After the defeat of Magenta
Battle of Magenta
The Battle of Magenta was fought on June 4, 1859 during the Second Italian War of Independence, resulting in a French-Sardinian victory under Napoleon III against the Austrians under Marshal Ferencz Gyulai....
Rechberg accompanied the emperor to Italy, and he had to meet the crisis caused by a war for which he was not responsible. He began the concessions to Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and in the Polish question, and was responsible for the adhesion of Austria to the alliance of the Western Powers. In the German question Rechberg's policy was one of compromise. To the project of the Fürstentag he was altogether opposed. The project had been suggested to the emperor Franz Joseph
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
by his son-in-law, the hereditary prince of Thurn und Taxis, and the preliminary arrangements were made without Rechberg being informed. When at last he was told, he tendered his resignation, which was not accepted, and he accompanied the emperor to the abortive meeting at Frankfurt (August 1863). The attempt made by Rechberg at the subsequent ministerial conference at Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
to establish a German league without Prussia was equally unsuccessful, and he now returned to the policy, which in opposition to Schmerling he had throughout advocated, of a peaceful arrangement between Prussia and Austria as the indispensable preliminary to a reform of the Confederation.
At this juncture the death of King Frederick VII of Denmark
Frederick VII of Denmark
Frederick VII was a King of Denmark. He reigned from 1848 until his death. He was the last Danish monarch of the older Royal branch of the House of Oldenburg and also the last king of Denmark to rule as an absolute monarch...
(15 November 1863) opened up the whole Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
question. In the diplomatic duel that followed Rechberg was no match for Bismarck. It suited Austrian policy to act in concert with Prussia against Denmark; but Rechberg well knew that Bismarck was aiming at the annexation of the duchies. He attempted to guard against this by laying down as a condition of the alliance that the duchies should only be separated from Denmark by common consent of the two German powers. Bismarck, however, insisted that the question of the ultimate destination of the duchies should be left open; and, when he backed his argument with the threat that unless Austria accepted his proposal Prussia would act alone, Rechberg gave way. His action was made the object of violent attacks in the Austrian Lower House (28–30 January 1864), and when the war was victoriously concluded and Prussia's designs on the duchies had become evident, public opinion turned more and more against him, demanding that Austria should support the Duke of Augustenburg even at the risk of war. Rechberg yielded so far as to assure the duke's representative at Vienna that Austria was determined to place him in possession of the duchies, but only on condition that he did not sign away any of his sovereign rights to Prussia. The outcome of this was that the duke refused the terms offered by King William and Bismarck.
On 22 August there was a meeting of the emperor Franz Joseph and King William at Schönbrunn, both Rechberg and Bismarck being present. Rechberg himself was in favor of allowing Prussia to annex the duchies, on condition that Prussia should guarantee Austria's possession of Venice and the Adriatic coast. On the first point no agreement was reached; but the principles of an Austro-Prussian alliance in the event of a French invasion of Italy were agreed upon. This latter proposal was, however, received with violent opposition in the ministry, where Rechberg's influence had long been overshadowed by that of Schmerling; public opinion, utterly distrustful of Prussian promises, was also greatly excited; and on 27 October Rechberg handed in his resignation, receiving at the same time the Order of the Golden Fleece
Order of the Golden Fleece
The Order of the Golden Fleece is an order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip III, Duke of Burgundy in 1430, to celebrate his marriage to the Portuguese princess Infanta Isabella of Portugal, daughter of King John I of Portugal. It evolved as one of the most prestigious orders in Europe...
from the emperor as a sign of special favor. He had been made an hereditary member of the Upper House of the Reichsrat
Reichsrat
There was a Reichsrat * Reichsrat * Reichsrat , in the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary * Reichsrat -See also:...
in 1861, and as late as 1879 continued occasionally to take part in debates. He died at his chateau (Schloss Altkettenhof) of Kettenhof (today: Schwechat
Schwechat
Schwechat is a city south-east of Vienna known for the Vienna International Airport and Schwechater beer. It is also home to the refineries belonging to the Austrian national oil company OMV.- Geography :...
) near Vienna on 26 February 1899. He had married, in 1834, Barbara Jones, eldest daughter of the 6th Viscount Ranelagh
Viscount Ranelagh
The titles of Viscount Ranelagh and Baron Jones of Navan were created in the Peerage of Ireland by Charles I on 25 August 1628 to Sir Roger Jones, son of Thomas Jones Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Thomas Jones father was Henry Jones, Esq. of Middleton in Lancashire...
, by whom he had one son, Count Louis (b. 1835).