Prince Karl of Auersperg


Karl Wilhelm Philipp, 8th Prince of Auersperg, Duke of Gottschee was a Bohemian and an Austrian nobleman and statesman. He served as the first President of the Austrian House of Lords and as the first prime minister of the western part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Early life

He was the eldest son of Wilhelm II of Auersperg and, his second wife, Friederike Luise Wilhelmine Henriette von Lenthe. His paternal grandparents were Wilhelm I of Auersperg and Leopoldine von Waldstein-Wartenberg. His maternal grandparents were Carl Levin Otto von Lenthe and Henriette Friederike Wilhelmine Sophie Bennigsen von Banteln.
The 8th Prince of Auersperg, Karl Wilhem, was heir to one of the most prominent princely families of the Holy Roman Empire, whose Imperial Estate was mediatized in the Austrian Empire following the German Mediatisation of the post-revolutionary era. He became head of the princely House at the age of thirteen on the death of his father, Wilhelm II, in 1827.

Career

As a member of the German-Liberal Party, Karl represented the landed nobility in the Bohemian Landtag during the 1840s and took a conspicuous part in defending the constitutional system against Prince Metternich's Vormärz regime, which was becoming increasingly unpopular throughout the Austrian Empire and ultimately culminated in the German revolutions of 1848–1849.
In the following decade, after the resignation of Metternich as first minister and the abdication of Emperor Ferdinand I in favour of Emperor Franz Joseph I, Karl remained largely absent from public life.

Constitutional era

On the advent of the new constitutional era in 1861, Franz Joseph I established a bicameral Imperial Council in the Austrian Empire and appointed Karl as the first President of the House of Lords. Karl became the longest serving President over his three terms in office. In 1861 Karl also rejoined the Bohemian Landtag where he served intermittently as Oberstlandmarschall of Bohemia and as chairman of the Landesausschuss until 1883.

Austro-Hungarian empire

After the constitutional changes that led to the creation the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867, the Emperor turned to the German-Liberals to form the new Austrian government and appointed Karl as the first Prime Minister. Karl's cabinet was referred to as the Citizens' Ministry as four out of its nine cabinet members were commoners and another had only been ennobled eleven years previously. After conflicts in the cabinet over concessions to various nationalities and ethnic groups through federalism, he resigned in protest on 4 September 1868. Although an advocate of centralism, he agreed to negotiations with the Czechs in order to win their participation in the Imperial Council. In his view, Viscount Taaffe and Foreign Minister Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust made excessive concessions to the Czech National Party.
After his retirement, Karl worked as a zealous supporter of the policies of his brother, Prince Adolf of Auersperg, who served as Prime Minister of Austria from 1871 to 1879.

Personal life

In 1851 he married Countess Ernestine Festetics de Tolna, daughter of Count Ernő János Vilmos.
As he died without issue, he was succeeded by his nephew Karl, 9th Prince of Auersperg.

Honours