Holy Roman Emperor who co-signed the Declaration of Pillnitz
On 27 August 1791 he and the King of Prussia signed the Declaration of Pillnitz, saying they would act together for the French king if the other powers joined them.
A son of Maria Theresa and brother of Marie Antoinette, he ruled Tuscany as a reforming grand duke from 1765 and abolished the death penalty and torture there in 1786. He succeeded his brother Joseph II as emperor in 1790. In August 1791 at Pillnitz he and Frederick William II declared that they would intervene in France only if the other powers joined them. Historians have called it a formality, since Leopold knew Russia and Britain would not act, but it contributed to the radicalisation of the revolutionary movement in France. He died of pneumonia in Vienna on 1 March 1792, shortly before France declared war.
Career timeline
- 1765–1790As Grand Duke of Tuscany (Leopold I) he carried out administrative and fiscal reforms.
- 1786Abolished the death penalty and torture in Tuscany.
- 1790On the death of his brother Joseph II he became Archduke of Austria and was crowned emperor at Frankfurt in October.
- 1791Met the King of Prussia at Pillnitz in August and co-signed a declaration of readiness to intervene in France.
- 1792Died of pneumonia in Vienna on 1 March; his son Francis II succeeded him.
Founder and leader of Austrian Social Democracy who could not stop the war in 1914 and backed it
In January 1918 he urged strikers in Lower Austria and Vienna to return to work. Elected foreign minister by German Austria’s provisional assembly on 30 October, he oversaw the end of hostilities with the Entente and died on 11 November.
Born to a Jewish family in Prague, a physician turned socialist by the misery of Vienna’s workers, he united the Austrian Social Democratic Workers’ Party at the Hainfeld congress of 1889 and led it as a “little International” inside a multinational empire. At the Brussels Bureau meeting of July 1914 he confessed that “the war is already with us” and that his party was powerless, and despite private misgivings backed the government’s war. He became foreign minister of the provisional government in October 1918 but died on 11 November, a day before the republic was proclaimed.
Career timeline
- 1880sLed efforts to unite the divided factions of Austrian Social Democracy.
- 1889Founded the socialist newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung.
- 1914At the Second International’s emergency meeting, he said the war could no longer be stopped and defended Austria-Hungary’s entry into the war and the party leadership’s pro-war position.
- 1918Elected foreign minister by German Austria’s provisional National Assembly, he served for eleven days.
Heir presumptive of Austria-Hungary whose assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 was the immediate cause of the First World War
Born in Graz, the eldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig, the younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph, he became heir presumptive after Crown Prince Rudolf’s suicide in 1889 and his father’s death in 1896. His morganatic marriage to Sophie Chotek was allowed only after he renounced his descendants’ rights to the throne. He exerted great influence over the armed forces and in 1913 became their inspector general. Clericalism, anti-democratic views and anti-Hungarianism were the cornerstones of his politics; he advocated more autonomy for the empire’s Slav peoples, but urged caution towards Serbia for fear of conflict with Russia. On 28 June 1914 he and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, setting off the July Crisis and the war.
Career timeline
- 1896Heir presumptive of Austria-Hungary
- 1900Morganatic marriage to Sophie Chotek
- 1913Inspector general of the armed forces
- 1914.06.28Assassinated in Sarajevo
Austrian Social Democratic leader who signed the Treaty of Saint-Germain and founded the Second Republic in 1945
Born to an ethnic German farming family in Moravia, he studied law in Vienna, joined the Social Democrats and entered the Imperial Council in 1907. An Austromarxist theorist of “personal autonomy” on the national question, he was criticised by Lenin and Stalin. In 1918 he became the first chancellor of German-Austria, leading a grand coalition that introduced the eight-hour day among other reforms, and had to accept the ban on union with Germany and the territorial losses of Saint-Germain. He supported the Anschluss in 1938. In April 1945, at Soviet direction, he formed a provisional government, and that year became president. He died in Vienna in 1950.
Career timeline
- 1896Joined the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Austria
- 1907–1918Member of the Reichsrat
- 1918–1920Chancellor and foreign minister of German-Austria (Austria)
- 1919Head of the delegation at Saint-Germain
- 1931–1933President of the National Council
- 1945Head of the provisional government; declared independence
- 1945–1950President of Austria
A Nazi commando leader magnified by propaganda
Standing before Mussolini at Gran Sasso, Skorzeny became the face of a victory whose command credit belonged elsewhere.
Born in Vienna, Skorzeny became a Waffen-SS officer who directed sabotage and commando operations for Nazi Germany. In the 1943 Gran Sasso raid, he helped locate Benito Mussolini and led an SS detachment at the landing site, but the operation as a whole was planned and commanded by the airborne officers Harald Mors and Kurt Student. Nazi propaganda presented him as Mussolini's liberator, while he also took part in the overthrow of Hungary's government and the Ardennes deception operation. Acquitted at a postwar war-crimes trial, he later lived in Spain amid far-right networks.
Career timeline
- 1932Joined the Austrian Nazi organisation
- 1938Served with the SS during the Anschluss
- 1943Led the RSHA sabotage and commando section
- 1943Led an SS detachment in the Gran Sasso raid
- 1944Took part in Operation Panzerfaust in Hungary
- 1944Commanded Operation Greif in the Ardennes
- 1947Acquitted at the Dachau military trial
- 1953Military adviser to Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser
An Austrian Europeanist who helped open the Iron Curtain
On 27 June 1989, Mock and Gyula Horn cut the fence near Sopron, making the border opening visible to the world.
Alois Mock was an Austrian People's Party politician who made European integration a central aim of Austrian foreign policy. As foreign minister, he pursued Hungary's border opening and Austria's entry into the European Communities, helping shape Central Europe's reordering at the end of the Cold War. On 27 June 1989, he and Gyula Horn symbolically cut the border fence, creating an international image of the openings that enabled East German escapes and preceded the collapse of the Eastern bloc.
Career timeline
- 1957Doctor of law, University of Vienna
- 1961–1966EEC and EFTA adviser in the Federal Chancellery; Austrian OECD mission in Paris
- 1966–1969Cabinet secretary to Chancellor Josef Klaus
- 1969–1970Federal minister for education, science, research, arts, culture and sport
- 1979–1989Federal chairman of the Austrian People's Party
- 1987–1989Vice Chancellor of Austria
- 1987–1995Foreign minister of Austria
- 1990Temporary administrator of defence affairs
