The Austro-Hungarian foreign minister who signed the Bread Peace and Brest-Litovsk and fell over the Sixtus Affair
Born into an old Bohemian noble house, he studied law in Prague and joined the foreign service in 1895. As a deputy of the Bohemian Diet he championed a monarchical conservatism opposed to universal suffrage and parliamentarism, which brought him into the circle of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and as minister in Bucharest from 1913 he worked to keep Romania neutral. Charles I made him foreign minister in December 1916. While seeking a compromise peace, he concluded the Bread Peace with the Ukrainian People's Republic in February 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Soviet Russia in March and the Peace of Bucharest with Romania in May. When the emperor's secret approach to France in the Sixtus Affair came out, he resigned in April 1918; after the war he lost his Bohemian estates to land reform and sat in the Austrian National Council from 1920 to 1923.
Also known as: Ottokar Czernin von und zu Chudenitz · Count Czernin
Activities and affiliations
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1895–1918
Austria state institutionsMinister of Foreign AffairsMain
Diplomacy and international organization -
1920–1923
Austria state institutionsMember of the National Council
Legislature and state representation
Career Timeline
- 1895Joined the foreign service; posted to the Paris embassy
- 1903Member of the Bohemian Diet
- 1912Member of the Austrian House of Lords
- 1913.10Minister in Bucharest
- 1916.12.23–1918.04.14Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1918.03.03Signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
- 1920–1923Member of the Austrian National Council