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
Last Habsburg monarch, Emperor Charles I of Austria and King Charles IV of Hungary, who twice tried to regain the Hungarian throne in 1921
In November 1916 he succeeded his grand-uncle Franz Joseph as Emperor of Austria (as Charles I) and King of Hungary (as Charles IV). His secret peace negotiations with the Allies failed, and in the autumn of 1918 the empire fell apart. On 11 November in Austria and on 13 November in Hungary he renounced participation in affairs of state, carefully avoiding the word abdication. After going into exile in Switzerland in 1919, he twice tried to regain the Hungarian throne, in March and October 1921, but failed in the face of opposition from Regent Horthy. Arrested after the second attempt, he was exiled to the Portuguese island of Madeira, where he died of respiratory failure in 1922. The Catholic Church beatified him in 2004.
Career timeline
- 1916Becomes Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary
- 1918Renounces participation in affairs of state
- 1919Exile in Switzerland
- 1921Two attempts to regain the Hungarian throne
- 1921–1922Exile on Madeira; dies
- 2004Beatified
Austrian chancellor who shut down parliament, built the Fatherland Front dictatorship and was assassinated in a Nazi coup in 1934
Born to a poor peasant family in Lower Austria, he studied law at the University of Vienna and served for 37 months on the Italian front in the First World War. Working for the Lower Austrian Peasants’ Union he became known as an agrarian expert, and he was appointed minister of agriculture and forestry in 1931 and federal chancellor in May 1932. In March 1933 he shut out parliament and ruled by emergency decree, banned the Communists, the Nazis and then the Social Democrats, and built a one-party dictatorship under the Fatherland Front modelled largely on Italian Fascism. He crushed the socialist movement in the civil war of February 1934 and in March signed the Rome Protocols with Mussolini and Gömbös. On 25 July 1934 he was shot dead in the Chancellery during an attempted Nazi coup.
Career timeline
- 1914–1918Serves on the Italian front
- 1931Minister of agriculture and forestry
- 1932–1934Federal chancellor
- 1933Shuts down parliament; Fatherland Front
- 1934Austrian Civil War; Rome Protocols
- 1934Assassinated in a Nazi coup
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
