Prince Adolf of Auersperg

Prince Adolf Wilhelm Carl Daniel von Auersperg (21 July 1821 in Vlašim, Bohemia – 5 January 1885 in Schloss Goldegg, Neidling) was an Austro-Bohemian statesman. He served as 8th Minister-President of Cisleithania. Biography After studying law, he served as an imperial cavalry officer from 1841 to 1860 and attained the rank of major in Prince Eugene's Dragoons regiment. In 1867 he entered political life as a member of the Bohemian Landtag (provincial assembly), being elected by the Liberal land proprietors. Ten months later, on the resignation of Count Hartig, he was appointed Supreme Marshal of the Kingdom of Bohemia, continuing in that office until 1870. In January 1869 he was nominated life member of the Upper Chamber of the Austrian Reichsrat, in which he took a conspicuous part. He was governor of Salzburg from 1870 to 1871, and proved in that position, as well as in his subsequent political life, a staunch supporter of the constitution. In 1871 he succeeded Karl von Hohenwart as prime minister for the western half of the empire (Minister-President of Cisleithania). Auersperg's ministry enacted a measure of electoral reform (1873), secured direct elections to the lower chamber of the Reichsrat, and strengthened the political entente with Hungary. Intraparty controversies over Austrian occupation of Bosnia finally forced him to resign in 1879. Auersperg's resignation marked the end of German liberalism in Austrian politics throughout the remaining years of the Empire.