Adolf, prince von Auersperg

Adolf, prince von Auersperg (born July 21, 1821, Prague, Austrian Empire [now in Czech Republic]—died January 5, 1885, Schloss Goldegg, Austria) was a liberal and anticlerical prime minister of the western half of the Habsburg empire (1871–79).

After 14 years’ active duty as an imperial cavalry officer, Auersperg was elected to the Bohemian Landtag (provincial assembly) as a member of the Constitutional Great Lords Party (1860). In 1867 he was appointed Oberstlandmarschall (supreme provincial marshal) of Bohemia, and in 1870 he was appointed provincial president of Salzburg. An administrative centralist, he succeeded Karl von Hohenwart as prime minister for the western half of the empire after the failure of Hohenwart’s plans for greater Slavic autonomy (1871). Auersperg’s ministry enacted a measure of electoral reform (1873) and advanced a program of anticlerical legislation with some success, but it decisively reversed the previous government’s policy of reconciliation with the Czechs. Political scandals and 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.