Anton, graf von Kolowrat

Anton, graf von Kolowrat (born Jan. 31, 1778, Prague, Austrian Empire [now in Czech Republic]—died April 4, 1861, Vienna, Austria) was an Austrian statesman, longtime ministerial chief of domestic affairs in the Austrian Empire (1826–48), and the principal political rival of Prince Klemens von Metternich.

A member of an aristocratic Bohemian family, Kolowrat became mayor of Prague in 1807 and, in 1809, Oberstburggraf (governor) of Bohemia. For the next 15 years he directed the administration of that kingdom and cultivated the development of nascent Czech nationalism along cultural lines. Called to head the political section (1826) and later the financial section (1827) of the imperial government, he soon became Metternich’s greatest rival for influence over the Austrian Empire’s affairs of state.

Between the death of Emperor Francis I in 1835 and the revolutionary upheavals of March 1848, the two ministers divided the tasks of imperial administration between themselves, but their rivalry continued. Always somewhat in the shadow of Metternich, Kolowrat became chief minister only briefly during the revolutionary turmoil of 1848 (March–April), being soon forced into retirement for reasons of poor health and advancing age. Though only mildly liberal, he moderated some of the reactionary excesses of the twilight years of the old imperial system.