Max Hussarek, Freiherr Hussarek von Heinlein

Max Hussarek, Freiherr Hussarek von Heinlein (born May 3, 1865, Pressburg [now Bratislava], Slovakia—died March 6, 1935, Vienna, Austria) was an Austrian statesman, jurist, and academic who served as prime minister of Austria during the last months of World War I.

A professor of canon law at the University of Vienna, Hussarek began a public service career with a series of minor posts. Between 1911 and 1917 he served as Austrian minister of education in the cabinets of three different prime ministers.

Appointed prime minister of Austria on July 25, 1918, Hussarek regarded federal restructuring as the only hope of the moribund Habsburg Empire and proposed the creation of an autonomous Croatian state within the imperial framework. On October 16, 1918, he presented a manifesto of Emperor Charles (Oktobermanifest) proclaiming the federalization of Austria, but his effort was wrecked by Hungarian opposition. A short time after this last attempt at reconstruction, Hussarek resigned his ministry (October 27, 1918). He later served as president of provincial administration for the Red Cross in Vienna and Lower Austria (1923).