Count Gustav Kálnoky

Gustav Sigmund Graf Kálnoky of Kőröspatak (Hungarian Gróf kőröspataki Kálnoky Gusztáv Zsigmond ) ( born December 29, 1832 in Lettowitz, Moravia, † February 13, 1898 in Prödlitz, Moravia ) was Austro- Hungarian Foreign Minister from 1881 to 1895.

Biography

Coming from an original Transylvanian magnate family, he was born as the fourth of eleven children of Gusztáv Jozsef Graf Kálnoky of Köröspatak (1799-1884) and Isabella Countess of Schrattenbach (1809-1875) at Castle Lettowitz. Kálnoky began with 17 years career as a cavalry officer and was lieutenant in the Hussars. But in 1854 he opted for a diplomatic career. He was first Atacheé in Munich, 1857 in Berlin, 1860-1870 legation secretary at the embassy in London. Then as Counsellor at the Vatican, in 1874 he became ambassador in Copenhagen. In 1879 he was awarded the rank of general. In the summer of 1879, he was the first provisional and in January 1880 definitely ambassador in Saint Petersburg. Here he became the expert on Russia policy, a policy which was to dominate his later career. At the completion of the Three Emperors Bündnises of 1881, which brought a temporary compromise with Russia over the Balkans, he was directly involved.

In 1887 he was knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece and was inheriting commissioner on Lettowitz with the Good Slatinka.

1897 Kálnoky became a member of the manor house of the Austrian Imperial Council, but spent most of his time in retirement in the methods inherited from his mother's estate in the Moravian Prödlitz.

Secretary of State

As of November 20, 1881 officiated Kálnoky, as the successor of Heinrich Karl von Haymerle, as a common Kuk Minister of the Imperial House and the exterior. He tried using the tools of diplomacy to get the dwindling great power of the monarchy. Kálnoky is described as a quiet, prudent and cautious diplomat, a master of defense, he tried to launch an offensive on the other hand, there have been failures.

Kálnoky was instrumental in the construction of the Triple Alliance. He managed to make the Dual Alliance at the latest after the Franco- Russian rapprochement, the dominating feature of the city politics. In addition to Germany and Italy, he also tried to Romania, Serbia, and the United Kingdom ( Mediterranean agreements in 1887 ) as a counterweight to Russia to neutralize at least. By strengthening the external position of the Habsburg monarchy, he tried to prevent a war with Russia. Nevertheless, he was always trying to balance a policy with Russia. He mediated in Battenbergaffäre and Bulgaria crisis (1885-1887) between the Central European Powers and the Balkans. He reached the containment of the dominant influence of the empire to Bulgaria. His program was to orient the Balkans to Central Europe, while not allowing the monarchy adverse constellation of powers. Without its own territorial expansion in the Balkans Kálnoky tried to gently push back Russian influence in the region and to protect economic interests. A preferred by Otto von Bismarck division into regions of interest he refused.

With the Hungarian government had increasingly heads of state and church policy and economic policy differences. On 16 May 1895, Hungarian Prime Minister Dezso Bánffy forced the resignation Kálnokys as foreign minister because he thought its Balkan policy towards Russia too weak. Another reason was an affair of the interference of the papal nuncio in Hungarian internal affairs ( civil marriage ), which had led to a conflict between Kálnoky and Bánffy.