In the Twilight of Empire · Solomon Wank In the Twilight of Empire Count Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal...

In the Twilight of Empire Count Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal (1854–1912)Imperial Habsburg Patriot and Statesman

Volume 2: From Foreign Minister in Waiting to de facto Chancellor

Solomon Wank

Solo

mon W

ank

In the T

wilight of E

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Franz Adlgasser, Maria Höhn,

Alexander Knaak (Eds.)

Solomon Wank: In the Twilight of Empire

© 2020 by Böhlau Verlag Ges.m.b.H & Co. KG WienISBN Print: 9783205209911 — ISBN E-Book: 9783205209928

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Sekretär:Christof Aichner



Solomon Wank

In the Twilight of Empire

Count Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal (1854–1912),Imperial Habsburg Patriot and Statesman

Volume 2From Foreign Minister in Waiting to de facto Chancellor

edited by Franz Adlgasser, Maria Höhn and Alexander Knaak

BÖHLAU VERLAG WIEN · KÖLN · WEIMAR



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Cover Illustration: Count Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal in the gala uniform of a Habsburg foreign minister, reprinted with the permission of the Aehrenthal family, Vienna.

Cover design: Michael Haderer, Vienna Typesetting: Michael Rauscher, Vienna

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ISBN 978-3-205-20992-8

Die in den Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Neuere Geschichte Österreichs gemachten Aussagen sind die der jeweiligen Verfasser, nicht die der Kommission.



This book is dedicated to Maria

Without Maria Höhn’s loving and extremely competent help this volume would not have been published. When Sol could no longer see well, she trav-elled long distances in order to read the manuscript and discuss it with him; she introduced him to and worked with his ever helpful editor, Alex Knaak; she corresponded with his colleague, Franz Adlgasser, who spent many hours in Austrian archives doing research for the book; and she invited the eminent Habsburg scholar, Günther Kronenbitter, to write the introduction. It was Maria’s attentiveness that made it possible for Sol to know that his life’s work would be completed. I am grateful and I know that Sol was, too.

Barbara Wank



You, dear friend, understand what others here do not want to see, that the Bosnian-Serbian question concerns the process of state-building, and in the course of which according to the way the world turns, eventually violence may not be avoidable.

Count Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal, 1909

If I have gained any merit at all from the annexation affair, it is that I, like so many other men in Austria, have thought that we are much better than we appear, and that Austria has the strength to achieve its rights in the world on its own.

Count Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal, 1911



CONTENTS

Foreword by Maria Höhn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Introduction by Günther Kronenbitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191. Archival Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192. Printed Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Chapter 7. No Longer Waiting in the Wings. Aehrenthal’s Appointment, the Political Position of a Habsburg Foreign Minister, and Relations with the Emperor, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and General Conrad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

The Resignation of Count Gołuchowski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Aehrenthal’s Appointment as Foreign Minister . . . . . . . . . . . . 27The Position of the Foreign Minister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Relations with the Emperor and the Heir to the Throne . . . . . . . 39Aehrenthal’s Position Regarding Domestic Politics after the Annexation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57Relations with the Chief of the General Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Chapter 8. Modernizing the Toolkit of Diplomacy . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Reform of the Foreign Ministry’s Organizational and Bureaucratic Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Close Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79The Diplomatic Corps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82The Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Chapter 9. Internal Consolidation. Setting the Domestic Stage for the Policy of Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

The Ambitions of a de facto Imperial Chancellor . . . . . . . . . . . . 109A New Common Government? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111The Cabinett des Ministers as Imperial Chancellery . . . . . . . . . 114The Grand Projet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Relations with Baron Beck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118Universal Male Suffrage and its Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . 120



CONTENTS8

The Final Rift between Aehrenthal and Beck . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124The Nationalities Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126Beck’s Opposition to the Annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina . . . . . 128An Unfortunate Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130Relations with the Hungarian Coalition Government . . . . . . . . . 133The Compromise Negotiations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137Aehrenthal’s Involvement in the Negotiations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139The Signing of Commercial Treaties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145The Meeting of the Common Ministers Council in September 1907 . 147The Austro-Hungarian Agreement of October 1907 . . . . . . . . . . 149Aehrenthal’s Interpretation of the New Compromise – Wishful Thinking? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153Negative Consequences of Aehrenthal’s Interventions in the Negotiations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155Indignation in Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158Résumé of Aehrenthal’s First Steps as Foreign Minister . . . . . . . 160

Chapter 10. The Triple Alliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161Laying the Diplomatic Foundation for the Policy of Action . . . . . . 161The Triple Alliance in 1906 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162Turnabout in Relations with Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165Getting Out from Under the Shadow of Germany . . . . . . . . . . . 181The Bull in the China-Shop – Prussia and its Polish Provinces . . . 188A Surprising About-Face – The Second Hague Peace Conference . . 195The Macedonian Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207Aehrenthal and Germany 1906 to 1908 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Chapter 11. Austria-Hungary and the Triple Entente. Rapprochement with the West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Reaching out to France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223Differences between Serbia, Austria-Hungary and France . . . . . . 227The Moroccan Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240Reconciling with England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Chapter 12. Continuity and Change in Relations with Russia, the Balkan States and Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Continuity and Change in the Relations with Russia . . . . . . . . . 257Presenting a “Gentler” Face to the Balkan States . . . . . . . . . . . 268Montenegro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271Bulgaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276



CONTENTS 9

Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278Serbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281The Turkish Conundrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286Aehrenthal’s Assessment of his Diplomacy at the End of 1907 . . . . 291

Chapter 13. Launching the Policy of Action. The Sanjak of Novibazar Railroad Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

The Imperial Ambitions of a de facto Chancellor . . . . . . . . . . . . 293The Planning of the Railroad Offensive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297Financing the New Railroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300The Railroad and Macedonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304The Announcement of an Imperialistic Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308Reactions to Aehrenthal’s Announcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312Sanjak Railroad and Macedonian Reform Questions: A Coincidence? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318The Powers and the Announcement of the Sanjak Railroad Plan . . 325The Response of the Balkan States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337The Imbroglio with Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Chapter 14. Aehrenthal and the South Slav Question . . . . . . . . . . 359The Crisis of Dualism, 1903–1905 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363Aehrenthal’s Reform Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364Aehrenthal’s Involvement in Croatian Politics, 1907–1909 . . . . . . 370Aehrenthal’s Plan to Solve the South Slav Problem . . . . . . . . . . 383Was Aehrenthal’s Reform Program a Realistic Possibility? . . . . . . 390Aehrenthal’s Temporization on the Annexation . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Chapter 15. The Annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina . . . . . . . . . . . 399Preparations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399The Annexation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401General Conrad Wants to Go to War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414Reactions inside the Dual Monarchy and Failure of Future Hopes . 417Damages to Aehrenthal’s Reputation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420The Repercussions of the Annexation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421The Friedjung Affair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423New Serbia Soaring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425Russia, Italy and Great Britain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Chapter 16. After the Annexation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429Maintaining the status quo in Balkan Policy Affairs . . . . . . . . . 431Aehrenthal and Archduke Francis Ferdinand . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433



CONTENTS10

The Tumultuous Fall of 1911: The Italo-Turkish War . . . . . . . . . 434General Conrad’s Resignation and Reinstallation . . . . . . . . . . . 437Aehrenthal and the First World War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438Aehrenthal’s Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Index of Persons (Vols. 1 and 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459



FOREWORD

I was reluctant to write these introductory remarks for the second volume of Solomon Wank’s magisterial biography of Count Alois Lexa von Aehren-thal (1854–1912). As a former student of Solomon Wank’s and a historian of post-World War II German social history, the Habsburg monarchy, let alone Habsburg diplomatic history, is hardly my field of expertise. My comments therefore will be limited to providing some context for the last few years of my beloved mentor’s life, and my role as well as that of Alexander Knaak in working together with Solomon Wank to complete his life’s work.

Solomon Wank, the Lewis Audenreid Professor of History, Emeritus at Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA died peacefully in March of 2014, having received assurances from the Kommission für Neuere Geschich te Öster-reichs that the second volume of his Aehrenthal biography would be published. Sol had completed chapters 7–16 that make up the body of In the Twilight of Empire: Count Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal (1854–1912): From Foreign Minister in Waiting to de facto Chancellor, but was not able to complete chapter 17, which he had envisioned as a conclusion for the book. Even without that final chapter, this deeply researched second volume of Aehrenthal’s final years en-riches our understanding of the waning years of the Dual Monarchy.

A brilliant scholar and award-winning teacher, Sol had dedicated his schol-arly life’s work to Aehrenthal, having first been introduced to him during his graduate studies at Columbia University in the late 1950s. In his intellectual pursuits, Sol was deeply influenced by the Jewish refugee scholars at Colum-bia and other U.S. universities who had fled to the United States during the 1930s and 40s from Central Europe. Given his own background as the son of Russian Jewish immigrants fleeing pogroms after the 1905 Revolution, it is easy to see why Sol might have found his way to the scholars rooted in Central and Eastern Europe. Sol’s scholarly interest in Aehrenthal, as he ex-plained to family and friends, was first piqued by rumors among members of the Habsburg court of Aehrenthal’s supposedly Jewish ancestry. Sol exposed those rumors of Aehrenthal’s Jewish ancestry as false in his 1985 essay A Case of Aristocratic Antisemitism in Austria: Count Aehrenthal and the Jews, 1878–1907, but by then, he had long been enamored with Aehrenthal’s life and career as one of the Dual Monarchy’s great statesmen.

I was a student of Sol’s between 1987 and 1991, and because I was a non-traditional, first generation student, Sol took me under his wing. I credit



FOREWORD12

him fully for my decision to become a historian as well. My German back-ground and his curiosity about the views of Germans from my generation (born 1955) on how they regarded their country’s Nazi past, made the transi-tion from student to friend rather seamless, although I did not accept his offer to call him Sol instead of Professor Wank until after I had entered graduate school. He and his wife Barbara and I became and remained close friends, and our friendship only deepened over the years. They regularly visited when I spent summers in Germany, and I was a regular guest at their home in Lan-caster. During those visits, Sol enthusiastically shared his progress on Aeh-renthal, and he was always eager to hear what research I was working on, or what classes I was teaching at Vassar College. Our fields of expertise could not have been further apart, but what we shared was our passion for Central European history and the central role of Jews in shaping that history.

Throughout his career at Franklin & Marshall College, Sol published widely on all aspects of Aehrenthal’s life, but it was only after his retire-ment from teaching that Sol could focus fully on completing some of his more ambitious writing goals. In 1994, the long-awaited letters of Aehrenthal, which Sol had tirelessly gathered, translated and edited were published in two volumes as Aus dem Nachlaß Aehrenthal: Briefe und Dokumente zur österreichisch-ungarischen Innen- und Außenpolitik 1885–1912. After that, Sol was free to spend more time on a long overdue biography of Aehrenthal, Habsburg’s most eminent foreign minister during those last fateful years leading up to World War I. The first volume of In the Twilight of Empire: The Making of an Imperial Habsburg Patriot and Statesman was published in 2009 and covered the years before Aehrenthal’s appointment as foreign minister in 1906. In that volume’s six chapters, Sol draws a rich canvas of Aehrenthal’s family background, the development of his personality and core beliefs, and his career in the diplomatic corps between the late 1870s and 1906. Throughout, Sol reminds the reader of just how small the world of the Habsburg ruling elite was. As Sol argues convincingly, central to Aeh-renthal’s thinking was his conviction that domestic and foreign policy were intricately intertwined, and that the centrifugal forces of nationalism threat-ening his beloved empire could only be reined in through an active and ambi-tious foreign policy. Aehrenthal saw his task of saving the Habsburg empire from those forces of disintegration as a “holy mission” and devoted himself with an almost religious zeal to that end. Underestimating nationalism as a cultural phenomenon at best or a sign of mass hysteria at worst, Aehrenthal, Sol argues, never fully appreciated the ideological dimensions of nationalism rooted in the social changes accompanying capitalism.

Sol argues furthermore, that Aehrenthal faced a conundrum in that he believed that Slavic national aspiration had to be satisfied in order for the



FOREWORD 13

empire to survive. As a devoted monarchist, who was more comfortable with benign absolutism than parliamentary politics, he also understood that the empire could only survive if the pre-dominance of Germans and Hungarians in Austria and Hungary as well as the dualist structure of the empire were preserved. Given that challenge, Aehrenthal’s solution was a resolute, ac-tivist foreign policy in the Western Balkans, while maintaining friendship with Russia. It was his familiarity and deep knowledge of Russia that led to Aehrenthal being called on to serve as the Foreign Minister. Aehrenthal’s term as foreign minister of Austria-Hungary (1906–1912), cut short by his untimely death from cancer, came at a crucial moment for the fate of the Dual Monarchy. In fact, Aehrenthal was appointed in what in retrospect can only be called the beginning of the end, during the growing European ten-sions at the beginning of the Twentieth Century that would lead to the Great War and the end of the empire in 1918.

In this second volume, Sol offers a comprehensive assessment of the centrality of Aehrenthal in this crisis-laden period of the Dual Monarchy. Aehrenthal’s reputation was such that contemporaries compared him to Metternich or Bismarck, and much was expected from him. He initiated an ambitious structural reform of the foreign ministry, and replaced the hands-off approach to foreign policy of his predecessor, Count Agenor Gołuchowski, with his own vision of a more engaged, activist foreign policy that insisted on the intersection of domestic and foreign policy. With that vision and an ambi-tious reform program that he implemented at the foreign ministry, Aehren-thal brought a breath of fresh air into Habsburg foreign and domestic policy. At the heart of Aehrenthal’s ambitious activist foreign policy through which he hoped to preserve the empire, and discussed in great detail in volume II, were the renewal of the Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich in 1907, the Triple Alliance, the Sanjak of Novibazar Railroad project, the South Slav question, and the Annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Sol describes in great detail and depth the hurdles that prevented Aehrenthal’s reform of a consolidation of foreign and domestic goals from succeeding. Chief among them was Aehren-thal’s view that a strong Hungary was key to the monarchy’s very survival. But such a Hungary could also negotiate on its own terms and resist Aeh-renthal’s larger agenda of using the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a means to solve the South Slav question through a restructuring of the em-pire’s Dualism.

The second volume of the Aehrenthal biography lacks a conclusion but we can discern Sol’s assessment of Aehrenthal nonetheless. In earlier chapters, Sol balances his assessment of Aehrenthal as both aggressive in his pursuits (as in the Annexation) but also tempered, as shown in his efforts to rein in the war party around General Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, who clamored



FOREWORD14

for a more aggressive stance toward the Serbs and Italy. As to what Aehren-thal’s stance would have been in 1914, had he still been alive, Sol could only speculate. In one of his last conversations with me a few weeks before his death, Sol remained optimistic that Aehrenthal “might have been able” to fend off the drums of war one more time.

The publication of this second volume was slowed down not only by Sol’s insistence on a meticulous engagement with his rich source material, but also by the onset of Parkinson’s disease. Sol continued writing, but increas-ingly the more debilitating physical manifestations of his illness were start-ing to show. Sol’s eyesight especially was suffering, and it became harder and harder for him to sort and consult his many years’ worth of handwritten research notes, often hastily written on yellow legal pads during one of his many archival visits, or sorted in boxes upon boxes of index cards. By 2011 he had a rough manuscript with a much larger word count than any academic press would consider for publication. During one of my longer visits with him and his family, Sol and I spent many hours discussing the state of volume II of the Aehrenthal biography, and his anxiety over whether he would be able to complete the task. I was relieved when he accepted my offer of help to get the manuscript into a more manageable shape. Given my own professional obligations, Sol agreed that we needed to include Alex Knaak, a trusted col-league and friend of mine in Berlin. Alex had worked with me on numer-ous occasions in the past, having translated two of my books into German, and having edited all my scholarly publications in German. I knew that Alex could be the scholarly partner Sol needed to complete the second volume.

As Alex shared with me at the time of my inquiry, the rich materials that Sol had assembled, and his scholarly lens of writing about Aehrenthal and his time from a historical, sociological, political, religious, psychological, and military perspective, convinced him to take on this project. As expected, Alex proved a dedicated, tireless, and tremendously effective research and writing partner for Sol. Given the overwhelming wealth of material Sol had gath-ered over the years, it was up to Alex to sort sources and prepare drafts for some of the chapters that were not yet fully developed. Existing chapters benefitted from Alex’s discerning eye, and it was his prodding that convinced Sol to pare down and tighten the manuscript. Sol was an “archive man” and his incredible command of the sources regarding Aehrenthal was praised by the scholars who reviewed the first volume. His family and I often teased him for being “old school” when it came to the depth of his research and his meticulous attention to detail. Not surprisingly, the toughest (at times tense, but always cordial) negotiations between Sol and Alex and me ensued over what sections of a particular chapter could be pared down or cut altogether. Having access to fantastic research libraries in Berlin, Alex also read and



FOREWORD 15

assessed more recent scholarship that Sol had discovered, suggesting what aspects might be worthwhile of inclusion, and what could be left out.

After Sol and Alex collaborated in a rewrite and edit of the manuscript, my role was reduced to be Sol’s eyes and note taker. Many were the hours Sol and I spent together, with me reading his manuscript out loud and Sol listening intently, interjecting his comments and suggesting that perhaps an additional piece of information was necessary here or there. I marvelled at Sol’s command of his sources; he often directed me to the appropriate folder or index box in his office to add just one more piece of information or a funny aside for the footnotes that he deemed important. Drinking tea, reading out loud page after page after page, and feverishly taking notes of Sol’s feedback for Alex in Berlin, these will remain for me some of the most cherished mem-ories of my beloved mentor.

After two such revisions of chapters 7–16 for volume II, Sol was satisfied with the work that he and Alex had accomplished in finishing the manu-script. During this three-year-long process of working with Alex and me, Sol remained upbeat despite his continuously deteriorating strength and in-creasingly poor eyesight. For both Alex and me, working with Sol was a great honour and pleasure, even during those difficult moments when we tried to do with fewer rather than more footnotes, or when our views of Aehrenthal might have been less sanguine than Sol’s. It must have been frustrating at times for Sol to have to rely so much on our availability and support, when so much of what we do as scholars is the solitary pursuit of our passion. Throughout, Sol kept his good sense of humour, regaling me with silly stories of the Habsburg Court actors that did not always make it into the history books. It was during one of my last visits with him, just a few weeks before he died, that I was able to share the good news with him that the book was accepted for publication.

I had promised my mentor to help finish this second volume, but it was the wonderfully smart and committed Alex Knaak who brought the manu-script to fruition. Sol was deeply grateful to Alex and appreciative of Franz Adlgasser at the Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences for his support and for guiding this volume to its suc-cessful conclusion. Many thanks are also due to the Kommission für Neuere Geschichte Österreichs for agreeing to publish the volume without the final chapter. I thank them for their patience with the repeated delays on my part in completing this project.

Maria Höhn, Professor of History on the Marion Musser Lloyd ’32 Chair Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY December 2019



INTRODUCTION

In the late 1950s, when Solomon Wank wrote his PhD thesis on Aehrenthal and the Policy of Action (Columbia University, 1961), it was a rather small community of mostly American scholars that saved the Dual Monarchy from oblivion in academe. Since those days, researching and publishing for more than half a century, Wank would make a crucial contribution to the enhance-ment of our understanding of Austria-Hungary’s foreign policy in the last pre-war decades. Right from the beginning, the focal point of Wank’s study of the topic had been Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal. The Habsburg Monarchy’s minister of foreign affairs from 1906 to 1912 was the mastermind of the an-nexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908, but also the mentor and hero of a younger generation of Austro-Hungarian diplomats many of whom played important roles in the July crisis of 1914.

Numerous articles and an edition of Aehrenthals papers in two volumes were published by Wank over the years. In 2009, the first volume of his bi-ography of Aehrenthal was released. It painted a nuanced and vivid picture of Aehrenthal’s biography up to 1906. The author’s intimate knowledge of the man and the social, cultural, and political context in which Aehrenthal operated did not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with Wank’s earlier publications. Volume two, dedicated to the minister of foreign affairs, was expected with eagerness. Wank had passed away at the age of 84 in 2014, so the second volume of his magisterial work on the life and politics of Aehren-thal had to be published posthumously.

Much has changed in Habsburg studies since the late 1950s. Not just with his own publications, but also as a dedicated teacher and as editor of the Austrian History Yearbook from 1989 to 1996, Wank played an important role in the development of Habsburg studies in North America and beyond. In the last twenty years or so, many scholars in the field of Habsburg studies explored new ways to conceptualize the complex relationship between the empire and the regions, and between ideas of nationhood and experiences of empire. Great power politics, although essential to the self-perception of imperial elites, usually doesn’t get much attention. This makes Wank’s writ-ings on Aehrenthal and his time particularly relevant to the study of the Habsburg Monarchy. With his profound knowledge of the intricacies of the diplomatic process, and its embeddedness within larger social and domestic contexts, Wank would bridge the gap between research on foreign affairs



INTRODUCTION 18

and on domestic issues. The analysis of structural changes and of individual decisions would go hand in hand. The art of biographical narration and an impressive grasp of broader historical trends would characterize Solomon Wank’s writings on Aehrenthal and the Habsburg monarchy from his first articles to the final volume of the foreign minister’s biography. His biography of Aehrenthal is not just the capstone of an eminent scholar’s work. It is also a timely reminder that diplomatic history should neither be studied in isola-tion nor be neglected by Habsburg historians.

Günther KronenbitterLehrstuhl für Europäische Ethnologie/Volkskunde

Universität Augsburg



ABBREVIATIONS

1. Archival Sources

Unless otherwise indicated, carton numbers follow after the name of the ar-chive in the footnote, e.g., HHStA, NMe/4

AR Administrative Registratur AVA Allgemeines Verwaltungsarchiv, ViennaCdM Cabinett des MinistersGA GesandtschaftsarchivHHStA Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, ViennaIns. Instruction/WeisungKA Kriegsarchiv, ViennaMZA Moravský Zemský Archiv v Brně (Moravian Provincial Archives Brno)MKFF Militärkanzlei Franz FerdinandNA Nachlass Aehrenthal National Archives National Archives, Washington, Microfilmed German Records, cited by

reel number and file nameNBa Nachlass BaernreitherNFF Nachlass Franz FerdinandNM Nachlass MéreyNMe Nachlass MensdorffNS Nachlass SchiesslNSz Nachlass SzápáryPRO/FO Public Record Office/Foreign Office, London, cited by series number and

file numberPA Politisches ArchivPvl. Private Diplomatic Letter/PrivatschreibenR Report/BerichtRAA Rodinný Archiv Aehrenthalů (Aehrenthal Family Archive)RABe Rodinný Archiv Berchtoldů (Berchtold Family Archive)RAS Rodinný Archiv Schwarzenbergů (Schwarzenberg Family Archive)RAT-K Rodinný archiv Thun-Hohensteinů (Thun-Hohenstein Family Archive),

Klášterec nad OhříSOAL Státní oblastní archiv v Litoměřicích (State Regional Archives Lito-

měřice)SOAT Státní oblastní archiv v Třeboni (State Regional Archives Třeboň)T Telegram



ABBREVIATIONS 20

2. Printed Sources

Adlgasser Franz Adlgasser, ed., Die Aehrenthals: Eine Familie in ihrer Korrespondenz, 1872–1911 (Wien–Köln–Weimar, 2002). Cited by volume and page number.

BD British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914 (London, 1926–1938). Cited by volume and page number.

DDF Documents diplomatiques français, 1871–1914 (Paris, 1929–1959). Cited by se-ries, volume, and document number.

Friedjung Heinrich Friedjung, Geschichte in Gesprächen: Aufzeichnungen 1898–1919, Franz Adlgasser and Margret Friedrich, eds. (Wien–Köln–Weimar, 1997). Cited by volume and page number.

GP Die Große Politik der europäischen Kabinette, 1871–1914 (Berlin, 1922–1927). Cited by volume and document number.

ÖUA Österreich-Ungarns Außenpolitik von der Bosnischen Krise 1908 bis zum Kriegs-ausbruch 1914 (Wien–Leipzig, 1930). Cited by volume and document number.

Wank Solomon Wank, ed., Aus dem Nachlaß Aehrenthal: Briefe und Dokumente zur ös-terreichisch-ungarischen Innen- und Außenpolitik 1885–1912 (Graz, 1994). Cited by volume and document number.



Chapter 7

No LoNger WaitiNg iN the WiNgs

Aehrenthal’s Appointment, the Political Position of a Habsburg Foreign Minister, and Relations with the Emperor, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and General Conrad

The Resignation of Count Gołuchowski

On 22 October 1906, Count Agenor Gołuchowski resigned from his post as foreign minister of Austria-Hungary “to ease the position of the crown.” He had incurred the wrath of the Hungarians by his intervention into the con-stitutional struggle between Emperor Francis Joseph and them, which grew out of Hungarian demands for greater autonomy in military affairs – the use of Magyar as the language of command in regiments recruited in Hungary, placing Hungarian officers in command of these regiments, and requiring the latter to carry the Hungarian flag.1 Whether Gołuchowski was a willing participant in the conflict who took a strong stand against the Hungarian coalition and encouraged the emperor to do the same or became involved pursuant to the emperor’s wishes without giving too much thought to the matter, has become a subject of controversy, although the latter appears more in accord with Gołuchowski’s reluctance to become involved in domestic affairs.2

1 See Wank, In the Twilight I, 259–275. The Hungarians also complained that Gołuchowski never learned Hungarian and addressed the Hungarian delegation in German. Helmut Rumpler, “Die rechtlich-organisatorischen und sozialen Rahmenbedingungen für die Außenpolitik der Habsburgermonarchie 1848–1918”, in: Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848–1918. Vol. 6/1: Die Habsburgermonarchie im System der internationalen Beziehungen, Adam Wandruszka and Peter Urbanitsch, eds. (Wien, 1989), 113. The Hungarians however did not protest that Aehrenthal did not speak Hungarian, and his successor Count Leopold Berchtold was not very secure in his knowledge of the language.

2 On the first view see István Diószegi, Hungarians in the Ballhausplatz: Studies in the Aus-tro-Hungarian Common Foreign Policy (Budapest, 1983), 201–202, and Éva Somogyi, Der gemeinsame Ministerrat der österreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie 1867–1906. Veröffentli-chungen der Kommission für Neuere Geschichte Österreichs, vol. 73 (Wien–Köln–Weimar, 1996), 109. Somogyi claims that Gołuchowski had intervened into Hungarian internal af-fairs with “provocatory tactlessness” (ibid., 237). On the second view see the memoirs of the erstwhile Ballhausplatz official Emanuel Urbas, written under the pseudonym Ernest U. Cormons, Schicksale und Schatten: Eine österreichische Autobiographie (Salzburg, 1951),



NO LONGER WAITING IN THE WINGS 22

The controversy may be passed over here.3 What is important with regard to the situation leading to Aehrenthal’s appointment are the consequences of Gołuchowski’s intervention. Whether on his own initiative or the emperor’s directive, Gołuchowski tried to arrange a settlement with the Hungarians. They greatly resented his intervention, unconstitutional in their view, into what they regarded as a purely Hungarian matter.4 The Hungarians were especially incensed over the “five minute interview” in September 1905, ar-ranged by Gołuchowski, in which the emperor presented them with an ulti-matum, which insisted that they give up their demands regarding the army and form a parliamentary government. The brusque treatment stiffened the resistance of the Hungarian politicians and ignited a firestorm of protest in the country.

Shortly after the miscarried audience, Emil Jettel von Ettenach, the head of the foreign ministry’s press department who attributed its disastrous out-come to Gołuchowski’s complete underestimation of the Hungarian coali-tion’s strength and determination, wrote to Aehrenthal that there was little doubt that “his [Gołuchowski’s] head will be the first price that will have to be paid in a final settlement [of the conflict].”5 In any event Gołuchowski was not unhappy at leaving the foreign ministry. Paula Aehrenthal, the new minister’s wife, wrote to her mother-in-law that he was “beaming to have turned his back on the Ballhausplatz.”6 Gołuchowski’s departure, therefore, was only a matter of time after Francis Joseph and Hungarian politicians had reached an agreement in April 1906.

In addition to the animosity of the Hungarians, the foreign minister also had come under attack for what many members of the imperial political elite and educated and politically conscious Austrians – mainly bourgeois Ger-man-Austrians – believed to be his overly cautious and self-effacing foreign policy. On the other hand, one of his few activist policies, the retaliatory and

84–85. On Gołuchowski’s downfall see also Francis Roy Bridge, The Habsburg Monarchy among the Great Powers, 1815–1918 (New York, 1990), 267.

3 For the controversy see Wank, In the Twilight I, 259–275. 4 Strictly speaking the Hungarians were right in regard to Gołuchowski’s position as foreign

minister. But the foreign minister also was Minister of the Imperial and Royal House. Part of the agenda of the Hausminister was everything that impinged upon the constitutional position of the ruling house. However, that post was not a constitutional one. See Rumpler, “Die rechtlich-organisatorischen und sozialen Rahmenbedingungen”, 11. See also the dis-cussion of the role of the Hausminister later in this chapter.

5 Emil Jettel von Ettenbach to Aehrenthal, 11 October 1905 (Wank, 1: No. 284).6 Paula to Maria Aehrenthal, 27 October 1906 (Adlgasser, 2: 916). The emphasis is in the

original. Paula Aehrenthal also commented that Gołuchowski’s wife Anne (née Princesse Murat) “is a dear, clever, and uncommonly delightful woman, who will be able to give me much good advice in the course of time.”



THE RESIGnATIOn OF COUnT GOłUCHOWSKI 23

repressive economic policy towards Serbia that went under the name of the “Pig War”, failed abysmally to keep Serbia in the Austro-Hungarian orbit.7

The choice of Aehrenthal as Gołuchowski’s successor came as no surprise. Several names were bruited about in the press: Prince Franz Liechtenstein, Aehrenthal’s predecessor as ambassador in St. Petersburg; Count Ladislaus von Szögyény, ambassador in Berlin; Count Albert Mensdorff, ambassador in London, and Kajetan von Mérey, First Section Chief at the Ballhaus-platz.8 Jettel, in his previously mentioned letter in October 1905, said that there were some reports that Emperor Francis Joseph might want to appoint a Hungarian as a way to avoid future trouble with his prickly subjects on the other side of the Leitha. In that case the names of Szögyény and Baron Stephan (István) Burián, common minister of finance, both of them Hungar-ian citizens, were being considered.9

In the end, however, there seems little reason to doubt the view of Count Rudolf Khevenhüller, the ambassador at Paris, that “from the very begin-ning there never was another candidature than Aehrenthal’s.”10 This seems confirmed by the notebook of Baron Franz von Schiessl, head of the emper-or’s civil chancellery. No name, other than Aehrenthal’s, is mentioned in any of the entries from June 1906, when violent attacks on Gołuchowski by prominent members of the Hungarian delegation made it clear that the for-eign minister’s position was untenable, until the entry on Aehrenthal’s ap-pointment on 24 October.11

The fact that Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir presumptive,12 strongly favored Aehrenthal probably had little impact on the emperor’s de-

7 In an attempt to gain greater economic and political independence from Austro-Hungary, Serbia started buying French munitions in 1904 and established a customs union with Bul-garia in 1905. The Habsburg Empire responded in 1906 by closing its borders to Serbian pork. But Serbia built new packing plants for international trade with the help of French investors. The resulting anger on the Austro-Hungarian side paved the way for the military strike at Serbia in 1914. See Misha Glenny, The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers, 1804–1899 (London, 1999), 281–282, and below 281–286.

8 Die Zeit, 22 October (Abendblatt) and 23 October 1906 (Abendblatt). Reichspost, 20 Octo-ber, 23 October, and 24 October 1906.

9 See above, n. 5. 10 Hanns Schlitter, Rudolf Graf Khevenhüller (Geb. 18. Juni 1844, Gest. 20. Oktober 1910):

Nach Aufzeichnungen und Briefen. Ein Gedenkblatt (Wien, 1911), 29. Khevenhüller’s name also had been mentioned for the foreign minister’s post. The German ambassador in Vienna reported that “only Baron Aehrenthal comes into consideration for foreign minister.” Na-tional Archives, T139, Reel 224. Count Karl von Wedel to Chancellor Bülow, No. 347, 21 October 1906.

11 HHStA, NS/1, diary entries, June–October 1906, 3–7.12 It is often mistakenly thought that Archduke Francis Ferdinand had been the heir appar-

ent to the Habsburg throne. That title belonged by right of birth to Crown Prince Rudolph,



NO LONGER WAITING IN THE WINGS 24

cision. There is no hint in Schiessl’s notebook of the archduke exerting any influence in the selection process.13 Even if Francis Ferdinand wanted to in-tervene in the decision making process, he had no position of authority in foreign affairs in 1906 that would have allowed him to do so.14 In the end, Aehrenthal was the logical choice. His experience, especially his success as ambassador to Russia, and his personal qualities were enough to recommend him to the emperor. According to one of his biographers, “Francis Joseph had little doubt whom he wished to see as Gołuchowski’s successor, he had the highest opinion of Baron Aehrenthal.”15

Since the turn of the century, Aehrenthal had been considered as the heir apparent to the foreign minister’s post.16 The German embassies in Vienna and St. Petersburg, in January and May 1906 respectively, reported rumors that Aehrenthal would succeed Gołuchowski.17 At the end of May the Ger-man embassy in the Russian capital reported that Aehrenthal had turned down the foreign minister’s post.18 Aehrenthal’s letter to his mother, to be cited shortly, lends credence to those rumors. In October 1906, at the time of his appointment, the fifty-two year old Aehrenthal had to his credit almost thirty years of outstanding service both at the central office in Vienna and at difficult and demanding posts abroad. He had enjoyed success as envoy to Romania and ambassador in St. Petersburg, a preeminent qualification for the foreign minister of a state whose foreign relations consisted to a large extent of relations with Russia and the Balkans. In both posts, he proved himself to be a good reporter and an experienced negotiator. His opinion had

the only son of Emperor Francis Joseph and his wife, Empress Elizabeth. After Rudolph’s death in 1889, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the son of Archduke Karl Ludwig (1833–1896), the emperor’s brother, generally was seen as the successor to the throne, but there was never an official confirmation of that fact, hence the title heir presumptive. See Brigitte Hamann, ed., Die Habsburger: Ein biographisches Lexikon (Wien, 1988), 142.

13 Emanuel Urbas maintains that Emperor Francis Joseph really favored Burián and only the intervention of the archduke in favor of Aehrenthal led to the latter’s appointment. See Cormons, Schicksale und Schatten, 87. Rudolf Kiszling, in his authoritative biography of Francis Ferdinand, says nothing about the archduke’s intervention. See Rudolf Kiszling, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este (Graz–Köln, 1953), 94.

14 Even when the archduke gained influence and power in military affairs after 1906, “his rights in diplomatic and political issues remained unclear.” Samuel R. Williamson, Jr., “In-fluence, Power, and the Policy Process: The Case of Franz Ferdinand, 1906–1914”, The Historical Journal 17 (1974), 420–423.

15 Alan Palmer, Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph (New York, 1994), 298.

16 See Wank, In the Twilight I, 161, 271. See also Die Zeit (Abendblatt), 24 October 1906. 17 National Archives, T139, Reel 223. Bericht aus Wien, 1 January 1906; Telegram from

St. Petersburg, 1 May 1906. 18 Ibid., Reel 224. Bericht aus St. Petersburg, 31 May 1906.



THE RESIGnATIOn OF COUnT GOłUCHOWSKI 25

been sought in important foreign policy questions and his views were given serious consideration. He was recognized by his peers as a leading Habsburg diplomat. Mérey’s speech introducing Aehrenthal to the officials at the Ball-hausplatz as their new chief resounded that, even with presumed slight ex-aggeration for courtesy:

For twenty years we have become accustomed to see in Your Excellency an ornament of our diplomatic service, a man who not only was always up to the mark for his respective task but who also managed, despite his rapid rise to the highest posts, to raise the level of each of them through political talent and individual performance.19

The eulogistic character of Mérey’s encomium notwithstanding, one needs to seek no further for the primary reasons for Aehrenthal’s appointment. Mérey’s flattery was echoed by Count Mensdorff in his congratulatory letter to Aehrenthal: “I believe I can say without any shadow of exaggeration that there is no other man in whose leadership the entire diplomatic corps would place so much faith as in yours.”20 That he was not exaggerating is shown by a diary entry of the same time in which he noted, referring to Aehrenthal’s appointment: “That was certainly the best choice.”21

Emperor Francis Joseph may have had no doubts about wanting Aehren-thal as his foreign minister, but the candidate had some doubts about his being the right man for the post. In July 1906, when there were rumors that Gołuchowski would resign because of difficulties with the Hungarians, Aeh-renthal wrote to his mother, “I certainly am not the man for the situation, and I am not willing to take over the fundamentally botched agenda of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”22 He would not, he told the journalist and histo-rian Heinrich Friedjung, even be certain of “the name of the firm he should negotiate for,” a reference to Hungary’s demand to conclude treaties in its

19 HHStA, AR, Fach 4/5, Aehrenthal. 27 October 1906. See also ibid., Gołuchowski’s recom-mendation of Aehrenthal for envoy to Romania in 1895, quoted in Wank, In the Twilight I, 152–153.

20 Mensdorff to Aehrenthal, 26 October 1906 (Wank, 1: No. 313). Mensdorff’s opinion was shared by a majority of the members of the Habsburg diplomatic corps. See, for example, the letters to Aehrenthal by Count Duglas Thurn-Valsássina, diplomatic agent in Sofia, 25 October 1906 (ibid. 311), Baron Leopold von Andrian-Werburg, attaché at the embassy in St. Petersburg, 27 October 1906 (ibid. 314), Prince Johann Schönburg-Hartenstein, envoy in Bucharest, 25 October 1906, and Baron Julius Zwiedinek-Südenhorst, senior adviser on Eastern Affairs, 29 November 1906, both in HHStA, NA/4.

21 HHStA, NMe/4, Tagebuch 1905–1906, entry for 29 October 1906.22 Aehrenthal to his Mother, 9 July 1906 (Adlgasser, 2: 908–909).



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