Alfred Józef Potocki Explained

Honorific-Prefix:Hochgeboren
Alfred Józef Potocki
Office:Minister-President of Austria
Term Start:12 April 1870
Term End:6 February 1871
Predecessor:Leopold Hasner von Artha
Successor:Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart
Birth Date:29 July 1817 or 29 July 1822
Birth Place:Łańcut, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austrian Empire
Death Date: or
Death Place:Paris, French Third Republic
Spouse:Princess Maria Klemetyna Sanguszko
Father:Count Alfred Wojciech Potocki
Mother:Princess Józefina Maria Czartoryska
Children:

Count Alfred Józef Potocki (pronounced as /pl/, 29 July 1817 or 1822, Łańcut – 18 May 1889, Paris) was a Polish aristocrat (szlachcic), landowner, and a liberal-conservative monarchist Austrian politician and Prime Minister.

Early life

Count Potocki was born on 29 July 1817 (or 1822) in Łańcut into a prominent noble family of Polish origin, although a subject of the Empire of Austria, and inherited the Łańcut ordynat estates from his father. The son of Count Alfred Wojciech Potocki and Princess Józefina Maria Czartoryska. His grandfather was the writer Jan Potocki, best known for his famous novel "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa".

Alfred Józef Potocki is known for building the magnificent Potocki Palace, a grand residence in Lviv. In 1873 he co-founded the Akademia Umiejetnosci (Polish Academy of Skills) in Kraków. He ran a family distillery, which is today known as Polmos Łańcut.

Career

He was a member of the National Sejm of Galicia from 1863 to 1889 and Sejm Marshal from 1875 until 1877. From 1875 to 1883 he was governor of Galicia.

In 1848 he became a member of the lower house of the Imperial Parliament (Reichsrat), the House of Deputies (Abgeordnetenhaus), and in 1861 the upper house, the House of Lords (Herrenhaus). He served in the Diplomatic Corps and was Minister of Agriculture of Austria from 30 December 1867 until 15 January 1870, but stepped down over his minority federalist views in the cabinet.

He served as Austria's prime minister from 1870 to 1871,[1] and was one of the only two non-Germans who held this office in Austria-Hungary.[2] On 12 April 1870, he became the 5th Minister-President of Cisleithania and simultaneously Minister of Defence. His tenure included the repeal of the 1855 concordat. He was unsuccessful in promoting federalism and failing to obtain the cooperation of the Czechs in the Reichsrat he stepped down on 6 February 1871, ushering in a brief interregnum of conservative rule under Count Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart (February 1871 – October 1871) which was equally ineffective in implementing federalism, so that power quickly reverted to liberalism again.

Personal life

On 18 March 1851 in Sławuta, he married Princess Maria Klementyna Sanguszko, heiress of the prominent Sanguszko princely family. Together, they had two sons and two daughters:[3]

Count Potocki died on 18 May 1889 in Paris.[3]

Awards

Bibliography

External links

Predecessor
Agenor Romuald Gołuchowski
Governor-General of Galicia
1875 - 1883
Successor
Filip Zaleski
Predecessor
Leon Sapieha
Sejm Marshal of the Diet of Galicia
1875 - 1875
Successor
Włodzimierz Dzieduszycki
Predecessor
Leopold Hasner von Artha
Minister-President of Cisleithania
1870 - 1871
Successor
Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart

Notes and References

  1. Book: Lukowski . Jerzy . Zawadzki . Hubert . A Concise History of Poland . 2019 . . 9781108424363 . 238 . 3rd.
  2. Book: Rieber . Alfred J. . The Struggle for the Eurasian Borderlands . . 2014 . 9781107618305 . 199.
  3. Book: Schiele, Erika. The Arab Horse in Europe. 1970. 148.
  4. Book: Wasylewski . Stanisław . Czterdzieści lat powodzenia: przebieg mojego życia . 1959 . Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich . 455 . 9 March 2022 . pl.
  5. Book: Potocka . Maria Małgorzata z Radziwiłłów Franciszkowa . Z moich wspomnień: pamiętnik . 1983 . Katolicki Ośrodek Wydawniczy Veritas . 379, 482–483 . 9 March 2022 . pl.
  6. Book: Branicka . Anna . Miałam szczęśliwe życie. Ostatnia z Branickich . 30 March 2020 . Otwarte . 978-83-240-3595-3 . 9 March 2022 . pl.
  7. Book: Raineval . Melville Henry Massue marquis de Ruvigny et . Raineval . Melville Henry Massue Marquis of Ruvigny and . The Titled Nobility of Europe: An International Peerage, Or "Who's Who," of the Sovereigns, Princes, and Nobles of Europe . 1914 . Burke's Peerage . 978-0-85011-028-9 . 1170 . en.
  8. Book: Zielińska . Teresa . Poczet polskich rodów arystokratycznych . 1997 . Wydawn. Szkolne i Pedagogiczne . 978-83-02-06429-6 . 9 March 2022 . pl.
  9. Book: Warsaw Egyptological Studies . 1997 . National Museum in Warsaw "Pro-Egipt" . 231, 235 . 9 March 2022 . en.