John, Archduke of Austria

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JOHN, ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA

JOHN, ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA (1782–1859), and imperial regent of Germany.

John was born 20 January 1782 in Florence and died 10 May 1859 in Graz. An enthusiastic supporter of Enlightenment, progress, civil society, and national self-determination, John has the reputation of being the "liberal Habsburg." John was often at odds with the rest of the Habsburg family, as became particularly clear in the 1848 revolution, but he was not prepared to break with it. His career was seen at the time as ending in failure, but it represents an intriguing alternative perspective in Austrian—and German—history.

Raised in his first years in Florence, under the Enlightened spirit of his father, Grand Duke Leopold, brother of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, John came to Vienna in 1790, when his father became Emperor Leopold II. His parents' death in 1792 led to John becoming the ward of his eldest brother, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (who also became Francis I, emperor of Austria), who set him on the path of a military career. John retained, however, a strong attachment to Enlightenment principles, especially a faith in the natural right of peoples to self-determination. In 1800 he was sent to the Tyrol as the representative of his brother, the emperor, and invested his considerable energies into setting up a Landwehr (militia) and rallying the Tyroleans in the battle against the French, but also in involving himself in many aspects of Tyrolean life, in a way quite different from most archdukes. In 1805 Tyrol was ceded to Bavaria, and John was forced to move to Inner Austria (Carinthia, Carniola, and Styria), where he also organized a Landwehr, which, he hoped, would prove the focus of a new "national spirit," in the manner of the French levée en masse. In 1809 he led this militia as part of the Austrian effort against the French, and he was also a main instigator of the Tyrolean Revolt of the same year, led by Andreas Hofer. Defeat of both by the French led to the humiliating Treaty of Schönbrunn, and Emperor Francis I banned his brother John from ever setting foot in Tyrol again.

From 1811 John employed his policy of direct involvement with the "people" in another Austrian province, Styria. Although he had no official role or title, he became the leading light of the province's society. He dedicated himself to improvement in all its forms, much like an English gentleman of the period, providing a model in agriculture, industry, and science. His collections and library, the "Joanneum," were brought to Graz and opened to the public in 1809, finding permanent housing in 1811. He also was active as a founder and protector of many associations (Vereine), thus creating a network of civil society to mitigate, or even counter, the reactionary absolutism of the post-1815 Habsburg regime. He was even involved in having the railway to Trieste come through Graz and Styria and not western Hungary. His status as the "great commoner" was confirmed by his love affair and marriage, in 1829, with Anna Plochl, the daughter of the postmaster in Aussee.

John's reputation as a hero of the people, both in Tyrol and Styria, stood him in good stead in the events of the spring of 1848. A strong critic of the policies of Clemens von Metternich, John was instrumental in getting the Habsburg family to sack the aging chancellor on 13 March 1848, and in the ensuing revolutionary events was often a mediator between the court and the revolutionaries. When the court fled Vienna for Innsbruck in May, it was John who was sent back to Vienna in June as the emperor's deputy, and who on July 22 opened the Reichstag (constituent assembly). In the interim, John, who had espoused a form of German nationalism since his days in Tyrol, had also been in Frankfurt am Main, where the newly elected, All-German Parliament in the Paulskirche had on 26 June elected him as Reichsverweser (imperial regent or administrator). John, however, was unable to use his new position to shape German (or Austrian) politics so as to realize his goal of a united and liberal Germany. Instead, with John now mainly in Frankfurt, the Habsburg court took an increasingly reactionary trajectory, and John's dynastic loyalty did not allow him to make the sort of decisive break that could have rescued the revolution from the onset of reaction. John's role, like the revolution, thus ended ignominiously with his resignation as Reichsverweser on 20 December 1849 and his return to Styria.

John remained active in Styrian life until his death in 1859, serving, among other things, as elected mayor of the village of Stainz. His descendants were given the title Counts of Meran. John was buried on the family property at Schenna, near Meran (Merano) in South Tyrol.

See alsoAustria-Hungary; Francis I; Revolutions of 1848.