Gołuchowski, Agenor

(1849–1921)

   Austro-Hungarian minister for foreign affairs from 1895 to 1906. Count Agenor Gołuchowski was born in March 1849 in Lemberg (Lviv) in the Austrian crown land of Galicia. The son of a governor of Galicia and a member of the Polish aristocracy dominating the crown land, he entered the diplomatic service. His diplomatic career in Berlin, Paris, and Bucharest culminated in 1895 when he succeeded Count Kalnóky at the head of the Austro-Hungarian foreign ministry. Traditionally, relations with Germany, Austria-Hungary’s closest ally, and Great Britain were quite good, and Gołuchowski used them as a basis for his foreign policy, but his Polish background did not hinder him from trying to ease tensions between the Habsburg monarchy and Russia.

   In the Cretan insurrection against Ottoman rule (1895–1897), Gołuchowski achieved a consensus of the Great Powers, and in the Macedonian revolt of 1902, he cooperated with Russia. He managed to improve relations with Italy’s foreign minister, Tommaso Tittoni. Gołuchowski was less successful in coping with in his opponents back home. Hungarian politicians and the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, disliked him for opposite reasons but pushed for his resignation in October 1906. He died in Lemberg in March 1921.

   See also <>; <>.

   FURTHER READING:

    Albertini, Luigi. The Origins of the War of 1914. 3 vols. Translated by Isabella M. Massey. New York: Oxford University Press, 1952;

    Bridge, F. R. From Sadowa to Sarajevo: The Foreign Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1866-1914. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972.

   GUENTHER KRONENBITTER