Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 41. (1990)

BEVERIDGE, Kent D.: „Worthy Representative of Europe“. Anton Graf Prokesch von Osten

Anton Graf Prokesch von Osten

fifteen years working to bring a stable, viable government to power13). During this period, Prokesch-Osten was ennobled, receiving the title of Baron (Freiherr).

Prokesch-Osten was recalled in 1849 and appointed envoy, first to the Prussian court in Berlin and later to the Deutsche Bundestag (the German federal Diet) at Frankfurt. Here he found himself pitted against Otto von Bismarck as Austria and Prussia vied for mastery of the German Confederation14). While in Frankfurt, Prokesch-Osten first met Arthur Comte de Gobineau, and recorded in his diary: „Alle Abende mit Comte Gobineau, Sekretär der Französischen Gesandtschaft und seiner Gemahlin aus Martinique.“15) In the summary with which he closed his diary entries for the year 1854, Prokesch-Osten noted, „Mit Dank nehme ich Gobineaus, die mir dieses Jahr gebracht. Beide gut und geistig reif. Durch ihn zu meinem Vergnügen in chinesische und indische Literatur eingeführt.“16) Prokesch-Osten’s correspondence with Gobineau which began at this time until the former’s death in 187617).

Austria’s foreign policy concerning the Ottoman empire was vitally important as the course of the Danube River - the aorta of the Austrian monarchy, as Radetzky had styled it - flowed through Ottoman territory to empty into the Black Sea. With this in mind, Austria endeavored to strengthen the Ottoman empire against the encroachment of Imperial Russia, and, during the second half of the nineteenth century, against the rising tide of nationalism in the Balkans18). His background made

13) Beaber Prokesch von Osten 3.

14) Prokesch-Osten, who was elected President of the Diet, was instrumental in convincing Frederick Wilhelm IV not to accept the imperial crown offered him by the Diet. In October 1830, when the tension between Austria und Prussia was at its height, Prokesch-Osten disregarded instructions from his Foreign Minister tantamount to a declaration of war and, together with the Prussian envoy, Manteuffel, laid the foundation for the Olmiitz settlement. For his services at Frankfurt, he received the Großkreuz of the Leopoldsorden from Emperor Franz Joseph I.

15) Diary entry, 10 July 1854 Nachlaß Prokesch-Osten Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Vienna (hereafter HHStA): „Every evening with Comte Gobineau and his wife from Martinique.“ Also quoted in Friedrich Engel-Janosi Der Briefivechsel Gobineaus mit Prokesch-Osten in Mitteilungen des Institutes für österreichische Geschichtsforschung 48(1934) 457.

16) Diary entry, close of 1854 Nachlaß Prokesch-Osten, HHStA: „With thanks I accept the Gobineaus, whom this year brought me.“ Also quoted ibid.

17) Partially collected in Correspondance entre le Comte de Gobineau et le Comte de Prokesch-Osten (1854-1876) ed. Clément Serpeille de Gobineau (Paris 1933).

18) „Almost from the time of the Congress of Vienna, the maintenance of the status quo in the Balkans, more precisely the preservation of European Turkey for as long as possible, had been a cardinal principle of Habsburg foreign policy. This was in fact a corollary to Austrian rivalry with Imperial Russia, where Turkey had long been viewed as the primary obstacle in Russia’s southward expansion.“ Hugo Hantsch Die Geschichte

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