Anton von Schmerling

Anton von Schmerling
Anton Ritter von Schmerling, 1849
Interior Minister of the Austrian Empire
In office 13 December 1860 – 26 June 1865
Monarch	Francis Joseph I
Prime Minister	Count Johann Bernhard von Rechberg und Rothenlöwen (1860–1861) Archduke Rainer Ferdinand of Austria (1861–1865)
Preceded by	Count Agenor Gołuchowski
Succeeded by	Count Richard Belcredi
Personal details
Born	(1805-08-23)23 August 1805 Lichtental, Vienna, Austrian Empire
Died	23 May 1893(1893-05-23) (aged 87) Vienna, Austria-Hungary

Anton Ritter von Schmerling (August 23, 1805 in Lichtental, Vienna – May 23, 1893 in Vienna), Austrian statesman, was born at Vienna, where his father held a high position on the judicial side of the civil service.

After studying law at Vienna, in 1829 Schmerling entered the public service, and during the next eighteen years was constantly occupied, chiefly in Lower Austria. In 1847, as a member of the lesser nobility, he entered the Estates of Lower Austria and took an active part in the Liberal movement for administrative and constitutional reform of which they were the center. On the outbreak of the revolution in Vienna in March 1848, when the mob broke into the Assembly, Schmerling was one of the deputation which carried to the palace the demands of the people, and during the next few days he was much occupied in organizing the newly formed National Guard. At the end of the month he was sent by the ministry to Frankfurt as one of the men of public confidence.

He soon succeeded Count Colloredo as president of the diet, and in this capacity officially transferred to Archduke John, who had been elected regent of Germany, the powers of the Diet. For this he was violently attacked in the German parliament by the extreme Radicals; but on this and other occasions (he had himself been elected to the parliament) he defended himself effectively because he depended not on eloquence but on a recognition of what has been called the irony of facts to which the parliament as a whole was so blind. He was the first and the most influential member of the ministry which the regent formed; he held the ministry of the interior and, later, also that of foreign affairs, and it was almost entirely due to him that at least for a short time this phantom government maintained some appearance of power and dignity.