Count Karl von Stürgkh

Karl Stürgkh
Stürgkh in 1911
24th Minister-President of Cisleithania
In office 3 November 1911 – 21 October 1916
Monarch	Francis Joseph I
Preceded by	Paul Gautsch von Frankenthurn
Succeeded by	Ernest von Koerber
Personal details
Born	(1859-10-30)30 October 1859 Graz, Austrian Empire
Died	21 October 1916(1916-10-21) (aged 56) Vienna, Austria-Hungary

Karl von Stürgkh (October 30, 1859 – October 21, 1916) was an Austrian politician and Minister-President of Cisleithania during the 1914 July Crisis that led to the outbreak of World War I. He was shot by the Social Democratic politician Friedrich Adler.

Stürgkh descended from a Styrian noble family (originally from the Bavarian Upper Palatinate region), which had been elevated to the status of Imperial Counts in 1721. He owned large estates in Halbenrain and was elected a member of the Austrian Imperial Council in 1891. From 1909 until 1911 he served as education minister in the cabinets of Richard von Bienerth-Schmerling and Paul Gautsch von Frankenthurn.

Gautsch resigned when rising prices led to bloody unrest in Vienna and even a shooting in parliament (the bullets just missed Stürgkh), whereafter Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria appointed him Austrian Minister-President (Prime Minister) on 3 November 1911. He went on to rule the Cisleithanian lands autocratically: On 16 March 1914 he used the continuous filibustering in parliament to indefinitely adjourn the convenings of the Imperial Council and to pass laws by emergency decrees. This de facto elimination of the legislature turned out to be fatal in the following July Crisis, when upon the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria the deputies were not able to interact with the government on the way to World War I.