Count Stephan Burián von Rajecz (Hungarian: rajeczi gróf Burián István; 16 January 1851 – 20 October 1922), commonly called: "Baron von Burian" or, later, "Count Burian" in English language press reports; (titles from 1900, Freiherr; from 1918, Graf) was an Austro-Hungarian politician, diplomat and statesman of Hungarian origin and served as Imperial Foreign Minister during World War I.
Count Stephan Burián von Rajecz (Hungarian: rajeczi gróf Burián István; 16 January 1851 – 20 October 1922), commonly called: "Baron von Burian" or, later, "Count Burian" in English language press reports;
(titles from 1900, Freiherr; from 1918, Graf) was an Austro-Hungarian politician, diplomat and statesman of Hungarian origin and served as Imperial Foreign Minister during World War I.
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R.I.P Stephan
Career Stephan Burián von Rajecz was born in Stomfa, Kingdom of Hungary (now Stupava, Slovakia) on 16 January 1851 into an ancient Hungarian noble family. In 1891, he married Olga née Freiin Fejérváry von Komlós-Keresztes (1861–1931), a daughter of General Géza Freiherr Fejérváry von Komlós-Keresztes, who briefly served as Hungarian Minister-President. Burián entered the consular branch of the Austro-Hungarian foreign service following graduation from the Consular Academy. He subsequently served in Alexandria, Bucharest, Belgrade and Sofia. From 1882 to 1886 he headed the Consulate General in Moscow before being appointed as consul general in Sofia from 1887 to 1895, then served as minister in Stuttgart from 1896 to 1897 and in Athens from 1897 to 1903, which won him a reputation of a Balkan expert. In 1900, he was raised to the rank of Baron. In July 1903, Baron Burián was appointed by Emperor Franz Joseph I to serve as Joint Finance Minister of Austria-Hungary, replacing the deceased Benjamin Kállay von Nagy-Kálló who had held the post since 1882. While the Imperial Finance Ministry only was responsible for the financing of common aspects of the Dual Monarchy, i.e. the Foreign Policy, the Army and the Navy), the administration of the…
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World War I In January 1915, Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Count Berchtold was pressured by Germany to make territorial concessions to Italy as the price of securing that country's neutrality. When he acquiesced to the German proposal, he was forced from office on 13 January by hardliners. Baron Burián's name was put forward by Count Tisza, who was a close friend and ally, as Berchtold's successor which was accepted, albeit reluctantly, by Emperor Franz Joseph. Baron Burián intended to increase the prestige of the monarchy and to get parity with Germany but also to negotiate peace with the help of the United States. (He would fail in the latter, after Germany announced in 1916 that it intended to start full submarine warfare, leading the US to prepare for war.) A relative moderate, he initially resisted German pressure for territorial concessions as the price of maintaining Italy's neutrality, although he somewhat vacillated towards the end as Austro-Hungarian forces suffered a crushing defeat with the surrender of Przemysl in March. This did nothing, however, to prevent Italy from joining the Entente in May 1915 and declaring war. Considered a protégé of Count Tisza, he proved to be much steadfast in resisting German pressure…
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Post-war
Count Burián took no active part in diplomacy or politics after the war and spent his remaining years writing his war memoirs, which were published posthumously in German as Drei Jahre aus der Zeit meiner Amtsfuhrung im Kriege in 1923. The English language version, Austria in dissolution; being the personal recollections of Stephan, count Burian, was translated by Brian Lunn, and was published in 1925.
Count Burián died on 20 October 1922 and is buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery.
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Legacy
During the war, Count Burián had sought to balance several sometimes conflicting demands; winning the war, preserving the Austria-Hungary's status and defending Hungary's position within the Dual Monarchy. Certainly a task that was nothing short of overwhelming. Considered to be serious, legalistic and unimaginative, personal traits that made him a good fit for the bureaucracy and the Imperial Cabinet. However, his rigidity and pedantry likely made him a less suitable choice at the helm of Austro-Hungarian diplomacy at such a decisive period as World War I with a greater need for flexibility according to one historian.
The author of the 2014 book, Austro-Hungarian War Aims in the Balkans during World War I, Marvin Benjamin Fried of the London School of Economics and Political Science, offers a similar, but more favourable evaluation. "Although he was criticized as being doctrinaire, inflexible, and a Balkanist without a wider purview, Burián had a clear vision to protect Austro-Hungarian prestige, integrity, and power, which he was determined to uphold in face of compounding internal and external pressures."
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Works
Drei Jahre: Aus der Zeit meiner Amtsführung im Kriege. Berlin, Verlag Ullstein, 1923. 333 p.
Austria in dissolution: being the personal recollections of Stephan, Count Burián / translated by Brian Lunn, M. A.. London: E. Benn, 1925. 455 р.
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Bibliography
István Diószegi, A ballplatzi palota utolsó gazdája, Kortárs, 1966.
Gusztáv Gratz, A dualizmus kora, 1867–1918.
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'Burián-Rajecz, Stephan Graf', AEIOU
'Graf István Burián von Rajecz', Solving Problems Through Force
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'Burián István, gróf', Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon
Pribram, Alfred Francis (1922). "Burian von Rajecz, Stephen, Baron" . Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.).
The gravestone of Count Burián at the Vienna Central Cemetery
The gravestone of Count Burián at the Vienna Central Cemetery
Marvin Benjamin Fried: Burián von Rajecz, István, Graf, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Newspaper clippings about Stephan Burián von Rajecz in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
