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Albert
Graf Apponyi de Nagy-Appony
(1846–1933)

Biographical

Apponyi was educated at the Jesuit seminary at Kalksburg and at the universities of Vienna and Pesth. A long foreign tour completed his curriculum, and at Paris he made the acquaintance of Montalembert, a kindred spirit, whose influence on the young Apponyi was permanent. He entered parliament in 1872 as a liberal Catholic, attaching himself at first to the Deák party; but the feudal and ultramontane traditions of his family circle profoundly modified, though they could never destroy, his popular ideals. On the break-up of the Deák party, he attached himself to the conservative group which followed Baron Pál Senynyey, and which opposed the Austro-Hungarian Compromise that had given Hungary a limited degree of autonomy within the Habsburg Empire. He eventually became its leader. Until 1905, Count Albert was constantly in opposition, but in May of that year he consented to take office in the second Wekerle ministry. In 1906, he was appointed Minister of Education in a coalition government. He used his position to introduce reforms that favoured Hungarian culture and language, at the expense of the other nationalities living in Hungary. This caused resentment among non-Hungarians, who accused Apponyi of trying to Magyarise them. After the breakdown of the coalition government, he returned to the opposition and became leader of the Independence Party. He was again appointed Minister of Education in 1917, but resigned the following year after Hungary lost World War I. After the war, Apponyi represented Hungary at the Paris Peace Conference and the League of Nations. He died while serving as Hungary's delegate to the Disarmament Conference. Apponyi was a lofty and magnetic orator, and also a prolific writer, publishing several books on Hungarian politics and history.

Place of birth: Vienna
Place of death: Geneva

Son of György Apponyi de Nagy-Appony, and Countess Julia Sztáray.

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