Johann Philipp Stadion, Count von Warthausen

Johann Philipp von Stadion

Johann Philipp Carl Joseph, Graf von Stadion-Warthausen (18 June 1763 – 15 May 1824). Born in Mainz, he was a statesman, foreign minister, and diplomat who served the Habsburg empire during the Napoleonic Wars. He was also founder of Austria's central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank. Johann Philip was Count of Stadion-Warthausen 1787–1806.

In 1787–1790, he was ambassador in Stockholm, then in London from 1790–1793. After some years of retirement he was entrusted with a mission to the Prussian court (1800–1803), where he endeavoured in vain to effect an alliance with Austria. He had greater success as envoy at St Petersburg (1803–1805), where he played a large part in the formation of the third coalition against Napoleon (1805). Notwithstanding the failure of this alliance, he was made foreign minister, and in conjunction with Archduke Charles of Austria pursued a policy of quiet preparation for a fresh trial of strength with France.

Count Johann Philipp von Stadion receives from Francis I (Franz I.), the first Emperor of Austria, the charter for the foundation of Austria's central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank in Vienna. Bronze medal to the 100th Anniversary on 1 June 1916, obverse. Medallist Stefan Schwartz.

In 1808 he abandoned the policy of procrastination, and with the help of Metternich, at that time, ambassador to Paris, hastened the outbreak of a new war. Stadion was encouraged by news from Spain regarding the rising of the Spanish population against French occupation and the defeat of a French army by Spanish general Francisco Castanos at Bailen. He was instrumental in persuading Emperor Francis of Austria to attempt to arouse popular resistance to Napoleon in Austria and Germany. The war that began in 1809 pitted Austria alone on the continent against Napoleonic France. The campaign saw the first major defeat of Napoleon at Aspern by the Archduke Charles, brother of the Emperor. Nonetheless, the French recovered and inflicted a decisive defeat on the Austrians at Wagram, one of the largest battles of the Napoleonic Wars. The unfortunate results of the campaign of 1809 compelled his resignation. He was succeeded as Foreign Minister by Klemens von Metternich whom the Emperor had recalled from Paris. Nonetheless, in 1813 he was commissioned to negotiate the convention which finally overthrew Napoleon. The historian Robert A. Kann called him "a man of outstanding gifts, perhaps the foremost diplomat in imperial Austrian history" (A History of the Habsburg Empire, 1526-1918, p. 211).

The last ten years of his life were spent in a strenuous and partly successful attempt to reorganize the disordered finances of his country. As minister of finance (1815–1824), he founded Austria's central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank in 1816.

He died in Baden, Austria; his son, Franz Stadion, Count von Warthausen, was a prominent liberal statesman of the 1840s.

Acknowledgements

Hotel Graf Stadion in Vienna's Josefstadt district

Notes

Regarding personal names: Until 1919, Graf was a title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin. In Germany since 1919, it forms part of family names.

  • See A Beer, Zehn Jahre österreichischer Politik, 1801-1810 (Leipzig, 1877); Die Finanzen Oesterreichs im 19. Jahrhundert (Prague, 1877); Krones, Zur Geschichte Österreichs, 1792-1876 (Gotha, 1886).
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