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 the Austrian National Bank. 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 the Austrian National Bank 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 hastened the outbreak of a new war. The unfortunate results of the campaign of 1809 compelled his resignation; but 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 the Austrian National Bank 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

• In 1874 an alley in Vienna's 1st district was renamed "Stadiongasse" in honour of Phillip von Stadion.
• Since 1897 the Hotel Graf Stadion on Buchfeldgasse Nr. 5 in Vienna's 8th district Josefstadt bears the statesman's name. He was also a member of the Illuminati.

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.

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• 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).