Albert von Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein

From Kaiserreich

Count Albert von Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein (September 5, 1861 – 19??) was an Austro-Hungarian diplomat and is currently [b]Minister-President and Minister for Finance[/b] of the regional Austrian Government.

Born at Lemberg, he was the second son of Alexander von Mensdorff-Pouilly, Prince Dietrichstein von Nicolsburg, and Alexandrine, born Countess Dietrichstein-Proskau and Leslie. Entering the diplomatic service at an early age, he was assigned in 1886 to the Paris embassy and in 1889 transferred to London, where with short intervals he was ambassador from 1904 to August 13 1914.

He used his family connections with the British court, derived through the marriage of Count Emmanuel Mensdorff-Pouilly (1777–1862) with Queen Victoria's aunt, Princess Sophia of Saxe-Coburg, his friendship with Edward VII and George V, and his popularity in British aristocratic circles, to establish and secure friendly relations between the Cabinets of Vienna and London. In the critical negotiations before the outbreak of The Weltkrieg he supported every attempt to avert the danger. During the war's early years he was repeatedly entrusted with missions directed towards the restoration of peace. He met Jan Smuts in Switzerland in December 1917, but these negotiations proved as fruitless. Towards the end of the war he was recalled to Vienna, and the Austrian Court. There he presided over the coming to the throne of Emperor Otto, and aided the teenager in the management of his new, vast and fractured Realm, and was rewarded, first with his post as Minister for Finance and then with the subsequent post of Minister-President in 1927 after the Ausgleich, during which he managed to make the most out of a poor hand.