Johann von Österreich

Archduke Johann Baptist Josef Fabian Sebastian of Austria was born on 20 January 1782 in Florence as the thirteenth child of Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany, the future Emperor Leopold II, and Maria Ludovica of Spain. He received the unusual name Johann after John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence. Unlike many Habsburgs, he was initially educated in Italian; he later learned French, German, and Latin. From an early age, he was interested in the Alpine lands, history, social issues, natural sciences, and technology. Throughout his life, he was a soldier, mountaineer, hunter, farmer, vintner, industrialist, and patron of science and culture. Destined for a military career, Johann was promoted to major general and appointed commander of a dragoon regiment as early as 1795. During the War of the Second Coalition, he assumed command of the imperial army in southern Germany in 1800. After a success at Ampfing, he suffered a severe defeat at Hohenlinden, but shortly afterward achieved a partial victory at Walserfeld. Following the Peace of Lunéville, he became director general of military engineering and fortifications, while also directing the Vienna Engineering Academy and the Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt. During the war of 1805, Johann was initially supposed to organize the Tyrolean territorial militia, but then took command of the army deployed in Italy. In 1808, he prepared the territorial defense forces in Tyrol and Inner Austria and, in 1809, supported the Tyrolean uprising led by Andreas Hofer against Bavarian and French rule. In April 1809, his Southern Army defeated the forces of the French viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais at Sacile. After the defeats suffered by the Austrian main army, however, he was forced to retreat. His corps was heavily defeated at Raab, preventing him from reaching the Battle of Wagram in time. He lost his active field command but was awarded the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa. After the Congress of Vienna, he led the siege of the fortress of Hüningen in Alsace in 1815. His diaries reveal not only military duty, but also weariness with war and compassion for the defeated enemy. In 1836, he was honorarily appointed field marshal. Johann developed a particularly close relationship with Tyrol. There he met Josef von Hormayr, with whom he supported plans for a popular uprising against Napoleon. When Austria was temporarily allied with Napoleon, these preparations had to remain secret. The so-called Alpine League was betrayed, however; Hormayr was arrested, and Johann was denounced as an alleged claimant to an independent Alpine kingdom. His brother, Emperor Francis I, then forbade him from entering Tyrol. The ban was not lifted until 1833. Johann held Metternich chiefly responsible for his political exclusion and remained hostile toward him for the rest of his life. In 1807, Johann acquired Thernberg Castle and estate in Lower Austria. There he conducted agricultural experiments, established orchards, and began the collections that later formed the foundation of the Joanneum in Graz. Thernberg also served as a place of retreat where he could recover from military and political defeats and distance himself from the intrigues of the Viennese court. He sold the estate in 1828 and increasingly concentrated his efforts on Styria, which became his principal field of activity. In Styria, Johann was revered as a modernizer and a popular figure of identification. Although he did not describe himself as a liberal, he criticized the court and the aristocratic landowners for paying too little attention to the concerns of ordinary people. He pursued his reforms exclusively as a private citizen, yet his connections and powers of persuasion enabled numerous lasting initiatives. In 1811, he laid the foundation for the Joanneum in Graz. He also inspired, among other institutions, the provincial library, the provincial archive, the agricultural society, the savings bank, the School of Mining and Metallurgy in Vordernberg, a fire-insurance institution, a provincial secondary school, and the Historical Society for Styria. During the famine of 1816 and 1817, Johann personally distributed potatoes and encouraged the population to cultivate them. The Styrian Agricultural Society, founded in 1819, promoted improved methods in livestock breeding, fruit growing, and arable farming, as well as new varieties and more efficient working practices. Johann remained its president until his death and, whenever possible, visited its many regional branches each year. He also modernized industry and mining. After receiving an inheritance, he expanded his Brandhof estate, acquired ironworks in Vordernberg, and participated in reorganizing iron-ore extraction at the Styrian Erzberg. He later purchased a sheet-metal factory and coal mines. His interest in technology led him to support railway construction. After journeys to England in 1815 and 1816, during which he studied industrial development and met James Watt, he advocated a railway connection from Budweis to Trieste. His influence was especially important in establishing the route of the Southern Railway over the Semmering and through the Mur-Mürz valley to Graz. The Graz–Köflach Railway also grew out of his initiatives. He further promoted viticulture and agriculture on his estates in Brandhof, Stainz, and Lower Styria. In 1819, Johann met Anna Plochl, the fifteen-year-old daughter of a postmaster from Aussee, at Lake Toplitz. After waiting for years for imperial approval, he married her on 18 February 1829 in a private chapel at Brandhof. Because of this morganatic marriage, he was excluded from the line of succession. Anna later received the title Baroness von Brandhofen, while their son Franz was born in 1839 and was elevated to the rank of Count of Meran in 1845. Graz became the center of the family’s life, and the Palais Meran was built there. In 1848, the Frankfurt National Assembly elected Johann Reichsverweser, provisional head of the emerging German central authority. He accepted the office and entered Frankfurt in July to great public acclaim. As Reichsverweser, he appointed and dismissed ministers and signed imperial laws. After the suppression of the revolution, he transferred his powers to the Federal Central Commission in December 1849. Upon his return, he was elected the first mayor of Stainz in 1850—the only member of the Austrian imperial family ever to become mayor of a small market town. He held the office until the end of 1858. Johann died of pneumonia in Graz on 11 May 1859. He was initially buried there, but in 1869 his remains were transferred to the mausoleum near Schenna Castle, which his son had commissioned. His memory lives on especially in Styria through the Archduke Johann Fountain in Graz, numerous schools and streets, the Joanneum, songs such as the Archduke Johann yodel, and many institutions that grew out of his educational, economic, and cultural initiatives.