Karel Schwarzenberg
Karel Schwarzenberg (Karl zu Schwarzenberg) | |
---|---|
Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
Assumed office 13 July 2010 | |
Prime Minister | Petr Nečas |
Preceded by | Jan Kohout |
In office 9 January 2007 – 8 May 2009 | |
Prime Minister | Mirek Topolánek |
Preceded by | Alexandr Vondra |
Succeeded by | Jan Kohout |
Member of the Chamber of Deputies | |
Assumed office May 2010 | |
Senator from 6th District of Prague | |
In office November 2004 – May 2010 | |
Head of House of Schwarzenberg | |
Assumed office 1979 | |
Preceded by | Joseph III |
Personal details | |
Born | Prague, Czechoslovakia | 10 December 1937
Political party | TOP 09 |
Other political affiliations | Austrian People's Party Green Party (not member) US-DEU (senator) ODA (defunct) |
Spouse | Therese Hardegg |
Signature | |
Karel Schwarzenberg (Czech pronunciation: [ˈkarɛl ˈʃvartsn̩bɛrk]) or Karel, Prince of Schwarzenberg (born 10 December 1937 in Prague, Czechoslovakia), is a politician of the Czech Republic, the leader of TOP09 party and the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country. He took office as Foreign Minister in July 2010, and also occupied the position from 2007 to 2009. Prince Schwarzenberg is a member of the high nobility of Bohemia and also the current head of the House of Schwarzenberg since 1979.[1]
He is a former Senator from Prague. In May 2010, he was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies, gaining the largest number of Preference votes.
Background, education and personal life
Karel Schwarzenberg is the eldest son of Prince Karl VI of Schwarzenberg of the junior line and Princess Antonie von Fürstenberg.
Born in Prague, his family fled the country after the Communist coup d'état in 1948 and he grew up in Austria. In the 1960s, he was active in Austrian politics, and he became a leading voice against the communist rule of his native Bohemia after the Prague Spring. He chaired the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights 1984-1991.
The House of Schwarzenberg originates in Franconia, where the family still owns substantial property [citation needed], but made Bohemia their primary seat in the 17th century, also maintaining residences in Vienna. The family had possessed fiefdoms in Bohemia already in the middle ages. It was one of the richest noble families of Bohemia and Austria-Hungary, and one of the largest land owners of Bohemia. Karel Schwarzenberg and his parents had to leave the country after the Communist coup of 1948, and emigrated to Austria, with Swiss citizenship. He studied law and forestry at the universities of Vienna, Munich and Graz.[2] He has two sisters, Marie Eleonore von Bredow (born 1936) and Anna Maria Freifrau von Haxthausen (born 1946), and one brother, Friedrich Prinz zu Schwarzenberg (born 1940).
On 22 April 1967, Schwarzenberg married Countess Therese von Hardegg in Seefeld, Austria. The marriage ended in divorce in 1988. The couple married for the second time on 25 July 2008.[3][4] In marriage were born three children:
- Johann Nepomucenus Andreas Heinrich Joseph Karl Ferdinand Johannes, Hereditary Prince of Schwarzenberg (b. 12 December 1967)
- Princess Anna Karolina of Schwarzenberg (b. 16 December 1968)
- Karl Philipp Ernst Alwig Kilian of Schwarzenberg (b. 12 May 1979) (Adopted by Austrian industrialist and politician Thomas Prinzhorn by agreement 25 November 1987 and registered in Vienna 16 May 1988. On 20 March 1990 began using surname "Prinzhorn".)[5][6][7]
After the fall of the communist regime, he returned to Prague in 1990, although he still visits Austria, where part of his family lives. Karel Schwarzenberg holds Swiss citizenship and Czech citizenship.[8]
Career
In the 1960s, he was active in the conservative Austrian People's Party and contributed to reforming the party before the Austrian legislative election, 1966. Voices inside the party considered him a possible candidate for the position of Foreign Minister of Austria, the position he would occupy in the Czech Republic decades later.[9]
He soon became active in the resistance against the communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia and became a prominent human rights advocate. From 1984 to 1991 he was chairman of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, and in 1986 he founded the Dokumentationszentrum zur Förderung der unabhängigen tschechoslowakischen Literatur in Scheinfeld, Austria. In 1989, he accepted the European Human Rights Prize on behalf of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights.
Prince Schwarzenberg is a longtime friend of Václav Havel, and a member of the Forum 2000 foundation.
Between July 1990 and July 1992, he worked as chancellor of Czechoslovak President Václav Havel.
In May 2005, he was expelled from Cuba (together with German MP Arnold Vaatz), where he was due to meet dissidents opposed to the Cuban President Fidel Castro.[10]
Between 9 January 2007 and 9 May 2009, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic in Mirek Topolánek's second coalition government. His nomination by the Green Party caused a small controversy when President Václav Klaus stated that he had strong links to Austria and so would not be able to defend national interests.[11][12] On 8 July 2008, he and the American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed an agreement on the United States's Missile shield program.[13]
In the first half of 2009, Schwarzenberg was also the Council President (Responsible national minister) of the European Union. Also in 2009, he and coalition colleague Miroslav Kalousek formed a new Czech political party TOP09, which they led to success in the general elections of 2010, gaining 16% of the vote and representation in the Czech Parliament.
Titles, names and awards
Titles and names
A member of the high nobility of Bohemia, his full name is Karl Johannes Nepomuk Josef Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Mena Fürst zu Schwarzenberg. He is generally known as Karl zu Schwarzenberg in German and uses the Czech form of his name, Karel, in Czech.
He is the current 12th Prince of Schwarzenberg, through his adoption by Heinrich Schwarzenberg, the fromer 11th Prince and last male member of the major Schwarzenberg line.[14]
His name and style would be:[15]
- His Serene Highness The Prince of Schwarzenberg, Count of Sulz, Princely Landgrave in Klettgau, and Duke of Krumlov[1]
Awards
- In 1989, he received together with Lech Wałęsa, later president of Poland, the Council of Europe Human Rights Prize.
- In 2003, he received the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk 3rd Class of the Czech Republic.
- He has also been a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece (Austrian branch) since 1991.
- In 2005, he received the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria in Silver with Sash.
- In 2008, he received the Grand Cross of the Federal Cross of Merit - Bundesverdienstkreuz - of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Schwarzenberg is also a regular attendant to the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg meetings.
Ancestry
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See also
Footnotes
- ^ a b http://www.praguepost.com/print/4211-schwarzenberg-talks-election.html
- ^ http://www.vlada.cz/en/vlada/karel-schwarzenberg-50241/
- ^ Royals Portal MAG 2008, by Petra
- ^ news.at
- ^ http://www.wargs.com/royal/pouilly.html
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ Velinger, Jan (18 January 2007). "Rozhovor pro časopis Instinkt". Instinkt. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
'Jak je to s vaším občanstvím - máte české a švýcarské?' 'Oboje od narození.' (In English: 'What about your citizenship - you have both Czech and Swiss ones?' 'I have both since I was born.')
- ^ Paul Lendvai, Mein Österreich - 50 Jahre hinter den Kulissen der Macht, 4th ed., Ecowin Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3-902404-46-9, p. 89
- ^ EU politicians expelled from Cuba, BBC.co.uk, 20 May 2005, retrieved 16 October 2009
- ^ Klaus, Václav (28 December 2006). "Senátor Schwarzenberg sedí na dvou židlích". euPortál (in Czech language). Retrieved 5 January 2009.
Asi se shodneme na tom, že každý náš ministr zahraničí musí jasně, ostře a z vlastního přesvědčení zastávat a hájit zájmy, postoje a priority České republiky. Obávám se však, že něco takového není možné - ale nijak ho za to nekritizuji - očekávat od člověka, který je s naší zemí (...) spojen pouze menší částí svého života. (In English: I think we agree that every Minister of Foreign Affairs of our country must clearly, strongly and by his own will defend interests, opinions and priorities of Czech Republic. However, I am afraid (but I'm not criticizing him) that we cannot expect this from a person who has been connected to our country only for a shorter period in his life (no matter this was not voluntary).
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ Velinger, Jan (27 December 2006). "Who's afraid of Karel Schwarzenberg?". Český rozhlas 7. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
- ^ Bilefsky, Dan (8 July 2008). "U.S. and Czech Republic sign agreement on missile shield". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 8 July 2008.
{{cite news}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ He is the fourth cousin twice removed of Heinrich Schwarzenberg, the 11th Prince of Schwarzenberg [3] [4].
- ^ In the Czech Republic, using of noble predicates is prohibited by law No. 61/1918 Sb.
External links
- Use dmy dates from September 2010
- 1937 births
- Living people
- Czech Roman Catholics
- Czech senators
- Government ministers of the Czech Republic
- House of Schwarzenberg
- Austrian people
- Swiss people
- Czech people of German descent
- People from Prague
- Recipients of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- TOP 09 politicians