Prince Adolf von Auersperg came to the office of Prime Minister in 1871 and then remained on it until 1879.
Prince Adolf von Auersperg, Prime Minister of the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, was born on July 21, 1821. He was probably born in Vlašim Castle in what is now the Czech Republic, about 50 kilometers southeast of Prague. His Auersperg family belonged to the most elite circle of Austrian princely (princely) dynasties, and even held the title of duke. Namely, the heads of the Auersperg family bore the title of duke from Kočevje (Herzog von Gottschee) to the Slovenian Kočevje in the area of Carniola. Adolf’s father was a prince of Auersperg and a duke of Kočevje, but the title was later inherited by Adolf’s older brother Karl, who was also the Austrian prime minister.
While Karl held this leading position from 1867 to 1868, Adolf came to it in 1871 and then remained on it until 1879 (only Eduard Taaffe was longer than him in the position of Austrian Prime Minister in the entire history of Austro-Hungary). It was the only case of two brothers at the head of the Austrian government. One branch of the Auersperg family owned vast estates in the area of today’s Slovenia (where the family is also called the princes of Turja, after the Carniolan town of Turjak, whose German name is Auersperg). In the Slovenian territory, members of the Auersperg family owned the castles of Bled, Mokrice, Sevnica and many others. In Vienna they owned the huge Auersperg Palace, one of the most lavish aristocratic residences in that city. At one time they were the owners of the Old Town of Samobor near Zagreb. Prince Adolf von Auersperg died at the age of 63 in Goldegg Castle west of Vienna.
