Alois Leopold Johann Baptist Graf[1] Lexa von Aehrenthal (27 September 1854 – 17 February 1912) was a diplomat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

According to his biographer Solomon Wank, he exuded a strong monarchical-conservative outlook, loyalty to the Empire, and optimism regarding its ability to survive and flourish in the early-20th century.

With the annexation he sought to permanently block in the Balkan south of the empire the emergence there of inter- and intra-ethnic nationalisms amongst the multiplicity of peoples on the basis of their shared religious beliefs and ethnic affiliations.

Seeking to limit objections in Russia to any support for the annexation, Aehrenthal began secret negotiations with Russian foreign minister Alexander Izvolsky before Vienna made its move.

[3][4] Born at Groß Skal Castle in Bohemia (Czech: Hrubá Skála, Czech Republic),[5] he was the second-born son of Baron (Freiherr) Johann Lexa von Aehrenthal (1817–1898), a large-scale landowner in Groß Skal and Doxan, and his wife Marie, née Countess Thun und Hohenstein.

[8][7][9] "His diplomacy" wrote Olof Hoijer, was "composed more of hard arrogance and dissolvent intrigue than of prudent reserve and ingratiating souplesse was a mixture of pretention and subtlety, of force and ruse, of realism and cynicism: his readiness to cheat, to circumvent, to outwit hid a harsh and ruthless will."

He undoubtedly showed himself to be an able and ambitious diplomat, a cool negotiator, a wide-awake observer, a patient listener, a discreet talker endowed with great outward calm but with a lively and dominating imagination more passionate than clear sighted.

He went in 1878 in the same capacity to St. Petersburg, Russia, and from 1883 to 1888 he worked at the Foreign Ministry in Vienna under Count Gustav Kálnoky, with whom he formed close relations.

In this sense he endeavoured to continue the negotiations successfully begun by his predecessor, Prince Franz Liechtenstein, for the bridging over of the differences on Balkan questions between Vienna and St. Petersburg, in order to create a basis for a permanent friendly relation between Austria-Hungary and Russia.

This treaty bottled up a major portion of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, making it useless in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 when it was urgently needed.

The Ottoman Empire would regain full control of the Austrian occupied territory known as the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, plus financial compensation.

By far the angriest reaction came from Serbia, which called for revenge, and began setting up secret guerrilla bands, plotting insurrection in Bosnia.

Berlin explicitly warned St Petersburg that continued demands for an international conference constituted a hostile action that would increase the risk of war with Germany.

Although Austria-Hungary had no intention to embark on additional expansion to the south, Aehrenthal encouraged speculation to that effect, expecting it would paralyze the Balkan states.

[16] For Aehrenthal, a German and a staunch monarchist, there was a direct threat in the Pan-Slav emergent nationalism of the kind that a consolidated Yugo (south) Slav Confederation led by Serbia represented.

The gradual consolidation of the Yugo-Slavs (in the name of the 'new centuries' idea of national self-determination for all ethnic/racial/religious groups) led by Serbia was a deadly threat to Aehrenthal’s Austria-Hungary.

For Aehrenthal, Moravia, Bohemia, and Silesia were the crown lands of his Ost-Mark German nobility, which ruled over a host of emergent Slav and Pan-Slav ethnicities: Pole, Czech, Ruthenian, Slovakian, and Ukrainian.

More importantly, this Pan-Slav self-determinant nationalism pointed the way to the loss of the defendable military, political, and economic boundaries of the empire.

Aehrenthal’s Hungarian noble half saw an equally strong threat with the loss of Hungary's historic Slavic provinces should Pan-Slavist ideology take root.

He acted on 3 October 1908 under the premise that Austria-Hungary was taking control of Bosnia-Herzogovina so that the people there could enjoy the benefits of the empire as a reward for economic advancement since first being administered back in 1878.

[17][13] As the crisis continued, the Kaiser was forced from the diplomatic scene by the Daily Telegraph Affair and no longer was a major decision maker.

[6] Aehrenthal was depicted in "The Devil's Kiss," the third episode of Season Two of the BBC Two series, Vienna Blood, which centered on fictionalized events surrounding the Austro-Russian understanding on annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.