Foreign Ministry of Austria-Hungary

The history of Austrian diplomatic service began in 1720 when Emperor Charles VI appointed his court chancellor, Count Philipp Ludwig Wenzel von Sinzendorf, Minister of the Privy Conference, responsible for the foreign affairs of the Habsburg monarchy.

After the proclamation of the Austrian Empire in 1804, foreign affairs remained a prerogative of the Emperor and his appointed minister; epitomized by Prince Klemens von Metternich who held the office (1809-1848) throughout the Biedermeier period and made his Geheime Hofkanzlei on Ballhausplatz next to Hofburg Palace in Vienna a European centre of power.

The Baroque building, venue of the 1814-1815 Vienna Congress, had been erected in 1719 according to plans designed by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt.

[1] The Evidenzbureau, the intelligence agency of Austro-Hungary, reported to the Foreign Ministry from its inception in 1850 until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, when it was made subordinate to the General Staff.

At the end of the war, the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy collapsed (October 1918) and the governmental powers in German Austria were taken over by the government of State Chancellor Karl Renner by resolution of the Provisional Assembly on 12 November 1918.