Count Lajos Batthyány de Németújvár (Hungarian pronunciation: ['lɒjɔʃ 'bɒc:a:ɲi dɛ ne:mɛtu:jva:r]; Hungarian: gróf németújvári Batthyány Lajos; 10 February 1807 – 6 October 1849) was the first Prime Minister of Hungary.

He was born in Pozsony (modern-day Bratislava) on 10 February 1807, and was executed by firing squad in Pest on 6 October 1849, the same day as the 13 Martyrs of Arad.

His father was Count József Sándor Batthyány von Német-Újvár (1777–1812), his mother Borbála Skerlecz de Lomnicza (1779–1834).

In 1830 he became a hereditary peer in the Upper House in Hungary and took his seat in the Parliament, but at this time Battyhány was not a politician by nature.

Batthyány advised employing stenographers to record verbatim the proceedings of the Upper House starting in 1840.

Batthyány, following Széchenyi, supported breeding silkworms: he planted more than 50,000 mulberry trees on his farm to cultivate them.

At the start he agreed with Széchenyi that the new noblemen and aristocrats had to lead the new reform movement, but Batthyány's views were much closer to that of the nobility.

On 15 March 1847 an amalgamation of the Hungarian Leftist movements (the Maverick Party) was founded and Batthyány became its first President.

At that time the internal affairs and foreign policy of Hungary were unstable, and Batthyány faced many problems.

On 29 August, with the assent of parliament, Batthyány and Ferenc Deák went to the Emperor to ask him to order the Serbs to capitulate and to stop Jelačić, who was planning to attack Hungary.

At the same time, Batthyány made Jelačić the offer that Croatia – as part of the lands of the Hungarian Crown -, could separate from it peacefully.

He also invalidated Batthyány's leadership and nominated Count Franz Philipp von Lamberg as the leader of the Hungarian army.

Batthyány realised that he could not compromise with the Emperor, so on 2 October he resigned again and nominated Miklós Vay as his successor.

As an ordinary soldier, Batthyány joined József Vidos' army, and fought against general Kuzman Todorović, but on 11 October 1848 he fell off his horse and broke his arm.

On 8 January 1849 Batthyány went back to Pest, where he was captured at the Károly Palace and imprisoned in the Budai barracks.

When the Hungarian army was nearer Pest, Batthyány was taken away to Pozsony, Ljubljana and Olmütz (now Olomouc, Czech Republic).

Baron Johann Franz Kempen von Fichtenstamm, the commander of the military district in Pest and Buda[1] knew that it was impossible to execute Batthyány by firing squad in his drugged state, but he sought no delay, so decided to shoot him in the head.