Andrássy becomes foreign minister

On 24 October 1918 Emperor Charles I entrusted the direction of Austro-Hungarian diplomacy to Count Gyula Andrássy the Younger. The British chronology of the war records the change a day later, under 25 October. In the morning his predecessor, Baron István Burián, arrived in Budapest for a scheduled meeting with the leaders of the Hungarian parties. On arrival he learned from the newspapers that the day before Sándor Wekerle’s government had fallen and a crowd had burst into the chamber. He took this as the beginning of a revolution. As he recalled, the situation he found in Budapest “clearly proved” to him that he could no longer hold office. He resigned and his resignation was accepted.

The choice of successor was telling. The 58-year-old Andrássy was the son of Count Gyula Andrássy, the first prime minister of Hungary after the Compromise of 1867 and joint foreign minister in 1871–1879, who in 1879 concluded the Dual Alliance with Germany with Bismarck. The son was one of the leaders of the Hungarian opposition. In 1906–1910 he was minister of the interior in Wekerle’s government, and during the war he was among the sharpest critics of István Tisza and belonged to the opposition coalition whose pressure contributed to Tisza’s dismissal in 1917. At the same time he had long been regarded as a supporter of the alliance with Germany. As late as June 1918 he said in parliament that he considered it “necessary, natural” and the only course consistent with a sound Hungarian policy. The British history of the peace conference edited by Harold Temperley later wrote maliciously that Andrássy had all his life dreamed of his father’s post and was given the helm “when there was nothing left to steer”.

The office itself was losing its meaning. Hungary had announced that it was now linked to Austria only by a personal union, and the joint institutions of the monarchy, established by the Compromise of 1867, existed only on paper. Burián noted in his memoirs, however, that in view of the transition to personal union his successor was already regarded as the first Hungarian foreign minister.

The very next day Andrássy explained in an interview with the Viennese Neue Freie Presse that he saw no contradiction in appointing a joint minister at the moment when work had begun on separating Austria and Hungary: as long as the law of 1867 had not been amended, any other foreign minister was unthinkable. The new minister also immediately took on the role of adviser to the king on Hungarian affairs. On 25 October Charles, who was staying in Hungary, held talks with Andrássy and with the leader of the left, Mihály Károlyi. He was inclined to entrust the government to Károlyi but changed his mind, partly under the influence of Andrássy’s advice, and the expected appointment did not take place. On the same day it was announced that the pacifist Heinrich Lammasch would become prime minister of Austria. On 26 October the emperor returned to Vienna.

Andrássy took over diplomacy with a single task: to take the monarchy out of the war as quickly as possible, even without Germany. And so it happened. A few days later he sent President Wilson a note asking for an immediate armistice and separate negotiations, which meant breaking the alliance concluded by his father. He headed the ministry only until 2 November 1918. He was the last joint foreign minister of Austria-Hungary.