Franz Stadion, Count von Warthausen

Franz Stadion, Graf von Warthausen (July 27, 1806 – June 8, 1853), son of the Austrian diplomat Johann Philipp von Stadion. Born in Vienna, he was a statesman who served the Austrian Empire during the 1840s. From 1841 he was Governor of the Austrian Littoral (with its capital at Trieste), from 1847 to 1848 Governor of Galicia (where he freed the peasants from labor duties), and from 1848 to 1849 he was Interior Minister and Minister of Education. He advocated constitutional government, decreed the Imposed March Constitution in March 1849 which was never enacted, and in 1849 promulgated the Gemeinde (municipality) legislation that granted governmental autonomy to all municipalities in the Austrian empire. Lewis Namier, in 1848: The Revolution of the Intellectuals (p. 18), calls him "one of the most enlightened and efficient Austrian administrators."