Lammasch, Heinrich

▪ Austrian statesman

born May 21, 1853, Seitenstetten, Austria

died Jan. 6, 1920, Salzburg

      jurist who served briefly as Austrian prime minister during the last weeks of the Habsburg Empire.

      As professor of criminal and international law at the University of Vienna, Lammasch achieved an international legal reputation for his work on extradition law and rights of asylum. He was international law adviser for the Austro-Hungarian delegation at the first (1899) and second (1907) Hague peace conferences, and he held membership in the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague, presiding over its deliberations twice in 1910. During the last years of World War I, as the supporter of a negotiated settlement of hostilities, he incurred strong opposition in the Austrian upper house.

      Amid the turmoil of a disintegrating empire, Lammasch, in October 1918, accepted the commission of Emperor Charles to undertake a peaceful liquidation of the affairs of state, presiding over a short-lived Cabinet (October–November 1918). Following the war, as a member of the Austrian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference (1919), he unsuccessfully championed a plan of permanent neutrality for the new Republic of Austria.

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