Background
Maximilian von Heinlein was born in Pressburg on May 3, 1865, the son of a field marshal.
Maximilian von Heinlein was born in Pressburg on May 3, 1865, the son of a field marshal.
Hussarek acquired a doctorate of law at Vienna University in 1889 and thereafter taught canon law at several schools; in 1893 he began what was to become a long and fruitful career at the law school of Vienna University.
A full professor by the turn of the century, Hussarek from 1911 to 1917 also served as minister of culture and education in the cabinets of Karl von Stiirgkh, Ernst von Korber, and Heinrich von Clam-Martinic.
Emperor Charles appointed Hussarek minister-president of the Dual Monarchy on July 25, 1917. The law professor regarded federalism as the sole alternative to dissolution; specifically, he strove for a trialistic solution to the Croatian question by seeking to unite Croatia and Dalmatia with Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to form a third equal partner in the empire. Hussarek initiated the so-called October Manifesto on October 16, 1918, which sought to transform the Austrian part of the empire into a federation of nationalities while maintaining inviolate the lands of the Crown of St. Stephen.
The latter pledge in effect meant that Croatian, German, Rumanian, Serbian, and Ruthenian territory would remain divided; Robert Kann has denounced the manifesto as "a farce." The Hungarian prime minister, Alexander Wekerle, informed Charles that the manifesto violated the Compromise of 1867, and this opposition sufficed to defeat it. Hussarek thereupon resigned his post on October 27, 1918, and returned to his professorship at Vienna University. Regarded by many as the founder of the department of legal church history at Vienna University, Hussarek died in Vienna on March 6,1935.