Ladislaus Hengelmuller

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Baron Ladislaus Hengelmuller de Hengervár (in Hungarian: Báró hengervári Hengelmüller László) (1845 - 1917) was a longterm Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to the United States, stretching through multiple Presidential administrations including those of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft.

While ambassador, one of his titles was, His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, etc., and Apostolic King of Hungary, Baron Ladislaus Hengelmuller de Hengervar, Grand Cross of the Orders of Leopold and Francis Joseph, 3rd Class Knight of the Order of the Iron Crown, His Majesty's Privy Counselor and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States of America.

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[edit] Family

Ladislaus Hengelmuller was born in Pest, the son of Michael (Mihály), an Austrian court official.

He was married to a daughter of Count Alfred Dunin-Borkowski, the Austrian Minister to Dresden; she was the widow of a prominent landowner in Austrian Poland. [The New Dean of the Diplomatic Corps at Washington, The New York Times, 26 July 1910, page SM11]. By her, he had a daughter, who married, as his second wife, Capt. Henry Brougham of the Coldstream Guards, heir to the English barony of Brougham and Vaux, on April 24, 1923.

[edit] The Hengelmuller-Washington Incident

In the November 13, 1905 edition of the Washington Post, a "Hengelmuller-Washington" incident was described. Evidently Professor Booker T. Washington and the Baron had been visiting President Roosevelt at about the same time. The Baron left first, accidentally taking Professor Washington's overcoat instead of his own. When the Baron reached into the pocket, he pulled out a rabbit's foot: "the left hind foot of a graveyard rabbit, killed in the dark of the moon.".

The November 14, 1905 comment by the Detroit Journal about the incident was, "The Austrian ambassador may have made off with Booker T. Washington's coat at the White House, but he'd have a bad time trying to fill his shoes" [1].

[edit] Ambassadorship

The Baron took over as ambassador from Ernst Schmitt von Tavera after assignments in Serbia and Brazil. From 1894-1902, the Baron's title was "Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary" (Ausserordentliche Gesandte und bevollmächtigte Minister), and then from 1902-1913 he was "Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary" (Ausserordentliche und bevollmächtigte Botschafter),[2] though in American press sometimes he was simply referred to as "Austrian Ambassador" and "Dean of the diplomatic corps at Washington" [3] [Austria's Envoy Promoted: Minister's Credentials as Ambassador Are on the Way to This Country, The New York Times, 9 December 1902, page 5].

He was one of the signatories on the 1909 treaty to "resolve international disputes" between the United States and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which provided for a Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague.

After the Baron resigned to return to Austria in 1913 -- his wife had been named a lady in waiting in 1910, which some observers stated was the reason for the Baron's resignation -- the ambassadorship went to Dr. Constantin Theodor Dumba, who held the post until he was expelled from the country by President Woodrow Wilson in 1915.

One of the Baron's nephews was Count Alfred von Niezychowski. Alfred was a Polish "szlachta" noble who entered the German merchant marine to be an officer aboard German passenger liners.

In 1914, Niezychowski was pulled into World War I when his ship the Kronprinz Wilhelm was drafted into the German Imperial Navy and turned into an auxiliary cruiser. The ship proceeded to raid commerce ships in the southern Atlantic until it ran out of supplies, and put into port in Virginia in 1915.

[edit] Death

Ladislaus Hengelmuller died at Abbazia, a health resort in Istria.

[edit] Alternate name spellings

  • Baron Hengelmueler
  • Baron Laszlo Hengelmuller
  • Baron Dr. Ladislaus von Hengelmuller (as often referenced in the U.S. press)* Hengelmuller, Ladislas
  • Hengelmueller, Ladislaus
  • Hengelmuller, Ladislaus
  • Hengelmuller, Laszlo
  • Hengelmüller, László
  • Hengelmüller László (hengervári)
  • Hengelmüller von Hengervár, Ladislaus Baron
  • Hengelvar, Ladislaus Hengelmuller Baron von
  • Ladislaus Freiherr Hengelmüller von Hengervár
  • Ladislaus Hengelmüller von Hengervár
  • Laszlo Hengelmüller von Hengervar

[edit] Works

  • "In Defense of Austria", by Baron L. Hengelmuller. 1914, 1915. The New York Times "Current History: A monthly magazine. The European War, Volume I, from the beginning to March, 1915". pp 559-562 [4]
  • Austria-Hungary and the war, 1915, New York, Austro-Hungarian consulate-general. Co-authors: Albert Apponyi, Ladislaus Hengelmüller von Hengervár, Konstantin Theodor Dumba, Alexander Nuber von Pereked
  • Hengelmuller, Ladislas. Hungary's Fight for National Existence: or the history of the great uprising led by Francis Rakoczi II, 1703-1711. 1913 (English translation), London: Macmillan. [5] [6]

Note: Francis Rakoczi II is sometimes listed as "Ferencz -- II, Rákóczy, -- Prince of Transylvania"

[edit] Trivia

  • The ambassador had a summer home in Maine, built by George Newman in 1886, and to this day the bed and breakfast in that location advertises it, as "the summer residence of the Austro-Hungarian ambassador and his wife, the Baron and Baroness Hengelmueler" [7].
  • The Baron was the subject of a quote by President Taft:

"Let him wait", Taft told Captain Butt regarding the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador’s impatience over a delayed appointment. "A man with the name of Hengelmuller should not want me to leave my lunch" [8].

  • The Baron was present on January 10, 1908 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York when the American Priory of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta was officially incorporated by the signing of the corporate charter. The charter was underwritten by Hengelmuller, [His Highness the Grand Duke of Russia] Alexander Michajlovich, Prince Peter Trubetzkoi, Prince Michele Khilkov, Comte Alexander Buturlin, Comte Alfred de Choiseul-Gouffier, Prince Paul Ligny, Baron James of Harden-Hickey, Comte de Boissiere, Baron de Rosen (Russian ambassador to the USA) Carlo Magno Tower (U.S. Minister and Ambassador in Russia, Austria and Germany), Hethelbert Watts (U.S. General Consul in Saint Petersburg) and many others [9].
  • In 1910, (former) President Teddy Roosevelt visited Budapest, Hungary. Along with many other dignitaries, the Baron, along with his wife and daughter and President Roosevelt visited the Budapest Museum of Agriculture. The Baron and his wife also hosted President Roosevelt at a dinner at the "Park Club", known for a clientele of Hungarian nobility [10]. The trip to Europe by "Colonel Roosevelt" had caused some consternation among European royalty, since Roosevelt was greeted by Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany with royal honors, but the conservative court of Vienna resisted this, causing some embarrassment to the Baron [11].
  • The Baron is mentioned in the book Titanic: End of a Dream by Wyn Craig Wade, on page 157, as someone who was checking out one of the rumors about the cause of the disaster [12].
  • The Baron is listed in the index (Hengelvar, Ladislaus Hengelmuller Baron von, 239) of History of the Louisiana purchase exposition : comprising the history of the Louisiana territory, the story of the Louisiana purchase and a full account of the great exposition, embracing the participation of the states and nations of the world, and other events of the St. Louis World's fair of 1904 (compiled from official sources by Mark Bennitt, editor-in-chief and Frank Parker Stockbridge, managing editor, Universal exposition publishing company, 1905) [13].

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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