1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stürgkh, Carl, Count

STÜRGKH, CARL, Count (1859–1916), Austrian prime minister from Nov. 3 1911 to the time of his murder, was born on Oct. 30 1859, of an ancient noble Styrian family, and in 1881 he became an official of the Statthalterei at Graz, and later of the Ministry of Education. He left the State service in 1891, when he was elected as a representative of the loyal land-holding interest to the Reichsrat. He attached himself to the Left of the German party, and came forward as a keen opponent of universal suffrage. He was from Feb. 10 1909 to Nov. 3 1911 Minister of Education, and a zealous advocate of the humanistic education traditional in the gymnasia. Stürgkh was one of the committee of five ministers who decided on the dispatch of the ultimatum to Serbia and the declaration of war, which brought on the World War. He was lulled on Oct. 21 1916 by a shot fired by the Social Democrat Friedrich Adler, a son of the Social Democrat leader, Viktor Adler, as a protest against Stürgkh's government without parliament. (See Austrian Empire.)