František Ladislav Rieger (December 18, 1818 – March 3, 1903) was a Czech

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 politician and publicist made famous for his leadership of the early Czech nationalist movement.

Early life

Rieger was born into the household of a miller in the small town of Semily

Semily

Semily is a town in the Semily District, Liberec Region, of northern Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It has about 9,000 inhabitants. One important landmark is the St Peter and Paul Church, from the beginning of the previous century. The town has two notable museums: the Museum and Regional Gallery...

 in northern Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

. His departure from this rural environment came with his enrollment in Prague University where he was to become acquainted with the nationalist fervor among students there. Rieger studied at the university to become a lawyer, and also received a strong education in economic science, a subject which would later be the topic of much of his published political literature. He and his fellow “national awakeners”

Czech National Revival

Czech National Revival was a cultural movement, which took part in the Czech lands during the 18th and 19th century. The purpose of this movement was to revive Czech language, culture and national identity...

 found inspiration for their patriotism in the Polish uprising of 1830. Many political Polish refugees fled to Prague where they shared their ideas with the young Czech nationalists there. Rieger’s sympathy for the Poles was so that he was even arrested for hiding a refugee in his room at the University.

The Revolution of 1848

Rieger’s first venture into the political scene of Czech politics came with the Revolution of 1848

Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas

From March 1848 through July 1849, the Habsburg Austrian Empire was threatened by revolutionary movements. Much of the revolutionary activity was of a nationalist character: the empire, ruled from Vienna, included Austrian Germans, Hungarians, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians,...

. Rieger was among the attendees to the constituent assembly meeting in July 1848 in Vienna. His appearance at the assembly was spectacular. He exemplified his skill in oration, and reputedly gained a reputation for his righteous defense of popular sovereignty. For the first time, he was rubbing shoulders with prominent Czech intellectuals and leaders, including the historian František Palacký

František Palacký

František Palacký was a Czech historian and politician.-Biography:...

, with whom he was soon to become close friends. The constitution which he and his fellow assembly members together drafted was woven from the notions of Austroslavism

Austroslavism

Austroslavism was a political concept and program aimed to solve problems of Slavic peoples in the Austrian Empire.It was most influential among Czech liberals around the middle of the 19th century...

, which advocated allowing Bohemia to become an autonomous federal state within the empire. The new emperor, Franz Joseph

Franz Joseph I of Austria

Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...

, found the constitution too radical to accept and flatly rejected it.

Retreat from politics

Following the defeat of the proposal for the Bohemian constitution, Rieger spent the next two years in voluntary exile between France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

. On his returning to Prague in 1851, he applied to become a professor of economics at Prague University where he studied. However, his application, which included his doctorate on economics, was refused by the administration for political reasons. Rieger continued to pursue economic science and became a prolific writer of economic literature. For his contribution, he has been accredited with begin the founder of Czech economic literature. For the next several years, he set to work on a number of projects intended to advance the Czech cultural heritage. In 1858 he started the Slovník naučný ("Reference Book"), the Czech encyclopedia of general knowledge, the first volume of which was published in 1859, the 11th and last in 1874. He was also instrumental in founding the first Czech political daily newspaper published in Prague; which appeared on January 1, 1861, and of which he was for a while the editor. In 1853 Rieger married Marie Palacká, the daughter of his close friend and political associate from the assembly, František Palacký.

The National Party

Rieger’s refuge from politics was ended suddenly by the downfall of the Bach administration in Vienna in 1859. Francis Joseph’s October Diploma

October Diploma

The October Diploma was a constitution adopted by Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph on October 20, 1860. The Diploma attempted to increase the power of the conservative nobles by giving them more power over their own lands through a program of aristocratic federalism...

, which officially divided the empire into the dualist Astro-Hungarian monarchy

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

, left Rieger and many Czechs nationalists dissatisfied with the lack of response by the government towards their wish for autonomy. Not wishing to be outshined by their Magyar competition, the Czechs of the National Party, led by Palacký took action. In 1861, Palacký, though continuing to serve as an influential member of the party, passed official leadership to Rieger. Now in control, Rieger set to work on another petitioned constitution to present to Francis Joseph. Despite Rieger’s employment of his skill for writing political literature, the proposal was ignored by the emperor altogether. Increasingly dejected and frustrated, Rieger led his party to boycott the Bohemian Diet and newly created Austrian Reichsrat

Reichsrat (Austria)

The Imperial Council of Austria from 1867 to 1918 was the parliament of the Cisleithanian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a bicameral legislature, consisting of the Herrenhaus and the Abgeordnetenhaus...

. This policy of passive resistance would characterize the Czech relation to Austria for the next twenty years. Czech pride, however, hardly swayed the Emperor or Reichstrat who were more than happy to not be bothered by the Czechs. Rieger attempted a constitution a second time in 1871, when he conducted negotiations with the Hohenenwarth ministry for a federal constitution of the empire, which broke down owing to his extreme attitude in the matter of Bohemian independence.

Within the National Party itself a number of significant developments were taking place under the leadership of Rieger. He appealed to Napoleon III to support the Czech movement, in spite the unease felt by some members towards the authoritarian regime of France. In terms of its political ideology, the party became increasingly conservative in its attempts to win over the Bohemian nobility. Rieger understood that the nobles had no real interest in nationalism and that the party was becoming increasingly isolated from its liberal roots. However, support of the nobles meant access to the court, a political advantage which he could not afford to lose. In addition to allying the party to the nobles, Rieger took significant steps to tie the party to the Catholic Church. Although a non-practicing Catholic himself, Rieger attended a number of Church pilgrimages and meetings. In his view, the Church and its role in Czech history offered to the nationalist struggle a sense of historical unity and significance. Rieger’s image was also threatened by his failure to recognize the significance of Panslavism. In 1867, his journey with Palacký to Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 to attend a convention in protest of dualism was falsely interpreted by the Czech press to be a symbolic gesture towards Pan-Slavism. Rieger often failed to recognize the impression his contacts with other slavs created for his public image, especially to Germans fearful of a panslavic conspiracy.

The party divides

In spite of this evidence of his popularity, his conservatism, his close connection with the Bohemian nobility and his clerical tendencies brought Rieger into conflict with the growing influence of the radical Young Czech party. The National Party was now divided between the Young Czechs and the Old Czechs, headed by Rieger. Indeed, to the younger generation of nationalists, Rieger seemed old and out of touch, as indicated by his comment in 1883 that an educated Czech need a perfect command of German. After the division of the party, he became increasingly conservative in his policies. He ended his boycott of the Diet and Reichstrat in 1879, and was one of the leaders of the federalist majority supporting Count Taaffe

Eduard Taaffe, 11th Viscount Taaffe

Eduard Franz Joseph, 11th Viscount Taaffe was an Austrian statesman who held a hereditary peerage in the Peerage of Ireland.-Family background and early years:...

's conservative coalition of Iron Ring. Although the Old Czech continued to dominate for another decade, in 1891, they were defeated in the polls by the Young Czechs.

Final years

By the end of his political career, Rieger had become an esteemed politician. On his seventieth birthday (December 10, 1888) he received a national gift of 100,000 gulden. In March 1897 he was created a baron (Freiherr) and given a seat in the Upper House. He continued occasionally to interfere in politics; but his influence was now at an end, though when he died, on March 3, 1903, his funeral in Prague was made the occasion of a magnificent demonstration of respect.