Josef Ludwig von Armansperg

Graf Josef Ludwig von Armansperg Κόμης Ιωσήφ Λουδοβίκος Άρμανσμπεργκ
11th Prime Minister of Greece
In office June 1, 1835 – February 14, 1837
Monarch	Otto
Preceded by	Ioannis Kolettis
Succeeded by	Ignaz von Rudhart
Personal details
Born	February 28, 1787 Kötzting, Niederbayern
Died	April 3, 1853 (aged 66) Munich, Bavaria
Religion	Roman Catholic

Josef Ludwig, Graf von Armansperg (Greek: Κόμης Ιωσήφ Λουδοβίκος Άρμανσμπεργκ; 28 February 1787 – 3 April 1853) served as the Interior and Finance Minister (1826-1828) and Foreign and Finance Minister (1828-1831) under King Ludwig I of Bavaria in the government of Bavaria. He was a liberal monarchist and an economic conservative who promoted the unification of Germany with his attempts at a tariff union. Later he served as Regent of Greece for the underage Bavarian-born king and as his Prime Minister.

Early life

Von Armansperg was born in Kötzting, Lower Bavaria, nowadays part of Upper Palatinate, in 1787. In the Napoleonic Wars, in 1813 - 1814, he was Commissioner of Bavaria in the allied army, and belonged to the board which governed the conquered regions on the Rhine River. He participated in the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and was one of the plenipotentiaries with the allied army during the occupation of France, and administered a large district of that country. In 1825 he was chosen President of the Bavarian Chamber of Deputies, and became leader of the moderate opposition. King Ludwig of Bavaria made him Finance Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was one of the founders of the German Zollverein, a tariff union instrumental in advancing German unification. By his opposition to the Catholic ultramontanes, he forfeited the confidence of the king, and retired into private life.

In Greece

When King Ludwig's son Otto was offered the Greek throne in 1832, King Ludwig made von Armansperg the President of the Privy Council and the 1st representative (or Prime Minister) of the new government. The other members of the Regency Council were Karl von Abel and Georg Ludwig von Maurer with whom von Armansperg clashed often. After the King reached maturity in 1835, von Armansperg was made Arch-Secretary but was called Arch-Chancellor by the Greek press. Von Armansperg became an almost independent political actor in Greek politics as time went on; finding himself increasingly at odds with the king he was sent to support and advise. The situation came to a head when Otto was in Bavaria for his wedding to Queen Amalia and the king discovered that his physician had been sending dispatches (presumably at the behest of von Armansperg) to the king's father describing young Otto as deranged.

In 1837, von Armansperg was dismissed from his post and he returned to the von Armansperg residence of Schloss Egg near Deggendorf in Lower Bavaria. He died in 1853 in Munich.

References