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{{Short description|Austrian diplomat and writer (1859–1906)}}
{{expand German|topic=bio|Heinrich Graf von Coudenhove-Kalergi|date=September 2012}}
{{Infobox noble
| name = Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi
| title = Count of Coudenhove-Kalergi
| image = Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi.jpg
| caption = Heinrich in 1895
| CoA =
| spouse = [[Mitsuko Aoyama]]
| issue = [[Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi]]
| issue-link =
| issue-pipe =
| tenure =
| predecessor =
| successor =
| full name =
| posthumous name =
| noble family = [[Coudenhove-Kalergi]]
| father = Franz Karl Graf von Coudenhove
| mother = [[Marie Kalergi (1840–1877)|Marie von Kalergi]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|1859|10|12|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Vienna]], Austria
| death_date = {{death date and age|1906|5|4|1859|10|12|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Poběžovice]]
| date of burial =
| place of burial =
| occupation =
| signature =
| religion =
}}
[[File:Mödling 5639.jpg|thumb|A copy of his death notice]]
'''Heinrich Johann Maria von Coudenhove-Kalergi''' (12 October 1859 – 14 May 1906), also known as '''Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi''' (styled as Count of Coudenhove until 1903 and Count of Coudenhove-Kalergi thereafter), was an [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] diplomat and writer who was a member of the [[Coudenhove-Kalergi]] family. He was born in [[Vienna]] and died in Ronsberg, Western Bohemia (today [[Poběžovice]] in the Czech Republic). He spoke 18 languages (including Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew and Japanese), and his diplomatic postings included [[Athens]], [[Rio de Janeiro]], [[Constantinople]] and [[Buenos Aires]].

He was made Deputy Minister of Austria-Hungary to [[Japan]], where he remained for 4 years, studying [[Buddhism]] and marrying a young Japanese woman from a samurai family, [[Mitsuko Aoyama]]. They had seven children, including [[Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi]], best known for his role in establishing the [[Pan-European Movement]], and [[Ida Friederike Görres]], a well-known Catholic author.

== Views on race and religion ==
In his youth, Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi had been an [[antisemitism|antisemite]]. He had expected to confirm his antipathy towards the Jews when he started work on his treatise, ''Das Wesen des Antisemitismus'' (The Essence of Antisemitism). But he came to a different conclusion by the time he published his book in 1901. Following an [[irony|ironic]] critique of the new racial theories, he declared that the essence of antisemitism amounted to nothing more credible than fanatical religious hatred. He traced that fanaticism to religious bigotry that originated in the promulgation of [[Torah]] under [[Ezra]]. According to Coudenhove-Kalergi, Jewish religious bigotry provoked opposition from the relatively tolerant Greco-Roman [[polytheism|polytheists]], eliciting their anti-Judaic reaction. Antisemitism came into existence when [[Christianity]] and [[Islam]] took over the intolerant fanaticism of Judaism, and turned it against the Jews. Thus, Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi credited the Jews with originating religious intolerance, and condemned it as a violation of genuine religious principles. He branded every sort of anti-Judaism unchristian. He further urged liberal Christians and Jews to ally in protecting both of their religions, and religion as such, against the emerging menace of [[secularism]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Gavin I. |last=Langmuir |title=History, Religion, and Antisemitism |url=https://archive.org/details/historyreligiona0000lang |url-access=registration |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-520-07728-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyreligiona0000lang/page/22 22–24] }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author-link=Will Johnston |first=William M. |last=Johnston |title=The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and Social History, 1848–1938 |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |year=1972 |isbn=0-520-04955-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oDOdeRY2MHYC&pg=PA320 |pages=320–321 }}</ref>

In spite of his opposition to simplistic racial theory, Coudenhove-Kalergi agreed that Jews are racially distinct. Although he pointed out that there is no Semitic race, because Semitic is a language family; he equivocated by also remarking that the charges that Semites were uncreative were belied by civilizations formed by the [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]] and [[Babylonians]], who spoke [[Semitic languages]]. He further sought to defend the Jews against bigoted charges of parasitic greed and cowardice with anecdotal counterexamples of Jewish industriousness and martial courage.<ref>{{cite book |first=Ritchie |last=Robertson |title=The "Jewish Question" in German Literature, 1749–1939: Emancipation and Its Discontents |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |pages=198–199 |isbn=0-19-818631-2 }}</ref>

== Publications ==
An English translation of his book ''Das Wesen des Antisemitismus'' (1901) was published in 1935 as ''Anti-Semitism Throughout the Ages'', with an additional chapter on "Jew-Hatred To-Day" added by his son Richard.<ref>{{Cite book |last=von Coudenhove-Kalergi |first=Heinrich |url=https://archive.org/details/antisemitismthro0000hein/page/n3/mode/2up |title=Anti-Semitism Throughout the Ages |publisher=Hutchinson & Co. |year=1935 |location=London |translator-last=Rappoport |translator-first=Angelo}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=3CHK2 Sotheby's Auction details]{{Dead link|date=April 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* {{Cite Jewish Encyclopedia|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=827&letter=C|article=Coudenhove, Count Heinrich von}}
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[[Category:19th-century Austrian people]]
[[Category:Diplomats from Austria-Hungary]]
[[Category:Expatriates in Greece]]
[[Category:Austrian expatriates in Brazil]]
[[Category:Expatriates from Austria-Hungary in the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Austrian expatriates in Japan]]
[[Category:Counts of Austria]]
[[Category:1859 births]]
[[Category:1906 deaths]]
[[Category:Coudenhove-Kalergi family|Heinrich]]
[[Category:Nobility from Vienna]]
[[Category:Writers on antisemitism]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of Austria-Hungary to Japan]]

Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi - Revision history

imported>Erez154 at 12:56, 10 May 2025