Archduke John of Austria, a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, was an Austrian field marshal and imperial regent (Reichsverweser) of the short-lived German Empire during the Revolutions of 1848.
Portrait by Leopold Kupelwieser, 1828
Archduke John of Austria, c. 1795
Anna Plochl
Election of Erzherzog Johann von Österreich 1848 as Imperial Regent (Reichsverweser) by the Frankfurt Parliament. Medal by Karl Radnitzky, obverse.
German Empire (1848–1849)
The German Empire was a proto-state which attempted, but ultimately failed, to unify the German states within the German Confederation to create a German nation-state. It was created in the spring of 1848 during the German revolutions by the Frankfurt National Assembly. The parliament elected Archduke John of Austria as its provisional head of state with the title 'Imperial Regent'. On 28 March 1849, its constitution was implemented and the parliament elected the king of Prussia, Frederick William IV, to be the constitutional monarch of the empire with the title 'Emperor of the Germans'. However, he turned the position down. The empire came to an end in December 1849 when the Central German Government was replaced by a Federal Central Commission.
Archduke John of Austria, the Imperial Regent and uncle of the Austrian Emperor
German National Assembly in St. Paul's Church, Frankfurt
Imperial war and commerce flag, according to the law of 12 November 1848
Introductory law of the Basic Rights, 27 December 1848, with the signature of the Imperial Regent