KOERBER, ERNEST VON

born Nov. 6, 1850, Trent, Austria [now Trento, Italy] died March 5, 1919, Baden, near Vienna, Austria statesman and prime minister of Austria from 1900 to 1904, who engaged in an ambitious economic expansion program for the Habsburg monarchy but fell because he could not resolve the crisis between Czech and German nationalists in Bohemia. Entering the Austrian administration in 1874, Koerber rose steadily and became prime minister and minister of the interior in 1900. Unable to obtain a majority in Parliament, he governed by emergency decrees. A popular figure, he encouraged industry and commerce and introduced laws guaranteeing individual rights. Nationality crises in Bohemia and Hungary, however, caused his fall in 1904. During World War I he served as joint Austro-Hungarian minister of finance and, from October to December 1916, again as Austrian prime minister.