Francis Lützow


Franz Heinrich Hieronymus Valentin Graf von Lützow or Hrabě František Lützow or Count Francis Lützow was a Bohemian author, historian, critic and revivalist.

Biography

Hrabe František Lützow was the son of Franz Joseph Johann Nepomuk Gottfried von Lützow and Henriette Seymour. He was educated at Vienna and Innsbruck and followed a diplomatic career. He was active in Bohemian politics and became a member of the Austrian parliament and Chamberlain to the Emperor Franz Joseph from 1881. He married Anna Gustava von Bornemann on 18 Jan 1881 in London.
A tireless champion of Bohemian independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he was a member of the Royal Society of Sciences in Bohemia, and of the Bohemian Academy.
He was Ilchester lecturer at Oxford, and in 1912 lectured at American universities.

Works

Perhaps his greatest accomplishments are his various books regarding the history of Bohemia, Prague, Slavic poetry, Historiography and Literature. His works were intentionally written in the English language and were thus more easily accessible to Western decision-makers who would eventually agree to the formation of an independent Czechoslovakia after the end of World War I. The first president of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk wrote a touching introduction to Lützow's 1939 edition of 'Bohemia, An Historical Sketch' and expressed gratitude for Lützow's various contributions to Czechoslovakia's independence.