page_title: Alexander Wassilko von Serecki
section_title: Activity
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Wassilko von Serecki / Activity
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Schloss Berhometh um 1900, Schloss der Freiherren, später Grafen Wassilko von Serecki
context_page_description: Baron Alexander Wassilko von Serecki, descendant of an old Moldavian boyar family, was an Austro-Hungarian ethnic Romanian statesman, Landeshauptmann of the Duchy of Bukovina and member of the Herrenhaus, the Upper House of the Imperial Council of Austria.
context_section_description: After completing his baccalaureate in 1846, Alexander studied philosophy and jurisprudence at the universities of Czernowitz and Lemberg. Since 1850 he worked as a lawyer in Czernowitz and after 1859 he managed his father's Baron Jordaki estates.
  Alexander became a member of the "Autonomist Romanian Conservative Party" and began his political career in 1862, when he was elected as one of their representatives in the Council (Diet) of Bukovina.
  In 1863 the Baron cofounded the society "Junimea", the most influential intellectual, cultural and political Romanian union of the 19th century. He continued to support it and later became an honorary member.
  On February 24, 1867, the Emperor Franz Josef designated him to succeed his father as member in the Herrenhaus, the Upper House of the Imperial Parliament in Vienna in 1867. He was the only representative of the Duchy of Bukovina in this chamber for thirteen years. Finally, in 1880, the metropolitan of Bukovina and Dalmatia Sylvester Morariu-Andriewicz, also became a member of this institution.
  From 1870 to 1871 and again from 1884 to 1892, he assumed the position of Governor of the Duchy of Bukovina. He attracted considerable attention, because he campaigned, along with other members of his parliament (including Hormuzaki, Costin, Flondor) successfully campaigned in
  Vienna for the limitation of the monopoly and autocracy of the Orthodox Church.
  Due to his relationship with the Viennese court he also achieved, that in 1876 the Romanian language was approved as language of instruction at the Lyceum of Suczawa. The permission to teach in Romanian in special high school classes in Czernowitz followed several years later.
  He also insisted, despite his leading position in the federal faction of the Romanian aristocracy and as Governor of Bukovina, that all citizens had the right to freely exercise their own religion and culture, and to have their mother tongue recognized, but always under the auspices of the Habsburg monarchy and the leadership of the Emperor. After the Kingdom of Romania was founded in 1881, Alexander proved to be a resolute opponent of the growing number of proponents for a connection of the Bucovina with Romania. In his opening speech as governor given in German language in the Bukovina Parliament on July 22, 1884, he called on all parliamentarians, to proceed unanimously in upholding provincial autonomy within the concept of an Austrian state. He also campaigned for the legal recognition of the German, Romanian and Ruthenian languages, stressing that the German language was the common bond of all the peoples in the monarchy. These have evolved historically and factually as the only official language, and is therefore to be ruled by them. He was considered an early pioneer of the idea of a United Europe of Nations.
  In 1885 His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty awarded the baron the  Order of the Iron Crown 2nd class and, in 1888, on the occasion of his reappointment as governor, the rank of a "Real Privy Councillor".
  His unexpected death in 1893 led to "deep dismay and sadness" in the population, and among his political friends and enemies.
caption: Berhometh Castle at 1900
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