Klemens von Metternich, German-Austrian politician, 1st State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire (died 1859)

Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein, known as Klemens von Metternich or Prince Metternich, was a German statesman and diplomat in the service of the Austrian Empire. A conservative, Metternich was at the center of the European balance of power known as the Concert of Europe for three decades as Austrian foreign minister from 1809 and chancellor from 1821 until the liberal Revolutions of 1848 forced his resignation.

The minister-president of Austria was the head of government of the Austrian Empire from 1848, when the office was created in the course of the March Revolution. Previously, executive power rested with an Austrian State Council, headed by the emperor himself, from 1821 under the chairmanship of State Chancellor Prince Klemens von Metternich. The office of minister-president was not refilled from 1852, when Emperor Franz Joseph resumed control of the government affairs, and was replaced by a coordinating chairman of the Austrian Minister's Conference.