Karel Schwarzenberg was a Czech politician, diplomat and statesman who served from July 1990 to July 1992 Schwarzenberg as the chancellor (director of the presidential office) to Václav Havel, while he was president. Schwarzenberg then served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic from 2007 to 2009 and then again between 2010 and 2013. Schwarzenberg was leader and co-founder of the TOP 09 party and its candidate for president of the Czech Republic in the 2013 election. He served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2010 to 2021 and in the Senate from 2004 until 2010. Schwarzenberg was noted for his pro-European views.

Schwarzenberg was the head of the House of Schwarzenberg, a formerly leading family of the Habsburg empire, from 1979 until his death. He was related to Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg, a statesman of the Austrian Empire. From 1948 to 1990, he lived in Austria, where he was known as Karl Schwarzenberg, and was involved in politics for the Austrian People's Party and became a noted critic of human-rights violations in the Eastern Bloc, chairing the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. Following the fall of communism, he became a close adviser to Václav Havel and relocated to Prague

Karel Schwarzenberg