Landeshauptmann

thumb|Luis Durnwalder, Landeshauptmann of South Tyrol 1989–2014 The Landeshauptmann (if male) or Landeshauptfrau (if female) (, "state captain", plural Landeshauptleute, ) is the chairman of a state government and the supreme official of an Austrian state and the Italian autonomous provinces of South Tyrol and Trentino. Their function is equivalent to that of a minister-president or premier. Until 1933 the term was also used in Prussia for the head of government of a province, in the modern-day states of Germany (with the exceptions of the city-states) the counterpart to Landeshauptmann is the Ministerpräsident (minister-president).

==Origins== Since the early modern period, a Landeshauptmann originally served as governor under either a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire or the Emperor himself, mainly in the territories of the Habsburg monarchy (as for the Lands of the Bohemian Crown), later also in the Kingdom of Prussia. In the Austrian Empire, according to the 1861 February Patent, the title referred to the president of the Landtag assembly of a Habsburg crown land (called '' in Lower Austria, Bohemia, and Galicia), who also served as head of the provincial administration. The Imperial-Royal government in Vienna was represented by a Statthalter or Landespräsident (governor).