He was born in Prague in 1818, and later received his university degree there. In 1842 he started working in the Office of the Court Attorney in Vienna. In 1849 he was awarded a professorship in the philosophy of law, and then in economics at the University of Prague. In 1861 he was elected to the Bohemian Diet and to the House of Representatives in Vienna, and from 1865 he was a professor of Economics at the University of Vienna. From 1867 he was a member of the House of Lords and in the years 1868-70 he was Minister of Education in Prince C. Auersperg’s cabinet. His contribution to the passing of the primary education statute of 1869 was his most lasting achievement. After 1870 he was active mainly in the House of Lords and died in Ischl in 1891.
       In 1889 the Liberal lobby in the whole of Austria, including Austrian Silesia celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the passing of the statute on primary education. In recognition of that event the Cieszyn Town Council conferred the title of honorary citizen of the town on former minister Hasner von Artha at a public sitting on 3 May 1889 for his contribution towards the creation of the statute.