Otto von Habsburg, Pretender to the Defunct Thrones of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, Dead at 98

The following teaser about the death of Otto von Habsburg is from an article in the July 4, 2011 edition of UTV News.

Otto von Habsburg, who has died aged 98, bore the oldest and most eminent dynastic name in European history and could, according to genealogists, trace his ancestryback to the sixth century. The pretender to the defunct thrones of Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), he pursued a democratic postwar career as a member of the European parliament and a fervent advocate of European union.

Spending time in German diplomatic and political circles, as I once did as a correspondent, you meet men who introduce themselves in the formal German manner – a brief bow from the shoulders followed by an unadorned name straight out of Germanic history. But I never quite got used to shaking hands with a stranger who flatly introduced himself as “Bismarck” (diplomat), “Hannover” (banker) or “Rommel” (mayor of Stuttgart). Or indeed “Habsburg”, whom I met briefly at a party conference in Munich.

Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xavier Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius von Habsburg was born at Reichenau an der Rax, Lower Austria. His father, Charles, would become Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. Otto’s mother was Zita of Bourbon-Parma. His great-uncle, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in 1914 would trigger the first world war, stood in for Otto’s ancient godfather, the Emperor Franz Joseph, at his christening. Otto’s father succeeded Franz Joseph in 1916, whereupon Otto became crown prince.

Otto von Bismarck had excluded Austria-Hungary from his united Germany of 1871 because of its large and diffuse non-German population. After 1918, it duly broke up into independent states including Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The rump of ethnically German Austria became a republic too. Charles went into exile with his family that year, and they later moved to the Basque country, Belgium and France. In 1919 Austria finally dispossessed the Habsburgs, although they kept their private fortune. Charles died in Madeira in 1922, whereupon Otto became head of the house of Habsburg, the titular Duke of Lorraine and pretender to four thrones, at the age of nine.

Read the full article.

About Leland Meitzler

Leland K. Meitzler founded Heritage Quest in 1985, and has worked as Managing Editor of both Heritage Quest Magazine and The Genealogical Helper. He currently operates Family Roots Publishing Company (www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com), writes daily at GenealogyBlog.com, writes the weekly Genealogy Newsline, conducts the annual Salt Lake Christmas Tour to the Family History Library, and speaks nationally, having given over 2000 lectures since 1983.

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