For those of you who missed the news, the following appeared in the Autumn issue of “Austria,” the publication of the Austrian Philatelic Society of Great Britain.
Otto von Habsburg: 20 Nov 1912 – 4 July 2011
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 on 20th November 1912. His father was Charles, later Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary; his mother was Zita of Bourbon-Parma. Emperor Franz Joseph was his great-great-uncle. Otto’s father succeeded Franz Joseph in 1916, whereupon Otto became
crown pnnce. The baby was third in line to the throne, receiving the titles “His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke and Prince Imperial Otto of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia”. With the collapse of Austria Hungary in 1918, the family were exiled to Maderia, Otto later moving to Belgium where he was educated at the Catholic University at Leuven, writing his Ph.D. thesis about the inheritance laws and customs of the Austrian peasantry.
His opposition to Hitler’s Germany led Otto to offer to lead Austria if she was going to fight the Nazis – a possibility that still triggers “what-if’ debates. The Nazis sentenced him to death, so he had to spend most of WWII in the USA. There, a latent irritation at transatlantic lecturing about Old Europe developed into enthusiasm for the concept of a Union of (particularly the Catholic) States of Europe. Otto started out as a Conservative Catholic prepared to advocate short-term authoritarian solutions if such were needed. But he could be surprisingly libertarian, dismissive of protocol, and once remarked that since he was not Emperor he could tell people what he really thought about them – as the Rev. Ian Paisley discovered.
Otto’s most admired ancestor was, he said, Frederick III (1440-1493) who persevered in the face of continuous set-backs. Otto did have a difficult relationship with the Republic of German-Austria that had passed a number of stem laws to guard against any return of the Habsburgs. Otto tried but failed to set up an Austrian government-in-exile during WWII.
Otto’s relationship with Hungary was doomed to failure, given the political realities of Europe. He took part in secret negotiations conducted between the Western allies and Admiral Horthy, designed to enable Hungary to switch sides before the Red Army overran the country. In 1989 Otto helped facilitate the breakdown of the wall by organising the famous Euro-picnic at the Austro-Hungarian border. Otto favoured a speedy integration of Eastern Europe into the EU, though excluding Turkey and Russia. He strongly disliked the Brussels propensity for “regulations for their own sake”.
While in his heart Otto remained Emperor and King until his death, he pragmatically renounced his claim to the Austrian throne in 1961, and was finally permitted to cross the border in 1966. Since Article 149(1) of the Austrian Constitution had abolished all titles, he set off as “by the grace of God Emperor of Austria; King of Jerusalem, Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia and Lodomeria; Archduke of Austria; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Wiirzburg, Franconia, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola; Grand Duke of Cracow; Grand Prince of Transylvania; Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Sandomir, Mazovia, Lublin, Upper and Lower Silesia, Auschwitz and Zator, Teschen, and Friule; Prince of Berchtesgaden and Mergentheim; Princely Count of Habsburg, Gorizia, and Gradisca and of the Tyrol; and Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Is tria” but on crossing the border changed into “Doktor Otto Habsburg-Lothringen”, reversing the process on leaving.
Otto was also a German citizen (and Hungarian and Croatian); he latterly lived in Bavaria and sat as a Member of the European Parliament for the right-wing Christian Social Union of Bavaria from 1979 till 1999. He was the President of the Pan European Union from 1973 to 2004.
Otto’s burial in Vienna on July 16 saw high-ranking Socialists joining several crowned and un-crowned European heads-of-state taking part in the procession wending its way towards the Crypt of the Capuchins. But he would certainly have been touched by the Hungarians enthusiastic display of swords, uniforms and mothball saturated furs. As is customary for Habsburgs, his heart was buried separately; he had chosen Pannonhalma abbey, Hungary.
However, he will probably be best remembered by the Football Match Story, which in Sandi Toksvig’s version relates that her father Claus was sitting in the MEP television lounge watching a match. Otto Habsburg entered, and asked who was playing. “Austria Hungary”, said Toksvig. After a pause Otto replied “against whom?”.
