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As Australia is still questioning its status as a monarchy, it is perhaps topical to some extent to give a biography of a man born to become a King & Emperor. The man in question is Dr. Otto Habsburg who was destined to become Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary etc., (1)

Dr. Otto's life and achievements are interesting and illustrious, quite adequately and admirably persuading one to the belief that even though the crown was never put upon his head, perhaps it should have been.

Franz Josef Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xavier Felix René Ludwig Gaetano Pius Ignazius was born at 2.40 in the afternoon of 20th November 1912 at "Villa Wartholz" by Reichenau on the Rax. He was the eldest son of the then Archduke Karl of Austria-Hungary and Princess Zita of Bourbon-Palma

On the death of his God-Father and Uncle, Kaiser Franz Joseph I, the young Otto become Crown-Prince of Austria-Hungary on 21st November 1916 and attended his parents coronation as King Karl IV and Queen Zita of Hungary in Budapest on 30th November, 1916.

The young Emperor and King, Karl tried desperately to take Austria-Hungary out of the ensuing Great War, but events overcame him and he reluctantly announced a temporary renunciation of the Austrian throne on 11th November, 1918, taking refuge in Eckartsau Castle, Vienna. This retreat was to be short lived for by an Act of the then Austrian government, the Habsburg family were banished from Austria on 24th March, 1919 never allowed to return. (The Republic of Austria was proclaimed on 3rd April, 1919).

A life in foreign exile then commenced for this young family, firstly in Switzerland and then in Funchal, Madeira where the young Emperor and King Karl died tragically young on 1st April, 1922 after two unsuccessful attempts to return as King in Hungary in 1921 and 1922.

Otto was thus with the death of his father the de jure Emperor and King, head of the House of Austria under the guardianship of his mother the Empress and Queen Zita.

During exile next in Spain from 1922-1929, Otto spent an academic year in the Benedictine Abbey in Clervaux, Luxembourg (1927/8).

In exile in Belgium from 1929-1940 he studied at the University of Lyons. He graduated with honours at Lequeitio on 1st October 1930. It was also in this year that his mother ceased her guardianship and that he became Sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

In 1935 Otto received a Doctorate of Social and Political Sciences from Lyons University and in the following year became a member of the Pan-Europa Union.

In 1938 he suggested to the then Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg that an all party government should be formed in Austria to combat Hitler and offers to come to the defence of Schuschnigg - which Schuschnigg rejects. Schnuschnigg also rejects Otto's call for a popular vote over the independence of Austria and after Hitler finally invades a warrant for Otto's apprehension is proclaimed on 20th April, 1938. During the following seven years of Nazi occupation, Otto is responsible for assisting in saving the lives of more than 15,000 Jews.

At the invitation of President Roosevelt, Otto made a brief journey to the United States from 4th March to 2nd May 1940. On his return to Europe he had to quickly escape Belgium for France and then escape from France as the Nazi occupation of Europe intensified. He managed to flee to Portugal and returned to the United States, living in Washington from 11th July 1940 to 31st October, 1944.

During his war-time stay in Washington Otto tried to establish an Austrian Government-in-exile, but failed due to opposition from Socialists; enlist an Austrian battalion serving the Allied cause (which Stalin refused); gain acknowledgement of Austrian refugees escaping from the Nazis as "friendly Austrians" rather than "enemy aliens"; halt air-raids on Austria (1943/4); overturn the driving out of Germans from Sudetenland (opposed by Benes); revision of the Tiroler border on the basis of language and to persuade Hungary to enter the war on the side of the Western Powers.

Otto was admired by both Churchill and Roosevelt and they had proposed that after the war, Otto should become Emperor of a central "Danube Federation" made up from Austria, Hungary & Czechoslovakia. The draft plan was given 'proposed amendments' by Benes (President of Czechoslovakia) which amongst other things gave Austria partial responsibility for the war which resulted in the proposal being flatly rejected by Stalin. His only compromise was the return of Austria to the map and four occupation zones there instead of two.

Otto retuned to exile in France and managed a brief interlude in the Austrian Tirol for six months from June 1945 before the banishment order was again enforced.

On the 25th December, 1950 the engagement was announced of Otto and the Princess Regina von Sachsen-Meiningen. They were married in Nancy, France on 10th May, 1951 taking up residence at "Villa Austria" at Pöcking, Bavaria on 10th May, 1954.

The U.N. Charter of 1955 forbad Austria to have a 'banishment law" against the Habsburgs but it was not until 1966 that this law was finally rescinded and Otto formally made his first entry to Austria on 31st October, 1966.

Otto became Vice-President of the Pan-Europa Union in 1957 and President in 1973. He became a member of the European Parliament as a CSU representative from Bavaria for the first time in 1979 and was re-elected in 1984, 1989 and 1994 before retiring in 1998 .

During his time in parliament he campaigned tirelessly against communist and nationalistic dictatorships fighting for the rights of threatened and suppressed peoples in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, the Baltic & Chechnya. He campaigned for an empty chair to be set up in the plenum to represent those held captive beyond the iron Curtain, symbolically stating the fact that Europe covers far more than the EEC.. He was Chairman of Committee for fishing, security and defence policy (1981-1999); Chairman (later 1st Deputy Chairman) of the delegation overseeing the admission of Hungary to the EEC; he was a member of the committee overseeing human and citizen rights and Chairman by Seniority of the European Parliament in 1997.

In 1988, after an absence of nearly 70 years he made his first return to Budapest. Followed by visits to Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia after the collapse of the bolshevist regimes.

Despite a car accident in 1997 and a bad bout of pneumonia in 1998, Otto celebrated his 90th birthday in 2002 with gala celebrations held in Vienna.

Otto has contributed a voluminous amount of articles to newspapers and magazines over the years and has written over a dozen books.

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DR. OTTO HABSBURG

Although modest and unassuming, living in semi-retirement and preferring to be called "Dr. Otto Habsburg" he is more rightly known as:

"His Imperial and Royal Majesty, by God's Grace, Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slovenia, Galizia, Lodomerien & Illyrien, King of Jerusalem, Archduke of Austria, Grand-Duke of Toskana and Krakau, Duke of Lorraine, of Salzburg, Steier, Kärnten, Krain and the Bukowina, Sovereign Prince of Siebenbürgen, Margrave of Moravia, Duke of Upper and Lower Nieder-Schlesien, of Modena, Parma, Piancenza & Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator, of Teschen, Friaul, Ragusa & Zara, Sovereign Count of Habsburg & Tirol, of Kyburg, Görz and Gradiska, Soverign Prince of Tient and Brixen, Margrave of Upper and Lower Nieder-Lausitz and in Istrien, Count of Hohenembs, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, Baron of Trieste, of Catarro and Grand-Viovode of Serbia."

Click on the small pictures below for maps of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

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(1) Karl IV did not abdicate or renounce the throne of Hungary. When Admiral Horthy came to power in 1921 he styled himself as "Regent of Hungary" - the royal family were not permitted to enter Hungary. It can be assumed therefore that on the death of Karl IV, Otto became King of Hungary from 1922-1945.

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