OTTO VON HABSBURG

'Otto, Crown Prince of Austria' or 'Otto von Habsburg' (born 20 November, 1912 as ''Archduke Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xaver Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius of Austria'') is the current head of the Habsburg family and the eldest son of Karl of Austria, the last Emperor of Austria and last King of Hungary, and his wife, Zita of Bourbon-Parma. He is a former member of the European Parliament for The Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) party and president of the International Paneuropean Union.
Otto lives in Bavaria in Germany, and is a German, Austrian, Croatian, and Hungarian citizen. Although his official name in Germany is ''Otto von Habsburg'', he is referred to as ''Otto Habsburg-Lothringen'' by Austrian authorities. He is also often known as ''Archduke Otto of Austria'', ''Crown Prince Otto of Austria'', and in Hungary, simply as ''Habsburg Ottó''.

Contents

Early life

Years in exile

Opposing Nazi government

Political career

21st century

Miscellaneous

Family life

Trivia

Ancestry

Sources

External links

Early life

Otto was born near Vienna in Reichenau an der Rax, Lower Austria.
In November 1916, Otto became Crown Prince of Austria and Hungary when his father, Archduke Karl, ascended to the throne. However, in 1918, at the end of the First World War, both monarchies were abolished, the Republics of Austria and Hungary founded instead, and the family were forced into exile. Hungary did become a kingdom again, but Karl was never to ascend the throne. Instead, Miklós Horthy ruled until 1944 as regent in the kingdom without a king.

Years in exile

Otto's family spent the following years in Switzerland and in the Portuguese island of Madeira, where Karl died prematurely in 1922, making Otto pretender to the throne at the age of ten. Meanwhile, the Austrian parliament had officially expelled the Habsburg dynasty and confiscated all the official property ('Habsburgergesetz' of 3 April 1919).
In 1935 Otto graduated from the Catholic University of Leuven, having studied social and political sciences.

Opposing Nazi government

Otto spent most of the war years in Washington, D.C. (1940 – 1944), after escaping from Austria to Portugal with a visa issued by the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes. A fervent Austrian patriot, he opposed the Nazi ''Anschluss'' of Austria of 1938 and, sentenced to death by Hitler, spent the war years in America (Ironically, the codename for the operation carried out by the German army in the Anschluss was 'Otto'). After the war, he lived for some years in both France and Spain.

Political career

In 1961 Otto renounced all claims to the Austrian throne and was eventually allowed to return to his home country in 1966 (Austria had until the mid 1950s been officially neutral, staunchly republican and ill-disposed to welcome back the heir to a deposed dynasty).
An early advocate of a unified Europe, Otto was president of the International Paneuropean Union from 1986 to 2004. He served from 1979 till 1999 as a Member of the European Parliament for the conservative CSU party, becoming the Senior Member of the supranational body. He is also a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.
He was a big supporter of the expansion of European Union from the beginning (especially of the accession of Hungary).

21st century

Recently Otto warned that Russia is becoming the biggest threat to Europe and compared the actions made by Putin to actions of Hitler.^[1]
In December 2006, Otto observed that, "The catastrophe of September 11, 2001 struck The United States more profoundly than any of us, whence a certain mutual incomprehension. Until then, the United States felt itself secure, persuaded of its power to bombard any enemy, without anyone being able to strike back. That sentiment vanished in an instant...Americans understand 'viscerally' for the first time the risks they face."^[2]

Miscellaneous

Main articles: Denunciation of Pope John Paul II by Ian Paisley

Otto is alleged to have struck fellow MEP Ian Paisley. When Pope John Paul II gave a speech to the European Parliament in 1988, Paisley shouted at the Pope, "I renounce you as the Antichrist!" and held up a poster reading "Pope John Paul II Antichrist", whereupon he was excluded from the session and expelled from the room by
other MEPs.^[3]
[4]

Family life

Otto has been married since 1951 to 'Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen and Hildburghausen'. The couple have seven children and 23 grandchildren:

★ Archduchess Andrea of Austria (1953). Married Hereditary Count Karl Eugen of Neipperg. They have three sons and two daughters.

★ Archduchess Monika of Austria (1954). Married Luis Gonzaga de Casanova-Cárdenas y Barón, Duke of Santangelo, Marquess of Elche, Count of Lodosa and Grandee of Spain, who is a descendant of Infanta Doña Luisa Teresa of Spain, Duchess of Sessa and sister of Francisco de Asís, King-Consort of Spain. They have four sons.

★ Archduchess Michaela of Austria (1954). Monika's twin sister. Married firstly Eric Teran d'Antin, and secondly Count Hubertus of Kageneck. She has two sons and a daughter from her first marriage. Twice divorced.

★ Archduchess Gabriela of Austria (1956). Married Christian Meister in 1978, divorced in 1997. She has a son and two daughters. She is an international sculptor.

★ Archduchess Walburga of Austria (1958). Married Count Archibald Douglas, from the Swedish nobility. They have a son.

★ Archduke Karl of Austria (born 11 January, 1961), the presumptive future head of the Habsburg family, married 'Baroness Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza' (daughter of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza) in 1993. They have two daughters and a son. They separated amicably in 2003.

★
★ Eleonore (1994-)

★
★ Ferdinand Zvonimir (1997-)

★
★ Gloria (1999-)

★ Archduke Georg of Austria (1964). Married 'Duchess Eilika of Oldenburg'. They have two daughters and a son.

★
★ Zsófia (2001-)

★
★ Ildikó (2002-)

★
★ Károly-Konstantin (2004-)
Otto and his wife reside at the "Villa Austria" in Pöcking near the lake Starnberger See, Bavaria, Germany.

Trivia

In the 'personal biography' Charlotte Chandler wrote about Billy Wilder, ''Nobody's perfect'' (2002), Wilder describes how he attended the funeral of Franz Joseph I as an eight-year-old and felt envious of young Otto, whom he saw dressed "completely in white, in the uniform of the Hussars". Twenty-five years later, Wilder, then a successful screenwriter, had a visitor. It was none less than the prince, whom Wilder describes as "just a man in a gray suit, not made by a tailor. He had thinned hair. My hair had thinned too, but ''I'' was only mortal". After some talk, Otto came to the point. "He wanted to know whether the time was right for an extravaganza film about the Danube monarchy. If so, he wanted me to keep him in mind, because he could be available as an expert on the Austro Hungarian Empire. But how could he? He never had the chance to be an expert."

Ancestry

Sources

1. http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl
2. Otto de Habsbourg: Européen Avant Tout, , Dorothée, Lalanne, Point de Vue,
3. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE7DC1630F935A25753C1A96E948260
4. http://www.freepres.org/paisley.asp?paisley


★ Gordon Brook-Shepherd ''Uncrowned Emperor - The Life and Times of Otto von Habsburg'', Hambledon Continuum, London 2003

External links

★ Erzherzog Dr. Otto von Habsburg (Autorisierte Ehrenseite)

★ An essay on Republicanism vs Monarchism by Otto

★ Video interview of Otto von Habsbourg (French) European NAvigator
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