Coffins Of Habsburgs Arrive In Austria

NPR, AP ^ | July 12, 2011 | Associated Press

[iowamark]

The coffins of the son of Austria's last emperor and his wife have been brought to Austria and are lying in state at a cathedral associated with their dynasty.

Family members of the late Otto Von Habsburg and his wife Regina met the coffins as they arrived Tuesday evening at the Mariazell basilica, site of Habsburg marriages, requiems and other ceremonies.

The coffins are to be buried Saturday in the Emperor Tomb in Vienna, below the Austrian capital's Capuchin Church.

Habsburg died on July 4 at age 98 in his villa in Poecking in southern Germany. His wife, Regina, died last year.

[iowamark]

Riflemen stand guard at the coffins of Otto von Habsburg and his wife Regina in the basilica of Mariazell, Austria Tuesday July 12, 2011 . The oldest son of Austria-Hungary's last emperor and longtime head of one of Europe's most influential families, died Monday July 4, 2011 at the age of 98. His wife died in 2010. Now the couple will be reunited. The burial is scheduled for Saturday July 16, 2011 in Vienna.

Georg von Habsburg, (left) and Karl von Habsburg, (right) sons of Otto von Habsburg and his wife Regina wait for the coffins of their parents for a ceremony in Mariazell, Austria Tuesday July 12, 2011. The oldest son of Austria-Hungary's last emperor and longtime head of one of Europe's most influential families had died Monday July 4, 2011 at the age of 98. His wife had died in 2010. Now the couple will be reunited. The burial is scheduled for Saturday July 16, 2011 in Vienna.

[iowamark]

[Jack Hammer]

History up close; it doesn’t get any more powerful than this.

[cradle of freedom]

How many royal houses have been ended since the days of the French Revolution?

[Rudder]

I think I know of two in Germany alone: Hapsburg and Hohenzollern.

I've not researched this, although I should since I am in the Hohenzollern lineage. I just recall my grandparents talking about how Bismark (a Hohenzollern) brought down the institution of German Royalty--They loathed "Uncle Otto."

[Ciexyz]

The views of Vienna and its museums and palaces are awe-inspiring on New Years in Vienna concert from the Musikverein on New Years Day every year on PBS.

[cradle of freedom]

Really cool!

[Jack Hammer]

They have all either fallen or become “show business” tokens.

[Mariner]

If one does not know the history of the Hapsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire, they do not know the history of Western Civilization.

Get on WIKIPEDIA and research this colorful and grand history.

They changed the world and mostly for the better, over a period of 1,000 years.

The longest reigning empire in the history of Europe. And the Richest. And the Smartest.

Sarah Palin is our Maria Theresa of the Hapsburg's.

[Sherman Logan]

The Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns ruled Empires.

There were a number of Kingdoms in Germany at various times during the 19th century. Saxony, Bavaria and Wurtemburg were constituents of the German Empire (Second Reich).

Hanover had earlier been a Kingdom till conquered and absorbed by Prussia. There may have been others. (My 19th century German history is a little vague.)

Also various Grand Dukes, Electors, etc. were fully sovereign and considered rough equivalents of Kings.

[Mariner]

Marie Antoinette was the daughter of Maria Teresa of the Hapsburg family. Maria Teresa being the last "King" of Hungary.

It was yet one more domino in their long decline.

Oh, but what a grand history.

[Sherman Logan]

Maria Teresa being the last "King" of Hungary.

Well, no. There were six ruling Kings of Hungary that succeeded her, and three more titular kings since Hungary became a Republic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hungarian_rulers

[Mariner]

"Well, no"

My bad. You are correct.

She was, I believe, the last monarch of the Holy Roman Empire who ALSO held the title of King of Hungary.

[Rudder]

There were a number of Kingdoms in Germany at various times during the 19th century. Saxony, Bavaria and Wurtemburg were constituents of the German Empire (Second Reich).

From what my grandparents told me, the heads of State for many of these states and principalities (Prussia, Brandenburg, Nuremburg abd more) were Hohenzollern since (maybe) 1200 AD. Then, in the middle-to-late 19th Century, Bismark nationalized Germany and, essentially, outlawed Royalty. My great, great, great grandfather came to Pittsburgh as a draft dodger from the "Vaterland."

It was common practice to draft royal heirs into the military, then shoot them for desertion...so the family moved to Iron city.

[Erasmus]

I want to get a DVD of the New Year's concert led by Mariss Jansons in 2006.

One of the last pieces on the program was a Galop by, IIRC, one of the Strausses. The score calls for a loud bang at the end.

So during the last half-bar, Jansons pulls a pistol out of his pocket and, with great relish, fires it into the air right on the last beat!

I had the opportunity to hear the Vienna Symphony (not the Vienna Philharmonic, whose concert tickets are essentially unavailable) in the Grosser Saal at the Musikverein in 1991. Vladimir Fedoseyev led the program of Rimsky-Korsakov (Sym. #2, "Antar") and the Brahms Sym. #1.

[Erasmus]

Not exactly.

The Hohenzollerns do date back (in recorded history) to around 1100 in the vicinity of Hechingen, south of Stuttgart. At the time, they were known as the "Zollerns," according to one theory due to their practice of Sun worship from their ancient hilltop.

Anyway, they established an originally modest fiefdom, ruling from a succession of castles on that hilltop, which would from time to time get destroyed due to rebellions and wars and then get rebuilt.

A couple of up-and-coming scions of the family travelled in (IIRC) the 14th century to one seat of power in the German-speaking lands, Berlin. (The other being, of course, Habsburg Vienna.)

Through a centuries-long process of social and political climbing, they finally ascended to the throne of Brandenburg and Prussia around 1700. The first really notable Hohenzollern king was probably Frederick "The Great."

William the first retained Otto von Bismarck, a Junker of minor nobility, as his assistant and eventually chancellor, in the mid 19th century. Bismarck was a master of European politics and statecraft. Having built the Prussian military machine to a position of superiority, he used them in a series of wars to achieve his diplomatic ends. This was culminated by the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, which was a key development in Bismarck's plan to reunite (or gain hegemony over, if you prefer) the disparate states of Germany under a single leader, the new Emperor William I, crowned at Versailles in still-occupied France. This was the beginning of the second Reich the first being attributed to Otto I in the 10th century.

Bismarck, by the way, had no political use for the Austria-Hungary of the Habsburgs in his unification scheme. He considered the A-H empire by that time to be too weak and politically unstable to be a part of the new Reich. A generation after his passing, his view would be vindicated.

When William I died, he was succeeded for only a few months by his son, Francis William, who was dying of cancer.

Then the grandson, William II, ascended to the Hohenzollern imperial throne. William II ("Kaiser Wilhelm II") was an odd person, marked by his impetuousness. He dismissed the then-elderly Bismarck in the 1880s and plotted his own course thereafter.

Although blamed for World War I (often even called the "Kaiser War"), it was actually precipitated by a Balkan revolutionary's assassination of the Habsburg Crown Prince and his wife, triggering a military response by the Habsburgs against the various Balkan principalities. This in turn triggered the entry of the military Big Dogs due to defense alliances, some of them secret, and the "Guns of August" and all that.

William II at first tried diplomatically to put a lid on the explosive situation; failing that, he jumped into the conflict with both feet. The consequences we all know about.

The ensuing war brought down the Habsburgs, the Hohenzollerns, the Romanovs, and most of the lesser remaining monarchies of continental Europe. It was the end of an age, and perhaps the beginning of the end of civilization too.

----------

As I have mentioned before on this forum, the ancestral castle of the Hohenzollerns south of Stuttgart is an interesting place to visit.

Not as flashy or well known as Neuschwanstein, it is more accessible from southwest Germany. It was essentially in ruins in the early middle 19th century when a Hohenzollern prince from Berlin/Potsdam visited the place and got the idea of restoring it. The rebuilding took place over a generation, being essentially complete by about 1870; some parts going back several centuries, such as the Catholic chapel, were restored.

Mind you, as in the case of Bavarian King Ludwig's construction of Neuschwanstein at the same time, the era of building castles as practical fortifications was past.

Over the past century and a half, the castle has been very little used as a residence, due perhaps to its being all the way across Germany from Berlin/Potsdam, the seat of power. It reconstruction was symbolic and it utilization ceremonial. However, the Hohenzollern descendants retain the right to live there to the present day.

[Jimmy Valentine]

"Bismark (a Hohenzollern)"

I think you have things mixed up. Bismarck was a junker prince who created Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm 1st from the core of Prussia. He annexed or persuaded Bohemia, Bavaria etc.,etc. into Germany.

The fall of the German monarchy was due to the idiocy of Wilhelm 2nd whose first and biggest mistake was to dismiss Bismarck from service as no longer relevant.

[Sherman Logan]

Sorry, but your grandparents were confused.

The Hohenzollerns were a relatively unimportant family, especially as compared to the Habsburgs, till the 1500s or so. They were still second rank princes for another century or so.

The Wittelsbach family ruled Bavaria, the Wettins Saxony, etc.

Most of these guys weren’t promoted to Kings till the time of Napoleon or later. Boney did so to tie the German rulers to him and to narrow the title gap between them and the Austrian Emperors.

[Rudder]

A Junker was a member of the landed nobility of Prussia and eastern Germany. Bismarck was born in Schoenhausen, the wealthy family estate situated west of Berlin in the Prussian Province of Saxony. His father, Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Bismarck (Schönhausen, 13 November 1771 – 22 November 1845), was a Junker estate owner and a former Prussian military officer;

The House of Hohenzollern is a noble family and royal dynasty of electors, kings and emperors of Prussia, Germany and Romania. It originated in the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century. They took their name from their ancestral home, the Burg Hohenzollern castle near Hechingen.

Being a Junker prince is not mutually exclusive with being a member of the Hohenzollern family.

Sorry, But Bismark did not create Germany.

Thanks for your information.

[Jimmy Valentine]

"Sorry, But Bismark did not create Germany."

Disagree. As the "Iron" Chancellor of Germany under Wilhelm 1st he expanded Prussia into modern Germany. If he is not the creator of modern Germany whom do you suggest was?