VOLUMEAJR JOURNAL11 NO.10 OCTOBERBER 2011 The Habsburg twilight rchduke Otto von Habsburg, son Balkans obliged it to form an alliance with disintegrating into its national component of the last emperor of Austria- Bismarck’s Germany, and it was as the parts under the enormous strain of the A Hungary, died on 4 July 2011, at junior partner in that alliance that Austria war. For Austria-Hungary had become the age of 98. His passing broke the last entered the First World War, which was totally dependent on her German ally; living link with the Habsburg monarchy, to lead to the disintegration of the Austro- whether she lived or died would ultimately which had ruled Austria from 1278, when Hungarian Empire in 1918. be determined by the success of German Rudolf I defeated Ottokar II of Bohemia at In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or arms on the battlefield. the Battle on the Marchfeld and assumed Dual Monarchy, that emerged in 1867, By 1916, Austria’s military weakness control of the Duchies of Austria, Styria the emperor (Kaiser) of Austria was also had become only too apparent. The and Carinthia, until 1918. The Habsburgs king (König) of Hungary; hence the title inability of her forces to resist the Russian were one of the great dynasties of Europe, armies without German support had an imperial house more ancient and been demonstrated early on, when the historic, one might argue, than the upstart Russians drove far into Galicia, capturing Hohenzollerns, who had been mere the key Austrian fortress of Przemysl; kings of Prussia and had only attained and the Austrian armies were further the dignity of German emperors in 1871. humiliated by their failure to overcome Amazingly, Otto von Habsburg had the resistance of Serbia, which collapsed as a boy shaken the hand of his great- only when Bulgarian forces invaded the great-uncle, the Emperor Franz Joseph. country from the east. Only on the Italian For Franz Joseph was born in 1830 and front did the Austrians hold their own, and had ascended to the imperial throne in even then they needed German backing 1848, after the revolution that had swept to achieve the victory of Caporetto (1917). away Chancellor Metternich and the The German army’s opinion of its ally was mentally unfit Emperor Ferdinand. But if expressed succinctly in the phrase ‘We Otto von Habsburg was a living link to a are fettered to a corpse.’ Internally, the past that extended back into the first half national and social conflicts besetting the of the nineteenth century, it was a past Otto von Habsburg, 1912-2011 empire had hollowed out such cohesion overshadowed by the twilight melancholy ‘kaiserlich und königlich’, or ‘k. und k.’, as it still possessed, bringing the spectre of apparently unstoppable decline. The that was regularly bestowed on the Habs- of its collapse ever closer. Austrian monarchy that had emerged burg administration, its institutions and In this extreme situation, Karl, a decent from the convulsions of 1848, having officials. This in turn gave rise to the and (by Habsburg standards) progressive crushed the uprisings in Hungary and imagi nary realm of Kakanien, a term man, sought, in the words of his accession northern Italy as well as the popular coined in Robert Musil’s novel Der Mann manifesto, ‘to win back for my peoples movement in Vienna, seemed to be ohne Eigenschaften (The Man without the sorely missed blessings of peace’; his strong enough to act as the great power in Qualities), a state administered through efforts to achieve peace earned him the Central Europe and among the German an impenetrably hierarchical and immo- title ‘Friedenskaiser’ (‘Friede’ meaning states; in 1850, under Schwarzenberg, bile bureaucracy. It was this lumbering ‘peace’). Karl was married to Princess Zita Metternich’s successor, Austria was able imperial monolith, incapable of resolving of Bourbon-Parma, and it was her elder to impose its will on Prussia, dictating either the national conflicts or the social brother, Prince Sixtus, a French national, terms to its German rival under the tensions that beset it, that in 1914 lurched that the emperor attempted to use in Punctation of Olmütz. into the conflagration that destroyed it. 1917 as an intermediary to initiate peace But appearances were deceptive. In A particularly sad figure in the final negotiations with the Allies, in the famous 1859, Austria was defeated by France act of this drama was the last emperor, ‘Sixtus Affair’. But the plan had little in the war in Italy, the first in a series of Karl I, great-nephew of the aged Franz chance of success in the face of French defeats and setbacks that dogged Franz Joseph and father of Otto von Habsburg. and Italian opposition, even though the Joseph throughout his reign. Defeat by When he succeeded Franz Joseph in British prime minister, Lloyd George, France was followed in 1866 by defeat November 1916, the 29-year-old Karl supported it. In the final analysis, Austria- by Prussia, which excluded Austria from faced a disastrous situation that he Hungary could not abandon Germany, Germany. By 1879, Austria’s weakness sought desperately to remedy. But he and Germany, effectively controlled by in the face of Russian ambitions in the lacked the means to prevent the empire continued overleaf 1 AJR JOURNAL OCTOBER 2011 The Habsburg twilight cont. from p1 The Ghetto Fund: A new directive its military leaders, Hindenburg and t the end of July the German the German Foundation Remembrance, Ludendorff, had no strategy other than government introduced a new Responsibility and Future are also entitled that of securing victory on the battlefield. A directive which significantly im- to apply. When US President Wilson included proves the entitlements of Holocaust Survivors who have already sub- survivors who worked in Nazi-controlled mitted an application form to the the principle of national self-determination ghettos during the Second World War. Bundesamt für zentrale Dienste und in his Fourteen Points of January 1918, Previously, former ghetto workers could offene Vermögens fragen (BADV), the the writing was on the wall for Habsburg receive either a ghetto pension (known in government department handling claims rule over its increasingly restive subject German by the acronym ZRBG) or a one- to the Ghetto Fund, do not need to submit nationalities. With the defeat of the time payment of €2,000 (approximately a new application form or to reapply, even German armies on the western front in £1,700) from the Ghetto Fund. Under if they have recently received another form autumn 1918, the Habsburg Empire lost the terms of the new directive, it is now in the post. its last underpinning. Austria-Hungary possible to receive both payments. Anyone who receives a ghetto pension disintegrated, leaving Austria as a small The Ghetto Fund was originally will automatically be sent details and an introduced in October 2007 due to long application form to claim the Ghetto Fund. rump state, and on 11 November the delays in processing applications for a The BADV can be contacted at 53221 emperor formally renounced power. ghetto pension. It was estimated that Bonn, Germany or by telephone on 0049 But this did not bring an end to Karl’s 50,000 Holocaust survivors worldwide 22899 7030 1324. The AJR can assist with imperial pretentions. In 1921, he twice were eligible to apply. Of the 70,000 claims completing and notarising these forms. attempted to seize power in Hungary, submitted for a ZRBG pension, 61,000 Claim forms and further information in somewhat bizarre bids to regain the were originally rejected. about the Ghetto Fund are also available imperial crown. The first attempt, the so- Because the Ghetto Fund provides com- at http://www.badv.bund.de/002_menue_ called ‘Easter Bid’, was thwarted when he pensation for work voluntarily performed oben/007_english/005_ghettowork/index. was outmanoeuvred in negotiations by in a ghetto, survivors who received awards html from slave labour compensation from Michael Newman the Regent of Hungary, Admiral Miklos Horthy, a former officer in the Austro- Hungarian navy, who had in November the populace added the appropriate rhyme 1918 sworn never to rest until he had ‘aber stier’ (‘but we’re broke’). ANNIVERSARY restored the emperor to his thrones in The disappearance of Austria-Hungary OF KRISTALLNACHT Vienna and Budapest. Then in October created a power vacuum in Central and Please join us for a service to 1921 the forces supporting Karl were Eastern Europe, where the small states commemorate the 73rd anniversary defeated by those loyal to Horthy in a that succeeded it fell under the sway of Kristallnacht skirmish in the suburbs of Budapest. first of Hitler, then of Stalin. It is often on Wednesday 9 November 2011 This fiasco spelt the end of Karl’s political argued that, had the Dual Monarchy at 2 pm career; a British warship conveyed him to survived, much of Europe would have at Belsize Square Synagogue Madeira, where he died in 1922. been spared the horrors visited upon it by Rabbi Stuart Altshuler will lead the The passing of the Habsburg Empire the two dictators. For the very existence memorial service and light refreshments was much mourned, not least by the of a powerful state in East Central Europe will be served at the conclusion Empire’s Jews, who knew that Franz after 1918 would have blocked Hitler’s For further details, please telephone Joseph had been sympathetic to them first extensions of German territory (into AJR Head Office on 020 8385 3070 throughout his long reign, intervening Austria and Czechoslovakia) as well as or email [email protected] to protect them from anti-Semitic actions the expansion of German influence into and refusing for two years to confirm the Eastern and South-Eastern Europe that one can argue that the monarchy, by rea- appointment of Karl Lueger, father of was so vital to the creation of a German- son of its inability to reform itself and to political anti-Semitism, as mayor of Vienna.