Otto von HabsburgOtto was born as His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke Otto of Austria, Royal Prince of Hungary and Bohemia and became the Crown Prince of these countries in 1916. After 1919, titles of nobility were formally abolished in Austria, thus in official use the "von" disappeared before Habsburg. The same applied after Habsburg became a German citizen (see Printausgabe der deutschen Wochenzeitung die Zeit of 21 July 2011, p. 36). By courtesy, he would also be referred to by the European royal and princely courts by his former style and title, i.e. as His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke Otto of Austria. In the Austrian republic the authorities referred to him from 1919 as Otto Habsburg-Lothringen, a name he never used himself. Otto did not live in Austria after 1919, and his citizenship there was revoked by Adolf Hitler in 1941, making him stateless. His Austrian citizenship was only restored in 1965. Otto later became a citizen of Germany (in 1978) and Croatia (in 1990) and was issued passports of these countries, where his official name was Otto von Habsburg. As a Member of the European Parliament for Germany, his official name in the European Union was Otto von Habsburg. On his website, he used the style and name His Imperial and Royal Highness Dr. Otto von Habsburg. (20 November 1912 4 July 2011) was the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary from 1916 until its dissolution in November 1918. In 1922, he became the pretender to the former thrones, head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and sovereign of the (Austrian) Order of the Golden Fleece, upon the death of his father. He resigned as Sovereign of the Golden Fleece in 2000 and as head of the Imperial House in 2007.
The eldest son of Charles I and IV, the last emperor of Austria and king of Hungary, and his wife, Zita of Bourbon-Parma, Otto was born as Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xaver Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius von Habsburg, third in line to the thrones, as Archduke Otto of Austria, Royal Prince of Hungary, Bohemia, and Croatia. With his father's accession in 1916, he was likely to become emperor and king. As his father never abdicated, Otto was considered by himself, his family and Austro-Hungarian legitimists to be the rightful emperor-king from his father's death in 1922.
Otto was exiled in 1919 and grew up mostly in Spain. His devout Catholic mother raised him according to the old curriculum of Austria-Hungary, preparing him to become a Catholic monarch. During his life in exile, he lived in Austria, Belgium, France, Madeira (Portugal), Spain, Switzerland, the US, and from 1954 until his death, in Bavaria (Germany), in the residence Villa Austria. He had been stateless and , and possessed passports of the Order of Malta and Spain.
Otto was active on the European political stage from the 1930s, by promoting the cause of Habsburg restoration and as an early proponent of European integration. He was a fierce opponent of Nazism, nationalism, and communism.Kaiser-Sohn Otto von Habsburg gestorben Deutsche Welle, 4 July 2011 He has been described as one of the leaders of the Austrian resistance. After the 1938 Anschluss, he was sentenced to death by the Nazis and fled Europe to the US.
Otto was Vice President (1957–73) and President (1973–2004) of the International Paneuropean Union movement. From 1979 to 1999, he served as a Member of the European Parliament for Germany's Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU). He took a strong interest in Eastern Bloc countries behind the Iron Curtain, and had an empty chair set up in the European Parliament to symbolize their absence. Otto played a notable role in the revolutions of 1989 as a co-initiator of the Pan-European Picnic. He was a strong supporter of EU membership for Central and Eastern European countries. He published several books on historical and political affairs.
Otto has been described as one of the "architects of the European idea and of European integration" together with Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, and Alcide De Gasperi. His funeral took place at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna on 16 July 2011; he was entombed in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna and his heart buried in Pannonhalma Archabbey in Hungary.
Early life
Otto was born at Villa Wartholz in Reichenau an der Rax, Austria-Hungary, during the reign of his great-granduncle, Franz Joseph I of Austria. He was baptised Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xaver Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius on 25 November 1912 at Villa Wartholz by Franz Xaver Cardinal Nagl, Prince-Archbishop of Vienna. This name was chosen so that he might reign as "Franz Joseph II" in the future. His godfather was Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria (represented by Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria); his godmother was his maternal grandmother Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal.Wiener Zeitung, 26 November 1912.
In November 1916, Otto became Crown Prince of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia when his father, Archduke Charles, acceded to the throne. However, in 1918, after the end of the First World War, the monarchies were abolished, the republics of Austria and Hungary were founded in their place, and the family was forced into exile in Madeira. Hungary did become a kingdom again, but Charles was never to regain the throne. Instead, Miklós Horthy ruled as regent until 1944, in a kingdom without a king.
Otto spoke German, Hungarian, Croatian, English, Spanish, French, and Latin fluently. In later life, he would write some forty books in German, Hungarian, French, and Spanish. His mother made him learn many languages because she believed he one day might rule over many lands.
Years in exile Otto was in the Gödöllő Palace during the Aster Revolution, but quickly evacuated from Hungary at the rise of republican sentiment.Hatos 2018, pp. 227 Otto's family spent the subsequent years at Wartegg Castle in Switzerland, and on the Portuguese island of Madeira, where 34-year-old Charles died in 1922, leaving the nine-year-old Otto pretender to the throne. On his father's deathbed, his mother, Empress Dowager Zita, told Otto, "your father is now sleeping the eternal sleep—you are now Emperor and King". The family eventually relocated to the Basque town of Lequeitio, where forty Spanish grandees bought them a villa.
Meanwhile, the Austrian parliament had officially expelled the Habsburg dynasty and confiscated all the official property via the Habsburg Law of 3 April 1919. Charles was banned from ever returning to Austria again, while Otto and other male members could return only if they renounced all claims to the throne and accepted the status of private citizens.
In 1935, he graduated with a doctorate in Political and Social Sciences from the University of Louvain in Belgium. His thesis was on "the right, born of usage and of the peasant law of inheritance, of the indivisibility of rural land ownership in Austria". In 1937 he wrote,Gedächtnisjahrbuch 1937, 9. Jg.: Dem Andenken an Karls von Österreich Kaiser und König. Arbeitsgemeinschaft österreichischer Vereine – Wien, W. Hamburger 1937.
He continued to enjoy considerable public support in Austria; from 1931 to 1938, 1,603 Austrian municipalities named Otto an honorary citizen.Heinz Arnberger, Winfried R. Garscha, Rudolf G. Ardelt, Christa Mitterrutzner, Anschluß 1938, Dokumentationsarchiv des Österreichischen Widerstandes, Österreichischer Bundesverlag, 1988, John Gunther believed that Zita was less popular among Austrians, however, writing in 1936 that "restoration would be a good deal closer if Otto's return would not mean also the return of his mother—to say nothing of hundreds of assorted and impoverished Habsburg cousins and aunts, who would flock to Vienna like ants to a keg of syrup". A greater obstacle, he wrote, was the opposition of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, which feared that their people might want to rejoin a recreated monarchy.
World War II Otto denounced Nazism, stating:
He strongly opposed the Anschluss, and in 1938 requested Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg to resist Nazi Germany. He supported international intervention and offered to return from exile to take over the reins of government to repel the Nazis. According to Gerald Warner, "Austrian Jews were among the strongest supporters of a Habsburg restoration, since they believed the dynasty would give the nation sufficient resolve to stand up to the Third Reich".
Following the German annexation of Austria, Otto was sentenced to death by the Nazi regime; Rudolf Hess ordered that Otto was to be executed immediately if caught.Omeidl "Rudolf Hess, der Stellvertreter des Führers, hatte den deutschen Invasionstruppen für das neutrale Belgien den Befehl erteilt, Otto von Habsburg und seine Brüder, falls sie gefasst würden, ohne jedes weitere Verfahren sofort zu erschießen." As ordered by Adolf Hitler, his personal property and that of the House of Habsburg were confiscated. It was not returned after the war. The so-called "Habsburg Law", which had previously been repealed, was reintroduced by the Nazis. Otto's supporters, the leaders of the Austrian legitimist movement, were arrested by the Nazis and largely executed (Stefan Zweig's novella The Royal Game is based on these events). Otto's cousins Max, Duke of Hohenberg, and Prince Ernst of Hohenberg were arrested in Vienna by the Gestapo and sent to Dachau concentration camp where they remained throughout Nazi rule. Otto was involved in helping around 15,000 Austrians, including thousands of Austrian Jews, flee the country at the beginning of the Second World War.http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/comment/obituaries/otto-von-habsburg-1.1110433
After the German invasion of France in 1940, the family left the French capital and fled to Portugal. On 12 June, the Portuguese ruler António Salazar issued instructions to the Portuguese consulates in France to provide Infanta Maria Antónia of Portugal with Portuguese passports which would allow visas for her daughter Empress Zita and grandson Otto without violating Portuguese neutrality. The family resided in Cascais during their exodus.Exiles Memorial Centre Library. When the German authorities pressed Salazar for Otto's extradition from Portugal, Salazar offered to protect Otto, but asked him as a friend to leave the country. Otto left, and lived from 1940 to 1944 in Washington, D.C. In 1941, Hitler personally revoked the citizenship of Otto, his mother and his siblings, and the imperial-royal family found themselves stateless.Stephan Baier, Eva Demmerle: Otto von Habsburg. Die Biografie. Amalthea, Wien 2002, , p. 122.