Pretender Archduke Otto, Crown Prince of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia
Born	November 20 1912 (1912--) (age 94)
Title(s)	Archduke and Crown Prince of Austria, Crown Prince of Hungary and Bohemia
Throne(s) claimed	Austria, Hungary
Pretend from	April 1, 1922 - present
Monarchy abolished	1918
Last monarch	Charles I
Connection with	Eldest son
Royal House	Habsburg-Lorraine
Father	Charles I of Austria
Mother	Zita of Bourbon-Parma
Spouse	Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen and Hildburghausen
Children	Andrea, Monika, Michaela, Gabriela, Walburga, Karl, Georg

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, later of Austria-Este) 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 honorary 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.

Otto and his great-granduncle Emperor Franz Joseph

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 Belgium to Paris with his mother Empress Zita and his whole family. His cousins Ernst Duke of Hohenberg and Georg Prince von Hohenberg were arrested in Vienna by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp, till the end of the war. Many other Habsburgs, suffered the same persecution. This was the main reason to leave the friendly Belgium and escaped to France, when Paris was in danger they left the French capital and again the whole family moved 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]When Archduke Otto had visited Budapest very recently, a well known journalist asked him about what was his view regarding Vladimir Putin and comparing him with Boris Yeltsin, he answered: “Yeltsin was chaotic, but at least he still had some democratic principles. Putin, on the other hand, was a secret policeman from the age of twenty-three, and up to now. His mentality is completely different. He speaks of these things very honestly, but we don’t take proper notice of it. He said, for instance, at the beginning of his term when he was an appointed President, that he would be expanding military expenditures considerably for Russia. Did we take any notice of this? No, we continued to disarm on our side. Once again let’s go back to the same old sentence, ‘One doesn’t learn from history.’ The Archduke is convinced that Putin might became a new Hitler or Stalin, he has the physique du role of a tyrant.

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 article: 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

Coronation photograph of Zita as Queen of Hungary, with her husband, King Charles IV and Crown Prince Otto.31 December 1916

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."

• Otto von Habsburg used to be a chain smoker until his marriage, smoking up to hundred cigarettes a day. Today he has quit smoking with the exception of one day in the year: the World No Tobacco Day.

• Willy Brandt, the former chancellor of West Germany, was elected into the European Parliament simultaneously with Otto von Habsburg. Habsburg was not pleased with the attendance time of his colleague, so he pinned a note on Brandt's bureau door, reading "Bureau for rent". Much to the amusement of the fellow parliamentarians it stayed there for several weeks.

• Had he actually reigned as Emperor from 1922 to the present day, Otto's would have been the longest reign of any monarch in the recorded history of the world, 84 years.

Ancestry

Sources

1. ^ http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl
2. ^ Lalanne, Dorothée (2006-12-06). "Otto de Habsbourg: Européen Avant Tout". Point de Vue (No.3046): page 46. 
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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Otto von Habsburg-Lothringen

• Erzherzog Dr. Otto von Habsburg (Autorisierte Ehrenseite)
• An essay on Republicanism vs Monarchism by Otto
• Video interview of Otto von Habsbourg (French) European NAvigator

Donate to Wikimedia