Although Archduke Karl Ludwig wasn't the best husband ever, he loved his three sons Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914), Otto (1865-1906) and Ferdinand Karl (1868-1914) and his three daughters Margarethe Sophie (1870-1902), Annunziata (1876-1961) and Elisabeth (1878-1960) a lot. He continued to write his diary when his first son was born in 1863 and made notes about everything his children did.
Ferdinand spent his childhood in Reichenau and Artstetten. His mother Maria Annunziata died, when he was only two years old.
The Archduke loved the theatre, he even wanted to become director of the Hoftheater, Vienna. The Emperor was against it, of course.
At the turn of the century he got to know Berta. In 1903 he asked Emperor Franz Joseph, his uncle, for permission to marry the young woman. But the Emperor was shocked and didn't give him the permisson.
When Ferdinand Karl married Berta Czuber, who was the daughter of a professor, in Chur on 15 Aug 1909, his father has been dead for over ten years. In 1911, three years after the marriage, Emperor Franz Joseph was informed about it and told his nephew to leave the House of Habsburg. He even wasn't allowed to bear the titel "Archduke" anymore. So he called himself Burg since 1911. By the way, Burg was the pseudonym of his father Karl Ludwig. Berta and Ferdinand lived in Schloss Rosenstein and Rottenstein near Meran.
Ferdinand wasn't allowed to set foot on Austria and Hungary after 1911. When his brother Franz Ferdinand was murdered in 1914, the old Emperor made an exception and Ferdinand was able to take part at the funeral.
The only member of the Imperial family who stayed in touch with Ferdinand after 1911 was - once more - his stepmother Archduchess Marie Therese and her daughters. Ferdinand's sister Margarethe Sophie, Duchess of Württemberg, has been quarreling with her brothers because of an inheritance for years and died in 1902.
Ferdinand Karl died in Munich on March 10th 1915. His wife Berta died 5 months before her 100th birthday in 1979. The couple is buried in Meran.
