Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Countess Sophie and their family

[Janet Ashton]

The last time Austrian troops saw action before 1914 was in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, so this veteran must have been nudging 70, if not older.

Ann

They also annexed Bosnia-Hercegovia in 1878, which led to assorted Austrian casualties even if it wasn't a full-blown war.

It would be an irony if this pic shows FF congratulating a veteran of THAT campaign!

[Janet Ashton]

Thanks.

Mild piece of guesswork. Max was born in 1902, so was 12 when his parents were killed. He doesn't look much younger than 12 in this picture, so we are probably talking 1913-14. He is in white with what was in British naval parlance a sennit hat, so we are talking warm weather, though FF is in blues. I imagine the K-u-K Navy had white uniforms for the summer, given that they were mostly in the Adriatic and Mediterranean, but went in and out of them on particular dates rather than according to the weather. I seem to remember that the RAF in Malta in the 1970s went from blue to khaki drill on 1 May and back to blue on 1 October. My guess is a warm day in April, so Max is keeping cool in white, but his father is constrained by dress regulations and must wear blue.

April 1913 is my educated guess, and possibly at Pola.

Ann

Close! :-) According to a caption on the internet, it's Brioni (Brijuni) in 1914 - so, just opposite Pula/Pola. I think this photo comes from one of Wladimir Aichelberg's many books about the Archduke.

[Wenzel]

Not just a compromise but a contract signed in front of the Emperor and several other Archdukes. Franz Ferdinand would have faced hell on Earth if once an Emperor he had back pedaled on his signing of this document.

Arturo Beéche

Arturo was much more than a contract, has been approved by an Imperial Decree, the entire Imperial family was summoned to the Hofburg, the last one to arrive was SKKH Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, he was the entire previous night with countess Chotek and his mother, both did their best to console him of such humiliation he even said, most of our relatives are married to our twice times cousins, that's the reason why we have so many retarded in our family, our breeding is a total disaster, Sophie belongs to one of the oldest families from the Czech nobility and she is not enough for the imbecile of Montenuovo, as you know and illegitimate son of Archduchess Marie Louise and count Neipperg. Even the document was published in all the languages of the Empire in the Imperial Monitor and by most papers. What a terrible tragedy started that June 28, 1900, 14 years later, both were murdered by Serbian assassins sent by the usurpers Karageorgevich, which 11 years earlier murdered King Aleksandr I Obrenovic and Queen Draga. Even today we are paying the consequences of such horrendous war, which destroyed the European civilization, which was in her essentially Christian and Monarchical, four empires vanished and two emperors paid with their lives their defence of the monarchical principles Nicholas II of Russia, and Karl I Kaiser von Oesterreich und Apostolischen Koenig von Ungarn. Then we had the Bolsheviks and the Nazis, and the horrendous genocides, which never occurred before, excepting during the French terror, in La Vendee and Bretagne.

[Dru]

Franz Ferdinand and Sophie with sons Max and Ernst.  Download for full size.

[Greenowl]

Nikolaus Hohenberg, the great grandson of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, attended a conference in Prague on June 2nd. to discuss the assassination in Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand's relations with Bohemia and plans to reform the empire. In the crowded conference room he said, among other things:  “The idea that he was a militarist is a bit of a cliché. He knew very well that the military power of the Austro-Hungarian empire was very weak and very disorganized and needed reforming. And he always backed down from situations which could have led to a war because he was not interested in being part of that. I am talking from a family point of view, I am not an historian. What I can say is that as a family person and being very close to his wife, he was not confrontational and we know from family history that his wife often told him ‘Look if you send people to war now there will be sons of people who will be killed. Do you really want this?’ And he was not interested in that. So that is a bit of a cliché. What he wanted to do is to reform the whole thing and by doing that he was saying I will have to give more autonomy to the different ethnic parts of this empire, it can’t be decentralized between two powers, Austria and Hungary. And especially the situation in Bohemia was an historic anomaly because all the Habsburg rulers were crowned Kings of Bohemia and that had not happened to Emperor Franz Joseph for whatever reason and he definitely did not want to have that. He would have, if he had the chance, made sure that he was crowned King of Bohemia. So that is something that he wanted to change. I do not know whether he would have been successful. Unfortunately that is something I can’t say but he was at least trying to change things and not wait till it all falls apart. That was a bit of a problem. It was later revealed that the archduke was in contract with the prominent Czech politician Karel Šviha of the Czech National Social Party, a left-wing party which championed greater Czech independence. A member of the party was Edvard Beneš, later one of the key architects of Czechoslovak independence. Slovak Milan Hodža also helped the Archduke design the plans for a federal empire with a greater share out of power. The fact that he inherited and acquired two estates in Bohemia helped. And he was not stupid, he knew Bohemia was the economic powerhouse of the empire and you can't just deprive the people there of political influence and autonomy. It was the same in the southern part of the empire, the southern Slavs, the Croats and so on. So he was saying it does not just work that way and wanted to change it. That was clear. I would say that being married to a Bohemian countess helped the whole thing. ”

Czech historian Jaroslav Šebek agrees that Archduke Franz Ferdinand did distinguish himself as someone who mixed with the top of Czech society and was amenable to putting forward plans for reform that were eventually advanced at the end of the First World War, when they had already been overtaken by events and it was too late. “The direction of his moves was for a federal reorganization of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The concept of a federal autonomous monarchy was first set forth in official form at the end of the war in the manifesto of Emperor Karl. But it was already the end of the empire and no longer made any sense. “It is possible that this federal model could have in some sort of way continued under Franz Ferdinand. There’s obviously a question if it would have been able to solve the most acute problem and that was the nationalities problem. There was very strong antagonism between Czechs and Germans in Bohemia and Moravia. That was the biggest problem. In fact the most destructive element in the empire was not Czech but German nationalism and I think that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was conscious of this. ”

[Wenzel]

I agree 100% with these words from Prince Nikolaus von Hohenberg, I know well Georg Herzog von Hohenberg the head of the House of Hohenberg, His Serenity Highness is a staunch supporter of his grandfather ideas, a federal monarchy, with parliaments elected by their own people in many Kingdoms from the Empire. That was the reason, why HIRH Archduke Franz Ferdinand organized a well conceived plan to reform the entire Empire as soon as his uncle Kaiser Franz Joseph may pass away.  His council were Romanians, Croats, Czechs, Magyars, Austrians who were convinced that the only way that the Empire will survive was under a Federal Constitution, and with responsible cabinets throughout the Empire. The Emperor and King was going to be the man who keep balance within the Empire and had the last word, was more or less what his own nephew the blessed Kaiser Karl I wanted to do, but due to the war and the opposition to peace from French republicans and neo Jacobin's, such as Georges Clemenceau and Raymond Poincaré couldn't achieved, in spite of the support of David Lloyd George, and even King George V (who saved the lives of Kaiser Karl and Kaiserin Zita and their children, sending troops to Austria, with the only goal, which was the protection of the Imperial family), the King was repented indeed for his weak decision regarding the fate of his cousin Nicholas II and family. World War One was a disaster not only for the Habsburg dynasty, the Romanov and the German dynasties, but for the entire Europe, in my opinion was the end of the European and Christian civilization. Woodrow Wilson and the French republicans are those that we should blamed for this disaster, which open the gates of hell, Bolsheviks and Nazis were those who emerged from the war, "which was going to put and end to all wars", 20 years later Europe witnessed a worst war, with horrendous crimes from the Nazis and even from the Communists. The same man who was call "uncle Joe" was even equal or worst than Hitler in his atrocities against millions of people, murdered or sent to the Soviet Gulag. As Serge Schmemann describes in his book "Echoes of a Native Land", how his family, which stayed in Russia suffered murder, persecution, starvation, they were not any longer human beings just former people, with no rights at all. I must disagree with Prince Hohenberg about his statement regarding the German elements of the Empire, those who wanted an union with the German Reich were a minority, the vast majority was pro Habsburg without the slightest doubt, the Czechs were pro Habsburg until the nationalist propaganda and the disasters caused by the war, pushed many Czechs to choose independence from the monarchy, this propaganda came from Eduard Benes and Tomas Masaryk, well known free masons, agnostics and openly enemies of the monarchy as a system, they were very closed to Clemenceau, who described himself as the heir of the Jacobin's and from Robespierre. The same Clemenceau who blocked the participation of the Holy See at the Peace Conference and who dreamed with the destruction not only from the last powerful Catholic monarchy in Europe, the Austrian one, but with the end of Catholicism at the same time.

[Dru]

Franz Ferdinand hunting with his family.  Download for full size.



Max and Ernst of Hohenberg.

[Dru]

Interesting newspaper illustration of Emperor Franz Joseph with Franz Ferdinand's grieving children.

[Janet Ashton]

the vast majority was pro Habsburg without the slightest doubt, the Czechs were pro Habsburg until the nationalist propaganda and the disasters caused by the war, pushed many Czechs to choose independence from the monarchy, this propaganda came from Eduard Benes and Tomas Masaryk, well known free masons, agnostics and openly enemies of the monarchy as a system,

Such well known masons, in fact, that Masaryk wasn't even a Mason at all. He was also a devout Christian, which was why he was so interested in promoting an image of Czechoslavakia as an inherently Protestant, egalitarian nation.

I don't expect you to take note of this, with your notions that Europe is in some sense damned by the departure of most of its Kings, but others reading the thread might like to know that to a degree you are correct - most people probably did support the monarchy before 1914, at least passively. Most people simply want to get on with their lives. But it was not some conspiracy which changed the views of people who mattered. Masaryk for one finally ceased to support the monarchy and teh Austro-Hungarian Empire as a consequence of his treatment in war, and the treatment of his family - and he was not alone in this. He ceased to support a regime which exiled him for speaking against the war, and locked up his daughter - a teacher - without trial, resulting in his wife's complete mental breakdown. And others ceased to support a regime which locked up writers like Ivan Cankar, whose views were far from mainstream, for simply opposing war; suspended parliament for three years (even Russia did not do this) and declared whole swathes of its own subjects to be suspect by virtue of their declared "nationality".

[Greenowl]

In memory of
Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este
(* 18th July 1863 in Graz; † 28th. June 1914 in Sarajevo)

and

Sophie Chotek von Chotkova und Wognin, Herzogin von Hohenberg
( * 1st March 1868 in Stuttgart; † 28th. June 1914 in Sarajevo)

on the 100th. anniversary of the tragic events of
Sunday, 28th. June 1914 in Sarajevo

[Wenzel]

Dear Janet you have your own right to defend Masaryk even Benes, each one has its own view point, but I am not making false history. Thomas Masaryk betrayed the monarchy and his legitimate sovereign, when he left Prague and joined the allies in Paris, with Benes they started right away their propaganda war against their Sovereign Franz Josef at the time, they were trying to convince London, Paris and Washington to support a Czech national state independent from the monarchy, that's high teason. It is obvious that all those who were suspected from that felony were persecuted, as it is persecute by the American authorities the man who revealed secrets from the Department of State. President Wilson until the end of 1917 wasn't in favour of the Czechs, but people from his inner circle were closed to both Masaryk and Benes who travelled to London and Washington to convince their authorities to support their activities, even the organization of a so-call "Free Czech Army". In 1916 Thomas Masaryk participated in Paris as the main speaker with Benes of an international conference of Free Masons, which they gave full support to these two Bohemian traitors. According with His Imperial Highness Archduke Otto, who was a good friend of my father, Masaryk accepted a membership to the French Free Masonry, Benes was already a member since very young. Regarding the recess of the Austrian parliament, was just for two years, in 1916, Blessed Kaiser Karl sign a decree asking the Parliament to start discussions about the future of the Empire and the state of the war. What Masaryk and Benes did after the defeat of Austria Hungary and the collapsed of the monarchy in relation with the Emperor and King and his family was outrageous, they convinced Georges Clemenceau not no sent them a single penny, the Emperor almost died in starvation in Madeira in 1922, Countess Ilke Széchényi mother was with them, and she remembers that they had almost nothing to east, they survived thanks to friends in Europe and Portuguese peasants who gave them food. Masaryk in 1919 ordered the three children of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie Chotek to leave right away Konopischt, they were not allowed to take anything even their clothes and photo albums, wasn't the behaviour of a decent man, moreover is the behaviour of a person with no moral and ethics and even no respect to orphans, Georg Duke von Hohenberg can give you more details of the nightmare that their father, uncle and aunt went through thanks to the "Czech patriots", more or less the same ordeal, that they went with the Nazis. The children were treated as criminals, to the point that King Albert I of Belgium was extremely upset and furious, His Majesty wrote a strong letter to Masaryk about this horrendous incident. Their parents were both fluent in Czech, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand learned Czech when he was in Prague, and when they were at the Belvedere or any other of their proprieties, sometimes they spoke in Czech if they didn't want that third people knew what they were taliking about. Were times, when most of the Czech intellectuals didn't speak a word of their own language, like Franz Kafka and many others. My grandfather went to Madeira in 1921 and he was horrified and appalled with the living conditions of the Imperial family, he was Otto Freiherr von Wetzler. If you want to get in touch with Isabel Princess Auersperg, if you write me in private I can give you her email address and phone, she will confirm all what I wrote here, baisemain LvW

[Wenzel]

In memory of
Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este
(* 18th July 1863 in Graz; † 28th. June 1914 in Sarajevo)

and

Sophie Chotek von Chotkova und Wognin, Herzogin von Hohenberg
( * 1st March 1868 in Stuttgart; † 28th. June 1914 in Sarajevo)

on the 100th. anniversary of the tragic events of
Sunday, 28th. June 1914 in Sarajevo

Thanks a lot, I am very touched with your homage to the martyrs of Sarajevo.

[Dru]

Yes, may Franz Ferdinand and Sophie rest in peace.

And here is a large, beautiful copy of the portrait of the Archduke with his daughter, Princess Sophie.  Download for full size.

[Wenzel]

Wonderful portrait I had never seen it before, I met her daughter when I was very young in Salzburg, she was an old lady but with lots of allure and you can see that she was beautiful, thanks a lot I will show it to her nice Isabel Auersperg and her mother's nephews the von Wuthenau, baisemain, L

[Dru]

Hi Wenzel,
If I'm not mistaken, the portrait is still on display in one of Franz Ferdinand's private rooms at Konopischt.  I think it's beautiful, and I'm glad you like it