In the winter of 1918/1919 Eckartsau was the setting for the final act in the long rule of the Habsburgs: for three months the hunting lodge was the home of Karl, the last, disempowered Austrian emperor, before the imperial family set off into exile.
In November 1916 Emperor Franz Joseph died after a long reign of 68 years. In the middle of the turmoil of the First World War the Monarchy had lost the symbolic figurehead of Habsburg power. The political elites of the Habsburg Monarchy were ill-prepared for the change. Whole areas of public life were seized by a sense of disorientation.
In November 1916 Emperor Franz Joseph died after a long reign of 68 years. In the middle of the turmoil of the First World War the Monarchy had lost the symbolic figurehead of Habsburg power. The political elites of the Habsburg Monarchy were ill-prepared for the change. Whole areas of public life were seized by a sense of disorientation.
The death of Franz Joseph was no surprise, but for the Habsburg Monarchy it meant the loss of a major symbolic figure. The succession was exploited as propaganda before the war-fatigued population as the sign of a new era.
Archduke Karl was thrust sooner than expected into the position of successor to the throne after the bullets of Sarajevo. Nevertheless, he was not at all included in the decision-making in July 1914 when the pros and cons of the war were discussed. This is astonishing, because the eventual death of the aged Franz Joseph had to be expected sooner rather than later – and Karl would also inherit the war along with the crown.
Although with a military upbringing like most male Habsburgs, Friedrich was invested with the rank of supreme commander solely thanks to his high birth and not his aptitude. The archduke was an officer for peace time, for parades and manoeuvres, but not for the case of emergency.
As in the Habsburg Empire, the political system of the German Empire was shaped by the strong role of the monarchy.
The successor to the throne recognised the problems besetting the Habsburg Monarchy in all clarity. He believed the solution would be to accentuate centralism and an authoritarian style of rule. His rule – had he ever ascended the throne – would have meant a conspicuous step backwards for the political agenda of democracy.
Relations between Franz Joseph and his nephew Franz Ferdinand, who had become heir to the throne following the death of Crown Prince Rudolf, were far from harmonious and trustful.
The circumstance that Karl, a great-nephew of Franz Joseph, ended up becoming emperor is due to a chain of dramatic vicissitudes. When Karl was born in 1887 no one could have guessed that he would one day ascend the throne, as Crown Prince Rudolf, the only son of Franz Joseph, was the heir apparent.
