Chapters

While the events in Prague were catapulting the country into a historic new phase, the home team of leaders was in Geneva to discuss further steps towards independence with the general secretary of the exiled Czechoslovakian National Council, Edvard Beneš. It was only by reading the newspapers that these gentlemen first learned that an independent Czechoslovakia had been proclaimed in Prague.

The acknowledgement of the Czechoslovakian Republic according to international law took place through the Paris Suburb Contracts of 1919/20. Czechoslovakia covered around 20% of the area of the former Monarchy and was thus the largest of the successor states.

A special role in the creation of Czechoslovakia was played by the Czechoslovakian legions fighting at the side of the Entente armies. These legions consisted of voluntary units of émigré Czechs, but mostly of defectors and prisoners of war from the ranks of the Imperial-Royal Army.

To compensate for bottlenecks in the provision of basics, improvisation was in demand. All manner of substitutes featured in the kitchens of the Monarchy, and became a symbol of a failure to provide basic services.

The destruction of symbols of foreign domination – including the Column of the Virgin Mary in Prague and the Maria-Theresa Monument in Bratislava – gave expression to a sense of victory over national suppression and of newly achieved independence. But another interesting aspect of these actions is the “afterlife” of these historical monuments and the public treatment of them in the years after 1989.

In view of the supply crisis, food gained political importance. Women, upon whom fell in most cases the feeding of their families, became protagonists of a morally highly stylised, existential provision. Through thriftiness and ingenuity they were supposed to conquer the foe in the kitchen.

Towards the end of the century the term ‘Fortwursteln’ (‘muddling through’) was coined to describe Emperor Franz Joseph’s policies. The political decision-makers saw no possibility of finding solutions for the pressing problems that beset the Monarchy on all sides.

At the beginning of the war the population had mainly to struggle with exorbitant price increases. Indeed the increasing shortages made themselves felt already at the start of 1915. The purchase of everyday articles as well as the production and conservation of food became the predominant tasks.

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.

The third war winter became the turning point. In view of the continuous price rises and shortages, the population’s willingness to make sacrifices reached its limits. The catastrophic hunger threatened the internal cohesion of the society, social chasms grew deeper and the search for those to blame began.

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 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.

As in the Habsburg Empire, the political system of the German Empire was shaped by the strong role of the monarchy.

In 1916 the hunger disaster spread unstoppably throughout the Habsburg Monarchy. In their affliction women became the harshest critics of the state, demanding an end to the war.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 March 1919, on the initiative of the British government, preparations were started to enable the imperial family to leave the country and go into exile. It was felt that Karl’s continued presence in Austria was helping to destabilize conditions in the country.

Karl’s ambitions to regain the power he had lost focused principally on Hungary. This provoked disquiet in the successor states of the Habsburg Monarchy.

Emperor Karl’s refusal to abdicate was rooted in his conviction that he had been invested with imperial office by divine right and not by popular representation. However, in the several attempts he made to regain power he relied on more than mere divine providence, taking active steps and not shrinking from force of arms.

On his early death Karl left seven children. His wife Zita was pregnant with their eighth child. In May 1922 the young widow was allowed to return to Europe.

The long life of the last Austrian empress was marked by the political upheavals that changed the face of Europe during the twentieth century. However, Zita remained true to her principles: unconditional devotion to the Roman-Catholic Church and defence of the principle of legitimism, that is, the indeposability of the ruling dynasty of Habsburg-Lorraine.