Emperor Karl, Empress Zita and Archduke Otto in the Hungarian coronation robes, photograph, 1916

After two years of war Austria-Hungary was economically and militarily entirely worn out. On 21 November 1916 a further blow came with the death of Emperor Franz Joseph, who had been an important linchpin for the unity of the decrepit Dual Monarchy.

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.