Habsburg Hopes

"The Czechs are getting alarmed by Italian influence in Austria. Jugoslavia is rattled. The prospect of an Austro-Hungarian monarchy is not fantastic. Prince von Starhemberg and his following are Monarchists and make no secret of it. What does Mussolini think about that? ... It is all very dangerous. No one in England yet realizes, 1 imagine, the strength of the forces gathering around this cockpit of the Powers." So from Vienna last week wrote Sir Philip Gibbs, a British journalist with such an imposing reputation that he does not hesitate to advise the British Government. In Prague three days later the Habsburg restoration talk was taken up by Czechoslovakia's eternal Foreign Minister, Eduard Benes. Said he: "The Habsburgs cannot be separated from their history, and although they may personally be agreeable, even their presence in Austria and Hungary as private residents would endanger the peace of Europe. Jugoslavia and Italy are particularly threatened by possible restoration, since the Habsburg crown would exert a great temptation on the Roman Catholic Croats in Jugoslavia and the Catholic Tyrolese in Italy to join the recreated Empire. ... If Archduke Otto returns. Czechoslovakia will sever diplomatic relations with Austria." Thus, possibly because Austria's other crises were for the moment quiescent, louder than at any time in the past two years rose that favorite rumor of European cafes--restoration of 21-year-old Archduke Otto von Habsburg to the throne of Austria, Hungary, or possibly both. The House of Habsburg traces its ancestry straight back to a Germanic chieftain known as Guntram the Rich who died around 950 A. D. and whose grandson built the castle of Habichtsburg or Habsburg ("Hawk's Castle") on the Aar near its junction with the Rhine. The House has never produced a great statesman or a great warrior. Two traits its sons have in- herited, a prognathous jaw and enormous physical fertility. They became successively Kings of the Germans, Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, Kings of Spain, and Emperors of Austria. The Habsburg talent for successful marriages made it possible for their greatest son; the Emperor Charles V (1500-58 j to rule what is nowr Hungary, Austria, most of Germany, most of France, most of Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Mexico and Florida. Even today; after 200 years of dissolution, dissipation and insanity, there are at least 35 Habsburg princelings living. The most stupidly reactionary family in Europe, they are for the most part either dissolute or fanatically Catholic, but to those who do not know them they represent the glories and the comforts of a vanished era. Sad old Franz Josef I died in 1916 without male issue after his only son Rudolf had been mysteriously killed at Meyerling in 1889. The throne would then have passed to the Emperor's nephew. Franz Ferdinand, had not that Archduke been assassinated with his morganatic wile at Sarajevo in 1914. Although Franz Ferdinand had three children, Sophie, Maximilian, and Ernst, the crown went to Franz Ferdinand's nephew, Karl, husband of sober Zita de Bourbon, who was one of the 18 children of Robert Duke of Parma. Curly-haired Otto, the acknowledged heir, was their eldest child. Maximilian, son of Franz Ferdinand, is very much alive, and carries on the family fertility by having produced four more Habsburg princelings since his marriage in 1926. One other possible pretender to the Habsburg throne (but of Hungary only) is the Archduke Albrecht, great-grandson of the brother of Franz Josef's grandfather. His claims, remote though they seem, are based on the fact that since the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary is theoretically free to choose any King she wants, and both branches of his family have lived in Hungary for at least two generations. Unfortunately for the schemes of Albrecht's mother, the Archduchess Isabella, who died in 1931, Albrecht renounced his rights four years ago (TIME, June 2, 1930).

Last week's resurgence of the restoration story was based on three facts:

i) Government workmen were sent to the former Imperial villa at Hetzendorf, a Vienna suburb, to put the place in order. Other much needed repairs were commenced on the rambling palace in Vienna, parts of which are now a museum and rented apartments.

2) As they have often done before, Austrian and Hungarian Monarchists met in Vienna for a conference, but for the first time in years were allowed to talk to the Press. Baron von Wiesner. who presided, was said to have declared: "The law passed by the former Socialist Government, banishing the Habsburgs from Austria, will be rescinded by the Cabinet within a month. The former Empress and Emperor Otto will return as soon as practicable.''

3 ) Prince von Starhemberg, titular head of the Heimwehr. was last week offered the post of Minister without portfolio in the Dollfuss Cabinet. Two weeks before he had said: "Reports that I am aiming at the crown are entirely untrue. I will not be a competitor of the Habsburgs. Otto is the only possible Emperor." If Otto should be restored it would bring certain definite advantages to Austria. The minor squabblings of Heimwehr, Christian Socialists, and Dollfuss Front members would end once they had a common figure to rally round. There would be a new, possibly a more glamorous figure to draw impressionable youth from Adolf Hitler. The pomp and ceremony of a Habsburg court, always the stiffest in Europe, would be a drawing card for Austria's languishing tourist trade. It would bring Austria the not inconsiderable backing of the Vatican. On the other hand, the restoration of Otto in Austria is but a stepping stone to restoration of the entire polyglot Austro-Hungarian Empire. It would cause instant mobilization of the armies of Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, Rumania, countries that have battened on the partition of that Empire. It would cause new rioting in Vienna, still Socialist at heart. It would be violently opposed by France. Establishment of another court would be a very serious drain on the resources of an impoverished country. It would revive all the anti-Habsburg legends of another generation, dead these 15 years. It would cause serious repercussions in Hungary where both Premier Goemboes and the Regent, Admiral Horthy, were responsible for smashing Emperor Karl's pitiful attempt to come back in 1921. Last week Archduke Otto remained safely in his mouldy castle in a wood near Brussels, refused ail interviews. His mother, the Empress Zita, now a dour-faced widow, was in Paris at the bedside of her brother, Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma, desperately ill with an infected heart. The body of Otto's father, the Emperor Karl, lay in a rusty vault on the island of Madeira under a heap of ancient wilted wreaths from European royalty. One thing the Dollfuss Heimvehr Government is most likely to do for the Habsburgs is to allow Karl's body to be brought back to take its place among his ancestors in the Capuchin Church in Vienna, and to repeal the law exiling all who do not renounce their royal rights. One prominent Habsburg was in Vienna last week. Archduke Anton, 33-year-old husband of the Princess Ileana of Rumania. Both have recently joined the Heimwehr. Both appeared at a Heimwehr mass meeting last week, the Princess wearing a little Styrian hat with the Heimwehr feather and green ribbon. Speaking rapidly in German with a British accent she said: ''The Heimwehr is our opportunity. We have real leaders now. The best thing we can do is to go along with them--for Austria and for the Fatherland, with a whole heart and with all our love." In Vienna New York Times Correspondent G. E. R. Gedye interviewed a Royalist leader whose name he was unable to divulge. Said the latter: "I want to deny most decidedly all rumors about the possibilities of a Habsburg putsch, of romantic airplane flights to claim the throne and so forth. The tragic outcome of Otto's father's experiments in that direction is warning enough for him. Empress Zita is equally determined not to let her son risk his luck as a royal adventurer. The family has never forgotten the proud words of the great Hungarian legitimist leader. Count Albert Apponyi: 'The King of Hungary cannot crawl like a thief over the fence in order to ascend the throne of his ancestors.' '

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