The Death of H.I. & R.H. The Archduke Otto von Habsburg-Lothringen

It is with profound sadness that I have learned of the death of H.I. & R.H. the Archduke Otto von Habsburg, head of the House of Austria and de jure Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. He died at home in Pöcking, Germany, at the age of 98.

Born in Reichenau, in what was then Austria-Hungary in 1912, his early life went through a series of sudden and strange reversals of fortune. In 1914, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo both touched off World War I
and made his father, the Archduke Karl, heir to the throne of Austria-
Hungary.

When Karl's great-uncle, the Emperor Franz Josef died in
1916, Karl became Emperor himself, and Otto his heir. But with
reversals on the battlefield and rebellions in the provinces at the
end of 1918, Karl relinquished the powers of his throne, and the
following year he went into exile, banned by the new Austrian republic
from ever returning, a ban which also applied to Otto. Karl's attempt
to reclaim the Hungarian throne in 1921 was a miserable failure. Karl
went into exile in Madeira, and died the next year of pneumonia. Otto
succeeded to all the Habsburg claims at the age of only nine.

Otto passed the succeeding years, through the infamous "Anschluß" with
Nazi Germany and the post-war restoration of the Republic, in exile,
though he continued to take a strong interest in the country of his
birth. In 1961 he finally signed a renunciation of his claims to the
Austrian throne, but it was not until 1966 that he got permission to
visit Austria again.

Otto spent most of his later life involved in politics, e.g., as
President of the Paneuropean Union until 2004, and as a member of the
European Parliament until 1999.

Otto's wife, Regina, predeceased him early last year. The couple had
seven children, five daughters and two sons. He was succeeded in 2007
as head of the Austrian House by his son Karl, born in 1961.

Otto is expected to be buried on July 16 in the crypt of his ancestors
in the Kapuzinerkirche in Vienna.

Requisit in Pace