Archduchess Elisabeth Marie Of Austria
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Archduchess Elisabeth Marie Henriette Stephanie Gisela of Austria (; 2 September 1883 – 16 March 1963) was the only child of
Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria (Rudolf Franz Karl Josef; 21 August 1858 – 30 January 1889) was the only son and third child of Franz Joseph I of Austria, Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. He was heir apparent to the imp ...
, and
Princess Stéphanie of Belgium Princess Stéphanie Clotilde Louise Herminie Marie Charlotte of Belgium (21 May 1864 – 23 August 1945) was a Belgian royal family, Belgian princess who became Crown Princess of Austria through marriage to Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, Crown P ...
. Her father was the son and
heir apparent An heir apparent is a person who is first in the order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more e ...
of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, and her mother was a daughter of King Leopold II of Belgium. She was known to her family as "Erzsi", a diminutive of her name Erzsébet in Hungarian. Later nicknamed The Red Archduchess, she was famous for becoming a
socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
and a member of the
Austrian Social Democratic Party The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...
.


Early life

Archduchess Elisabeth (nicknamed 'Erzsi' - the abbreviation of the Hungarian version of her first name Erzsébet) was born at
Schloss Laxenburg Laxenburg castles are imperial palaces and castles outside Vienna, in the town of Laxenburg owned in equal parts by Vienna and Lower Austria.Leopold II of Belgium Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Leo ...
. She was named after her grandmothers,
Empress Elisabeth of Austria Elisabeth (born Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria; 24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898), nicknamed Sisi or Sissi, was Empress of Austria and List of Hungarian consorts, Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Franz Joseph I of Austri ...
and Queen Marie Henriette of Belgium. Erzsi was Franz Joseph's only grandchild through his son. In 1889, when Erzsi was a little over five years old, her father and Baroness Mary von Vetsera, his mistress, were found dead in what was assumed to be a murder-suicide pact at the Imperial hunting lodge at
Mayerling Mayerling is a small village (pop. 200) in Lower Austria belonging to the municipality of Alland in the district of Baden (district of Austria), Baden. It is situated on the Schwechat river, in the Vienna Woods, Wienerwald (''Vienna woods''), so ...
. Her father's death interrupted the dynastic succession within the Austrian imperial family, fractured her grandparents' already tenuous marriage and was a catalyst in
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
's gradual destabilization, which culminated in the First World War and the subsequent disintegration of the
Habsburg Empire The Habsburg monarchy, also known as Habsburg Empire, or Habsburg Realm (), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities (composite monarchy) that were ruled by the House of Habsburg. From the 18th century it is ...
. After Rudolf's death, Franz Joseph took over guardianship of Erzsi; by his order, she was forbidden to leave Austria with her mother. At a young age she displayed a strong personality, as well as an opposition to the Viennese court. Her grandmother, the capricious and image obsessed Empress Elisabeth, did not enjoy being identified as a grandmother and was therefore not close to any of her grandchildren. However, after her assassination in 1898, her will specified that outside a large bequest of the sale of her jewels to benefit charities and
religious orders A religious order is a subgroup within a larger confessional community with a distinctive high-religiosity lifestyle and clear membership. Religious orders often trace their lineage from revered teachers, venerate their founders, and have a d ...
, all of her personal property was bequeathed to Erzsi, her namesake and Rudolf's only child. The Empress made no secret of her dislike of her daughter-in-law prior to the scandal, and after the
Mayerling incident The Mayerling incident is the series of events surrounding the apparent murder–suicide suicide pact, pact of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, and his mistress, baroness Mary Vetsera. They were found dead on 30 January 1889 in an imperial ...
, blamed Stéphanie's jealous behavior for her son's depression and suicide. The crown princess herself was entirely dependent on the Emperor's charity, therefore the lack of imperial support towards Stéphanie following her husband's death negatively impacted her relationship with her daughter; the parent and child were never close. In 1900, Stéphanie renounced her title of Crown Princess to marry the Protestant Hungarian count Elemér Lónyay von Nagy-Lónya und Vásáros-Namény (he was eventually made a Prince in 1917 by Emperor Karl I.). Although Emperor Franz Joseph provided his daughter-in-law with a dowry and Lónyay eventually converted to Roman Catholicism, Elisabeth broke off all contact with her mother as she disapproved of the marriage, feeling it a betrayal of her father's memory. Later, following her marriage, Stéphanie retaliated by disinheriting Elisabeth in 1934.


First marriage

Elisabeth was considered a potential bride for several princes in Europe; among them was her cousin
Prince Albert Prince Albert most commonly refers to: *Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria *Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco Prince Albert may also refer to: Royalty * Alb ...
, heir presumptive to the throne of Belgium. However,
King Leopold II Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Le ...
vehemently disapproved of Stéphanie's recent
morganatic marriage Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spou ...
to Count Elemér Lónyay and thus refused to give Albert his permission. Albert's sister Henriette was horrified at her brother's choice, feeling Elisabeth's background was too unstable for the marriage to be a success. During a court ball in 1900, Elisabeth met Prince Otto Weriand of Windisch-Graetz (1873–1952), son of Prince Ernst Ferdinand Weriand of
Windisch-Graetz The House of Windisch-Graetz, also spelled Windischgrätz, is an ancient Austrian aristocratic family, descending from Windischgrätz in Lower Styria (present-day Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia). The noble dynasty serving the House of Habsburg achieve ...
(1827–1918) and Princess Kamilla Amalia Caroline Notgera of Oettingen-Oettingen und Oettingen-Spielberg (1845–1888). Ten years her senior, he was below her in rank. Nonetheless she importuned her grandfather to be allowed to marry him. Franz Joseph resisted at first, having intended for Elisabeth to marry the German Crown Prince, but eventually relented. Elisabeth and Prince Otto were related through her grandmother Sissi. They were third cousins twice removed as Otto was third cousin of the late Empress, both descending from Duke Charles Marie of Arenberg. By many accounts it was Elisabeth alone who wanted the marriage, as Otto was already engaged to a Countess von Schönborn and was reportedly dumbfounded when Franz Joseph informed him of his new engagement. Ordered by the Emperor to break his "lesser" engagement to marry his granddaughter, he complied. In order to avoid future succession issues, the Emperor made the marriage conditional on Elisabeth's renouncing her right to succession, although he allowed her to keep her personal title and style, as well as providing her with a generous dowry. While his family was officially listed in the Habsburg list of families which were allowed to make an equal marriage (''Ebenbürtigkeit'') with an Imperial family, they still regarded Otto's Mediatized House and the marriage as a mésalliance and wanted the marriage to be treated as
morganatic Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...
. As it was a case of the Emperor's favorite granddaughter and Otto's family was legally considered equal for dynastic purposes, as were marriages with all other mediatized Princely families, the marriage was officially treated as equal and his family would have grounds for pressing Elisabeth to become empress should the succession become interrupted again. The couple married at the
Hofburg The Hofburg () is the former principal imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty in Austria. Located in the Innere Stadt, center of Vienna, it was built in the 13th century by Ottokar II of Bohemia and expanded several times afterwards. It also ser ...
on 23 January 1902. They had three sons: Prince Franz Joseph, Prince Ernst and Prince Rudolf. Their last child and only daughter, Princess Stephanie, was born at Ploschkowitz. The marriage, however, was troubled, and led to unwelcome reminders for the Emperor of his son's death, and possible further scandal for the family:


"The Red Archduchess"

Throughout their marriage both Elisabeth and Otto were open in having affairs, most notably the former's liaison with the young Austrian naval officer Egon Lerch, who would later command the submarine U-12 during World War I. Only after the death of Franz Joseph in 1916 and the end of the monarchy in 1918 did the couple officially separate. In 1921 Elisabeth joined the
Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...
, where she met Leopold Petznek from
Bruck an der Leitha Bruck an der Leitha (; "Bridge on the Leitha") is a town in the Austrian state of Lower Austria on the border of Burgenland, marked by the Leitha river. In 2018 it had a population of around 8,000. History In and around Bruck parts of Neolithi ...
, then president of the audit office, at one of the election meetings. A teacher and a committed Social Democratic politician who became president of the
Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...
n ''Landtag'' (state parliament) after the war, Petznek came from a modest background, but was highly cultivated. He was also married; his wife, with whom he had a son, was institutionalized at a psychiatric hospital in Mauer-Ohling, where she died on 9 June 1935. The lengthy legal process dragged on, and it was not until March 1924 that Elisabeth was able to obtain a judicial separation. A sensational custody battle for their four children ensued. Originally the court granted Elisabeth custody of the two elder sons, while their younger son and daughter were to live with Otto. She is supposed to have prevented this either by presenting Otto with a house full of armed Socialists when he came to remove them, or else by threatening him with suicide should she have to give them up. In any event, Elisabeth ultimately retained custody of all four children. Elisabeth doted on her children when they were young, but her relationship with them deteriorated as they grew older. Rudolf, in accordance with her socialist views, was reportedly taken out of school and put to work in a factory. Elisabeth and her daughter Stephanie did not have a good relationship; she reportedly stated that she married her first husband based on the fact that her mother did not like him. Elisabeth moved to the
Hütteldorf Hütteldorf (; Central Bavarian: ''Hittldorf'') is a part of Vienna's 14th district, Penzing. It is located in the west of Vienna, in the geographical center of the district, stretching roughly from ''Deutschordenstraße'' (which forms the borde ...
district of Vienna and bought a villa in 1929, where she lived with Petznek for the next twenty years. She was at his side at Social Democratic marches and meetings, where she was accepted and accorded great respect. Leopold, however, due to his "haughty" character, was not welcome in aristocratic circles. In 1934 her husband and son made a legal motion to place her under a conservatorship on the grounds that she had squandered profits from the sale of the couple's property in numerous donations, made in order to join the Social Democrats. The motion was later dropped. Although divorce became legal in 1938, when Austria became part of Germany and adopted German law after the
Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...
, Elisabeth was not able to divorce her husband until after the end of the war.


Second marriage

In late 1933 Petznek was arrested and imprisoned by the Austrian government until July 1934. In 1944, he was arrested by the
Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
and sent to
Dachau concentration camp Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...
until the camp was liberated by the Americans in March 1945. After the war he became the first President of the Austrian Federal
Court of Audit A Court of Audit or Court of Accounts is a supreme audit institution, i.e. a government institution performing financial and/or legal audit (i.e. statutory audit or external audit) on the executive branch of power. See also *Most of those ...
. Since Elisabeth renounced her official title of Archduchess to the House of Habsburg at the time of her first marriage, the new Habsburg Laws did not apply to her; she was allowed to stay in Austria and retain her personal possessions. She formally divorced Prince Otto in early 1948, and on 4 May 1948 she and Leopold married in a
registry office A register office, commonly referred to unofficially as a registry office or registrar's office is an office in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries responsible for the civil registration ...
in Vienna. When Vienna was occupied by the Red Army, Elisabeth's villa was commandeered and then ransacked by Soviet soldiers. When Hütteldorf became part of the French occupied zone, the villa was occupied by General Bethouart; Elisabeth and Leopold were not allowed to return until 1955, when the Allied occupation ended. By then both were in poor health: Petznek died in July 1956 from a heart attack, while Elisabeth—who was confined to a wheelchair due to gout—bred
German Shepherds The German Shepherd, also known in Britain as an Alsatian, is a German breed of working dog of medium to large size. The breed was developed by Max von Stephanitz using various traditional German herding dogs from 1899. It was originally br ...
, but became reclusive until her death in 1963.


Aftermath

On her deathbed, she ordered her staff to close her villa against her two surviving children and call for a police detail to secure her belongings until the Ministry of Education could remove them. Only her daughter was allowed to see her for a few moments, in the presence of her servants. She had willed some 500 heirlooms, owned by the Habsburg Imperial family, to the Republic of Austria. Over the objections of her first husband, who thought they should go to their children, she wanted all art and books to "be put back in their former places", as she did not believe Imperial property should be sold at auction or come into the possession of foreigners; these pieces are in museums in Vienna today. She died in Vienna, aged 79. According to her wishes, she was buried in an unmarked grave at the Hütteldorfer Friedhof in Vienna with her second husband, close to the house where she spent her last years. Since 1995, the villa has been in the possession of the international (Buddhist) community
Soka Gakkai is a Japanese new religions, Japanese new religion led by Minoru Harada since December 2023 based on the teachings of the 13th-century Buddhist priest Nichiren. It claims the largest membership among Nichiren Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhist group ...
International.


Honours

* : Dame of the
Order of the Starry Cross The Order of the Starry Cross (also known as Order of the Star Cross or Star Cross Order; German: ''Sternkreuz-Orden'') is an imperial Austrian dynastic order for Catholic noble ladies, founded in 1668. The order still exists under the House of Ha ...
Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie (1915)
Genealogy p. 1


Issue

# Franz Joseph (b. 1904 – d. 1981), m. in 1934 Countess Ghislaine d'Arschot Schoonhoven (b. 1912 – d. 1997) and had: ## Stephanie Maria Eva (b. 1939 – d. 2019) ## Guillaume Franz Josef (b. 1950) # Ernst (b. 1905 – d. 1952), m. in 1927 Helena Skinner (b. 1906 – d. 1982) and in 1947 Baroness Eva Marcelline Jacqueline Marie von Isbary (b. 1921), daughter of Lothar Rudolf Walter, Baron von Isabry (1887-1963) and his wife, Aloisia Klepsch-Kloth von Roden (1899-1964). He had: ## Otto Ernst Wilhelm (b. 1928) ## Stephanie Maria Magdalena (b. 1933) ## Eleonore Aloysia Elisabeth Maria (b. 1947) ## Elisabeth Maria Eva Margarita (b. 1951) # Rudolf (b. 1907 – d. 1930), never married and had no issue; #
Stephanie Stephanie is a female name that comes from the Greek name Στέφανος (Stephanos) meaning "crown, wreath, garland". The male form is Stephen. Forms of Stephanie in other languages include the German "Stefanie", the Italian, Czech, Pol ...
(b. 1909 – d. 2005), m. in 1934 Pierre d'Alcantara de Querrieu (b. 1907 – d. 1944) and in 1945 Karl Axel Björklund (b. 1906 – d. 1986) and had: ## Alvar Etienne d'Alcantara de Querrieu (b. 1935 – d. 2019) ## Bjorn-Axel Björklund (b. 1944 – d. 1995)


Ancestry


See also

*
Princess María Teresa of Bourbon-Parma Princess Marie-Thérèse of Bourbon-Parma (Spanish: ''María Teresa de Borbón-Parma'', French: ''Marie-Thérèse de Bourbon-Parme''; 28 July 1933 – 26 March 2020) was a French-Spanish political activist and academic. She was a member of t ...
, fellow socialist Royal, nicknamed ''"the Red Princess"''


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elisabeth Marie of Austria, Archduchess Austrian socialists Austrian princesses 20th-century House of Habsburg Windisch-Graetz Austrian people of Belgian descent People from Laxenburg 1883 births 1963 deaths Austrian Roman Catholics Knights of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary Burials in Vienna