The Mayerling incident is the series of events surrounding the apparent

murder–suicide A murder–suicide is an act where an individual intentionally kills one or more people before killing themselves. The combination of murder and suicide can take various forms: * Suicide after or during murder inflicted on others ** Suicide af ...

pact Pact, The Pact or PACT may refer to: Entertainment * The Pact (novel), ''The Pact'' (novel), by Jodi Picoult, 1998 * The Pact (2002 film), ''The Pact'' (2002 film), adaptation of Picoult's ''The Pact (novel)#Film adaptation, The Pact'' * The Pac ...

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 his mistress,

baroness Mary Vetsera Baroness Marie Alexandrine "Mary" von Vetsera (19 March 1871 – 30 January 1889) was an Austrian nobility, Austrian noblewoman and the Mistress (lover), mistress of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria. Vetsera and the crown prince were found dead ...

. They were found dead on 30 January 1889 in an imperial hunting lodge in

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 ...

. Rudolf, who was married to Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, was the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth, and was

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 ...

to the throne of

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 ...

. Rudolf's mistress was the daughter of Albin von Vetsera, a diplomat at the Austrian court. Albin had been created a ''Freiherr'' (

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

) in 1870. The bodies of the 30-year-old Rudolf and the 17-year-old Mary were discovered in the Imperial hunting lodge at

in the

Vienna Woods The Vienna Woods (, ) are forested highlands that form the northeastern foothills of the Northern Limestone Alps in the states of Lower Austria and Vienna. The and range of hills is heavily wooded and a popular recreation area with the Viennese ...

, southwest of the capital, on the morning of 30 January 1889.Palmer, A. ''Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph''. Atlantic Monthly Press. pp. 246–253 The death of the Crown Prince interrupted the security inherent in the direct line of

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

dynastic succession. As Rudolf had no son, the succession passed to Franz Joseph's brother,

Archduke Archduke (feminine: Archduchess; German: ''Erzherzog'', feminine form: ''Erzherzogin'') was the title borne from 1358 by the Habsburg rulers of the Archduchy of Austria, and later by all senior members of that dynasty. It denotes a rank within ...

Karl Ludwig, and his eldest son, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This destabilisation endangered the growing reconciliation between the Austrian and Hungarian factions of the empire. Succeeding developments led to the

assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife

Sophie Sophie is a feminine given name, another version of Sophia, from the Greek word for "wisdom". People with the name Born in the Middle Ages * Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018–1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson * Soph ...

Gavrilo Princip Gavrilo Princip ( sr-Cyrl, Гаврило Принцип, ; 25 July 189428 April 1918) was a Bosnian Serb student who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie, Duchess von ...

, a Yugoslav nationalist and ethnic Serb, at

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

in June 1914, and the

July Crisis The July Crisis was a series of interrelated diplomatic and military escalations among the Great power, major powers of Europe in mid-1914, Causes of World War I, which led to the outbreak of World War I. It began on 28 June 1914 when the Serbs ...

that led to the start of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Suicide

By 1889, many people at the Imperial Court, including Rudolf's parents and his wife, Stéphanie, knew that Rudolf and Mary were having an affair. His marriage to Stéphanie was not a particularly happy one and had resulted in the birth of only one child, a daughter called Elisabeth, known as Erzsi. Rudolf had infected his wife with

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...

, rendering her unable to have more children. On 29 January 1889, Franz Joseph and Elisabeth gave a family dinner party before leaving for

Buda Buda (, ) is the part of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that lies on the western bank of the Danube. Historically, “Buda” referred only to the royal walled city on Castle Hill (), which was constructed by Béla IV between 1247 and ...

, in Hungary, on 31 January. Rudolf excused himself, claiming to be indisposed. He had arranged for a day's shooting at Mayerling hunting lodge early on the morning of the 30th, but when his valet Loschek went to call him, there was no answer. Joseph Hoyos, the Archduke's hunting companion, joined in, with no response. They tried to force the door, but it would not give. Finally, Loschek smashed in a door panel with a hammer so that he could put his hand through to open the door from the inside. He found the room shuttered and half-dark. Rudolf was found sitting (by some accounts, lying) motionless by the side of the bed, leaning forward and bleeding from the mouth. Before him on the bedside table stood a glass and a mirror. Without closer examination in the poor light, Loschek assumed that the Crown Prince had drunk poison from the glass since he knew

strychnine Strychnine (, , American English, US chiefly ) is a highly toxicity, toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, ...

caused bleeding. On the bed lay the body of Mary ''Freiin'' von Vetsera;

rigor mortis Rigor mortis (), or postmortem rigidity, is the fourth stage of death. It is one of the recognizable signs of death, characterized by stiffening of the limbs of the corpse caused by chemical changes in the muscles postmortem (mainly calcium ...

had already set in. Hoyos did not look any closer, but rushed to the station and took a special train to Vienna. He hurried to the Emperor's Adjutant General, Paar, and requested he break the news to the Emperor. The stifling protocol that characterised every movement in 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 ...

controlled the notification process. Paar protested that only the Empress could break such catastrophic news to the Emperor. Baron Nopcsa, Controller of the Empress's Household, was summoned. He, in turn, sent for Ida Ferenczy, Empress Elisabeth's favourite Hungarian

lady-in-waiting A lady-in-waiting (alternatively written lady in waiting) or court lady is a female personal assistant at a Royal court, court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking nobility, noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was o ...

, to determine how Her Imperial Majesty should be informed. Elisabeth was at her Greek lesson and was impatient at the interruption. Her lips white, Ferenczy announced that Baron Nopcsa had urgent news. Elisabeth replied that Nopcsa must wait and come back later. Ferenczy insisted that Nopcsa must be received immediately, finally adding that there was grave news about the Crown Prince. This account comes from Ferenczy herself and Archduchess Marie Valerie, to whom Elisabeth dictated her memory of the incident, in addition to the description in her diary. Ferenczy entered the room again to find Elisabeth distraught and weeping uncontrollably. The Emperor appeared outside her apartments and was forced to wait there with Nopcsa, who was controlling himself only with great effort. The Empress broke the news to her husband in private. The Minister for Police was summoned and the national security services sealed off the Imperial hunting lodge and the surrounding area.

Attempted cover-up

Eduard von Taaffe, '' Ministerpräsident'' (Minister-President) of

Cisleithania Cisleithania, officially The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council (), was the northern and western part of Austria-Hungary, the Dual Monarchy created in the Compromise of 1867—as distinguished from ''Transleithania'' (i.e., ...

, issued a statement at noon on behalf of the Emperor that Rudolf had died "due to a rupture of an

aneurysm An aneurysm is an outward :wikt:bulge, bulging, likened to a bubble or balloon, caused by a localized, abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel wall. Aneurysms may be a result of a hereditary condition or an acquired disease. Aneurysms can also b ...

of the heart". The Imperial Family and Imperial Court were still under the impression that he had been poisoned. It appears that even Mary's mother,

Helene von Vetsera Baroness Helene von Vetsera (; 1847 – 1 February 1925) was an Austrian noblewoman and socialite. She was the daughter of a wealthy lawyer and financial advisor, and she married Albin Freiherr von Vetsera in 1864. She became a baroness when h ...

, initially believed this. Baroness Mary Vetsera

The Imperial Court medical commission, headed by Dr. Widerhofer, arrived in Mayerling that afternoon and established a more accurate cause of death. Widerhofer made his report to the Emperor at 6 a.m. the following morning. The official gazette of Vienna still reported the original story that day: "His Royal and Imperial Highness, Crown Prince Archduke Rudolf, died yesterday at his hunting lodge of Mayerling, near

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

, from the rupture of an

of the heart." They attempted to state that Vetsera had died on her way to Venice, having her uncles prop up her body with a broomstick to cover up the double suicide as they left the lodge. Vetsera was quickly buried with other suicides, and the imperial court refused to let Vetsera's mother see her daughter's grave for over two months after the burial. Foreign correspondents descended on Mayerling and soon learned that Rudolf's mistress was implicated in his death. This first official version of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

was quickly dropped. At that stage, the "heart failure" version was amended. It was announced that the Crown Prince had first shot the baroness in a suicide pact and sat by her body for several hours before shooting himself. Rudolf and the Emperor were known to have recently had a violent argument, with Franz Joseph demanding that his son end the liaison with his teenage mistress. The police closed their investigations with surprising haste, in apparent response to the Emperor's wishes. Franz Joseph did everything in his power to get the Church's blessing for Rudolf's burial in the

Imperial Crypt The Imperial Crypt (), also called the Capuchin Crypt (''Kapuzinergruft''), is a burial chamber beneath the Capuchin Church and monastery in Vienna, Austria. It was founded in 1618 and dedicated in 1632, and located on the Neuer Markt square of ...

. This would have been impossible had the Crown Prince deliberately committed murder and suicide. The Vatican issued a special dispensation declaring that Rudolf had been in a state of "mental imbalance", and he now lies with 137 other Habsburgs in the

at the Church of the Capuchins in Vienna. However, Rudolf had requested in his farewell note to his mother that he be buried next to Mary Vetsera in Alland. Elisabeth was haunted by this, and visited the Capuchin Crypt, hoping that Rudolf's spirit would visit her and communicate his wishes. The dossier on the investigations and related actions were not deposited in the state archives, as they would typically have been. The story that Rudolf had violently quarreled with the Emperor over his liaison with ''Freiin'' von Vetsera may have been spread by agents of Germany's

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...

, who had little love for the politically liberal Rudolf. It was certainly doubted by many of Rudolf's close relatives, who knew the Chancellor personally. German Empress Victoria wrote: She then wrote to her mother,

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

: Allegations of a double murder masked as a murder–suicide have also been made. In a series of interviews with the Viennese tabloid newspaper '' Kronen Zeitung'', the Empress Zita, who was not born until three years after the incident, expressed her belief that the deaths of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his mistress were not a double suicide, but rather a murder by French agents sent by

Georges Clemenceau Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who was Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A physician turned journalist, he played a central role in the poli ...

Aftermath

The death of Rudolf caused a dynastic crisis. As Rudolf was the only son of Franz Joseph, the emperor's brother, Karl Ludwig, became

heir-presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of a person with a better claim to the position in question. This is in contrast to an heir app ...

. He renounced his succession rights a few days later in favour of his eldest son, Franz Ferdinand. After Franz Ferdinand's assassination in 1914, Franz Ferdinand's nephew (and Karl Ludwig's grandson),

Karl Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl of Austria, last Austrian Emperor * Karl (footballer) (born 1993), Karl Cac ...

, became the heir-presumptive. Karl would ultimately succeed his great-uncle as Emperor Karl I in 1916.

Motivation

In July 2015, the

Austrian National Library The Austrian National Library (, ) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Hofburg#Neue Burg, Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in Innere Stadt, center of Vienna. Sin ...

issued copies of Vetsera's letters of farewell to her mother and other family members. These letters, previously believed to be lost or destroyed, were found in a safe deposit box in an Austrian bank, where they had been deposited in 1926. The letters—written in Mayerling shortly before the deaths—state clearly and unambiguously that Vetsera was preparing to die by suicide alongside Rudolf:

Theories

Brigitte Hamann, in her book ''Rudolf, Crown Prince and Rebel'', states Rudolf had first proposed a double suicide to a prominent courtesan, Mizzi Kaspar. It was after she refused that Rudolf proposed the death pact with the more susceptible Vetsera. Hamann, in an interview, argued Rudolf "was a poetic young man and brooded a lot. He was ill with

and felt guilty that he had infected his wife." This is the theory most widely accepted by historians. Another theory is the exacerbation of his mental health struggles from abuse during his childhood culminated in the suicide pact. He became more unstable over the course of his marriage and varied affairs, and offered the suicide pact to a variety of people. Vetsera was only 17, and believed she could not live without Rudolf, leading to the joint suicide (with Rudolf killing Vetsera several hours before killing himself). Gerd Holler argues in his book ''Mayerling--New Documents on the Tragedy 100 Years Afterward'' that Mary was three months pregnant with Rudolf's child. Rudolf arranged an abortion for Mary, who died in the process. Rudolf then committed suicide. Lucy Coatman believes this is not possible, citing one of Mary's letters to Hermine Tobis as her source: "'We both lost our heads', Mary wrote to Hermine, 'and I became a woman! Now we belong to each other in body and soul.' Her letter makes it clear this was Mary's first sexual experience. This disproves the abortion theory (her pregnancy would not have been evident by the time of their deaths) .." Clemens M. Gruber, in a piece called ''The Fateful Days of Mayerling'', argues Rudolf died in a drinking brawl. In Gruber's story, Vetsera's relatives forced their way into the lodge and Rudolf drew a revolver, accidentally shooting the baroness. He was then killed by one of her relatives.

Exhumations and forensic evidence

Freiin (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , ) and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in ...

'' von Vetsera's body was spirited out of Mayerling and interred in the graveyard at Heiligenkreuz. In 1946, occupying

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

troops dislodged the granite plate covering the grave and broke into Vetsera's coffin in the graveyard, perhaps hoping to loot it of jewels. This break-in was not discovered until 1955 when the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

withdrew from Austria per the Austrian State Treaty. In 1959, a young physician named Gerd Holler, stationed in the area, accompanied by a member of the Vetsera family and specialists in funereal preservation, inspected her remains. Holler carefully examined the skull and other bones for traces of a bullet hole but stated that he found no such evidence. Intrigued, Holler claimed he petitioned the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

to inspect their 1889 archives of the affair, where the

papal nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is a ...

's investigation had concluded that only one bullet was fired. Lacking forensic evidence of a second bullet, Holler advanced the theory that Vetsera died accidentally, probably as the result of an abortion, and it was Rudolf who consequently shot himself. Holler witnessed the body's re-interment in a new coffin in 1959. In 1991, Vetsera's remains were disturbed again, this time by Helmut Flatzelsteiner, a

Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

furniture dealer who was obsessed with the Mayerling affair. Initial reports were that her bones were strewn around the churchyard for the authorities to retrieve. But Flatzelsteiner removed them at night for a private forensic examination at his expense, which finally took place in February 1993. Flatzelsteiner told the examiners that the remains were those of a relative killed some 100 years ago, who had possibly been shot in the head or stabbed. One expert thought this might be possible, but since the skull was not only in a state of disintegration but was actually incomplete, this could not be confirmed. Flatzelsteiner then approached a journalist at the '' Kronen Zeitung'' to sell both the story and Vetsera's skeleton. That these were Vetsera's remains was confirmed through forensic examination. The body was re-interred in the original grave in October 1993, and after a court case, Flatzelsteiner paid the abbey €2000 for damages.

In the media

The Mayerling affair has been dramatized in:

Literature

* ''A Nervous Splendor: Vienna, 1888–1889'' – a work of popular history by Frederic Morton * ''Mayerling: The Love and Tragedy of a Crown Prince'' – a novel by Jean Schopfer (pseudonym of Claude Anet). * ''Angel's Coffin (Ave Maria/Tenshi no Hitsugi)'' – 2000 Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

by You Higuri.

Stage

* '' Marinka'' – 1945 premier; operetta by Hungarian composer

Emmerich Kálmán Emmerich Kálmán ( ; 24 October 1882 – 30 October 1953) was a Kingdom of Hungary, Hungarian composer of operettas and a prominent figure in the development of Operetta#Austria–Hungary, Viennese operetta in the 20th century. Among his most p ...

;

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

by George Marion, Jr. and

Karl Farkas Karl Farkas (28 October 1893 – 16 May 1971) was an Austrian actor and cabaret performer. Biography In accordance with the wishes of his parents, he was to study law, but decided to follow the call of the stage. After attending the Academy of ...

, lyrics by George Marion, Jr. * ''Mayerling'' – 1957 opera by Barbara Giuranna * ''

'' – 1978 ballet created by

Kenneth MacMillan Sir Kenneth MacMillan (11 December 192929 October 1992) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer who was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977, and its principal choreographer from 1977 until his death. Ea ...

* '' Elisabeth'' – 1992 musical; book/lyrics by

Michael Kunze Michael Rolf Kunze (born 9 November 1943, in Prague) is a foremost German musical theater lyricist and librettist. He is best known for the hit musicals ''Elisabeth (musical), Elisabeth'' (1992), ''Tanz der Vampire'' (1996), ''Mozart!'' (1999), ...

, music by

Sylvester Levay Sylvester Levay (originally Lévay Szilveszter, Serbian language, Serbian: Силвестер Леваи, ''Silvester Levai'') is a Hungarian people, Hungarian recording artist and composer, born in Yugoslavia (now Serbia). Life and career Levay ...

. Incident is dramatized as a stylized dance sequence * ''Mayerling : Requiem einer Liebe'' – 2006 German crossover opera by Ricardo Urbetsch, lyrics by Siegfried Carl * '' Rudolf'' – 2006 musical by

Frank Wildhorn Frank Wildhorn (born November 29, 1958) is an American composer of both musicals and popular songs. His musical ''Jekyll & Hyde (musical), Jekyll & Hyde'' ran for four years on Broadway. He also wrote the hit song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" for ...

and Steve Cuden; premiered 26 May 2006: Operett Színház, Budapest * ''Rudolf'' – 2011 play by David Logan dramatises the last few weeks of the life of Crown Prince Rudolf * ''Utakata No Koi'' ("Fleeting Love") – 1983 premier; Japanese play by

Takarazuka Revue The is a Japanese all-female musical theatre troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyōgo, Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway theatre, Broadway-style productions of musicals and stories adapted from films, nov ...

Film

* '' Tragedy in the House of Habsburg'' – 1924 German silent film directed by

Alexander Korda Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; ; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)

* '' The Fate of the House of Habsburg'' – 1928 German silent film directed by Rolf Raffé * ''

'' – 1936 French film directed by

Anatole Litvak Anatoly Mikhailovich Litvak (10 May 1902 – 15 December 1974), commonly known as Anatole Litvak, was a Russian-American filmmaker. Born to Jewish parents in Kiev, he began his theatrical training at age 13 in Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg, ...

* '' De Mayerling à Sarajevo'' – 1940 French film directed by

Max Ophüls Maximillian Oppenheimer ( , ; 6 May 1902 – 26 March 1957), known as Max Ophüls ( , , ) or simply Ophuls, was a German and French film director and screenwriter. He was known for his opulent and lyrical visual style, with heavy use of trac ...

* '' Le Secret de Mayerling'' – 1949 French film directed by

Jean Delannoy Jean Delannoy (; 12 January 1908 – 18 June 2008) was a French actor, film editor, screenwriter and film director. Biography Although Delannoy was born in a Paris suburb, his family was from Haute-Normandie in the north of France. He was a Pro ...

*'' Kronprinz Rudolfs letzte Liebe'' - 1955 Austrian film directed by Rudolf Jugert * ''

'' – 1968 British/French film (in English) directed by Terence Young * '' Private Vices, Public Virtues (Vizi privati, pubbliche virtù)'' – 1976 Italian/Yugoslavian film (in Italian) directed by

Miklós Jancsó Miklós Jancsó (; 27 September 192131 January 2014) was a Hungarian people, Hungarian film director and screenwriter. Jancsó achieved international prominence starting in the mid-1960s with works including ''Szegénylegények, The Round-Up'' ...

* '' The Illusionist'' – 2006 American film directed by

Neil Burger Neil Norman Burger is an Americans, American filmmaker. He is known for the fake-documentary ''Interview with the Assassin'' (2002), the period drama ''The Illusionist (2006 film), The Illusionist'' (2006), ''Limitless (film), Limitless'' (2011 ...

; includes a fictionalized depiction of the incident

Radio

* ''The Story of Mayerling'' – 1950 American radio play on ''Theater of Romance'' ( CBS); episode 244: August 1, 1950 * ''Mayerling Revisted'' – 1977 American radio play on '' CBS Radio Mystery Theater''; episode 0648: May 16, 1977. Modern

frame story A frame story (also known as a frame tale, frame narrative, sandwich narrative, or intercalation) is a literary technique that serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, where an introductory or main narrative sets the stage either fo ...

of the contemporary events.

Television

* ''

'' – 1957 American television episode of '' Producers' Showcase'' (released theatrically in Europe) directed by

* "Requiem For A Crown Prince" – 1974 British television series ''

Fall of Eagles Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March (Southern Hemisphere ...

''; episode 4 * '' Kronprinz Rudolfs letzte Liebe'' (US release titled ''The Crown Prince)'' – 2006 Austrian TV film directed by Robert Dornhelm