Archduchess Adelheid of Austria (3 January 1914 – 2 October 1971) was an

archduchess of Austria The Archduchy of Austria (german: Erzherzogtum Österreich) was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire and the nucleus of the Habsburg monarchy. With its capital at Vienna, the archduchy was centered at the Empire's southeastern periph ...

, as the daughter of Emperor Charles I of Austria and

Empress Zita Zita of Bourbon-Parma (''Zita Maria delle Grazie Adelgonda Micaela Raffaela Gabriella Giuseppina Antonia Luisa Agnese''; 9 May 1892 – 14 March 1989) was the wife of Charles, the last monarch of Austria-Hungary. As such, she was the last Empres ...

Biography

Early years

Archduchess Adelheid was born on 3 January 1914,Birth record in church book
of parish Vienna - Hetzendorf, p. 03-Taufe_0267 in the

Schloss Hetzendorf ''Schloss Hetzendorf'' is a baroque palace in Hetzendorf, Meidling, Vienna, that was used by the imperial Habsburg family. History The building was originally a hunting lodge. It was refashioned by the architect Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt. ...

. She was the second child and eldest daughter of

Archduke Charles of Austria Archduke Charles Louis John Joseph Laurentius of Austria, Duke of Teschen (german: link=no, Erzherzog Karl Ludwig Johann Josef Lorenz von Österreich, Herzog von Teschen; 5 September 177130 April 1847) was an Austrian field-marshal, the third s ...

and his wife,

Zita of Bourbon-Parma Zita of Bourbon-Parma (''Zita Maria delle Grazie Adelgonda Micaela Raffaela Gabriella Giuseppina Antonia Luisa Agnese''; 9 May 1892 – 14 March 1989) was the wife of Charles, the last monarch of Austria-Hungary. As such, she was the last Empres ...

. On 7 January 1914 she was baptised by

Friedrich Gustav Piffl Friedrich Gustav Piffl (15 October 1864 – 21 April 1932) was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Archbishop of Vienna. Gustav Piffl was born in Lanškroun, Bohemia, in what was then the Austrian Empire. He was the son of Rudolf Piffl ...

; her baptismal names were: ''Adelheid Maria Josepha Sixta Antonia Roberta Ottonia Zita Charlotte Luise Immakulata Pia Theresia Beatrix Franziska Isabella Henriette Maximiliana Genoveva Ignatia Marcus d'Aviano''. Her godparents that stood for her were her father’s mother, Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony, and her mother’s brother

Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma (; 1 August 1886 – 14 March 1934) was a member of the House of Bourbon-Parma, a Belgian officer in World War I, and the central figure in the Sixtus Affair, an attempt to negotiate a treaty to end Austria-Hungary' ...

. On 21 November 1916, Adelheid's great-grand uncle,

Emperor Franz Joseph Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...

, died and her father succeeded him as

emperor of Austria The Emperor of Austria (german: Kaiser von Österreich) was the ruler of the Austrian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A hereditary imperial title and office proclaimed in 1804 by Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, a member of the Hou ...

and

king of Hungary The King of Hungary ( hu, magyar király) was the ruling head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 (or 1001) to 1918. The style of title "Apostolic King of Hungary" (''Apostoli Magyar Király'') was endorsed by Pope Clement XIII in 175 ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Adelheid would often accompany her brother, Crown Prince Otto, and father on trips to inspect the Austrian troops. Following the Austro-Hungarian Empire's defeat in the war, her father was forced to renounce participation in state affairs and subsequently the empire was dismantled—and republics were established in Austria and Hungary. In 1919, Adelheid and her family were sent into exile, first in Switzerland and lastly in the Island of Madeira. Zita,_Empress_of_Austria_and_Queen_of_Hungary_with_her_daughter_Adelheid

Zita,_Empress_of_Austria_and_Queen_of_Hungary_with_her_daughter_Adelheid

On 9 March 1922, Adelheid was with her brother Otto and father when he went into town to buy toys for

Carl Ludwig Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (; 29 December 1816 – 23 April 1895) was a German physician and physiologist. His work as both a researcher and teacher had a major influence on the understanding, methods and apparatus used in almost all branches ...

’s birthday. On the way back, they were enveloped by chill mists; due to this, her father caught a cold that later developed into

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

, from which he died on 1 April.

Later life

In December 1933 she became the first member of her family to set foot in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

since the establishment of the republic, when she arrived by train from

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

. Adelheid attended the University of Louvain and gained a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

in 1938. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

she emigrated with most of her family to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

to escape the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

; she would later return to Europe. On 2 October 1971, Adelheid died unmarried and childless in

Pöcking Pöcking is a municipality in the district of Starnberg in Bavaria in Germany. Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria, consort of Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria-Hungary, grew up here in the Possenhofen Castle as daughter of Duke Max in Bavaria and Prin ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, aged 57. She is currently buried in the Tulfes Friedhof.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adelheid Of Austria, Archduchess 1914 births 1971 deaths House of Habsburg-Lorraine Austrian princesses Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni Austrian Roman Catholics 20th-century Christians 20th-century Roman Catholics 20th-century Austrian people 20th-century Austrian women People from Meidling Austrian exiles Austrian emigrants to Switzerland Austrian emigrants to the United States Austrian emigrants to Germany Daughters of emperors Children of Charles I of Austria Daughters of kings