hu, Erzsébet Mária Henrietta Stefánia Gizella
, house =
Habsburg-Lorraine
The House of Habsburg-Lorraine (german: Haus Habsburg-Lothringen) originated from the marriage in 1736 of Francis III, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, and Maria Theresa of Austria, later successively Queen of Bohemia, Queen of Hungary, Queen of Cr ...
, father =
Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria
en, Rudolph Francis Charles Joseph
, caption = Rudolf in 1887
, spouse =
, issue = Elisabeth Marie, Princess Otto of Windisch-Graetz
, house = Habsburg-Lorraine
, father = Franz Joseph I of Austria
, mother ...
, mother =
Princess Stéphanie of Belgium
Princess Stéphanie Clotilde Louise Herminie Marie Charlotte of Belgium (21 May 1864 – 23 August 1945) was a Belgian princess who became Crown Princess of Austria through marriage to Crown Prince Rudolf, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hu ...
, spouse =
, issue =
, religion =
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
, birth_place =
Franzensburg Castle,
Laxenburg __NOTOC__
Laxenburg (Central Bavarian: ''Laxnbuag'') is a market town in the district of Mödling, in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Located about south of the Austrian capital Vienna, it is chiefly known for the Laxenburg castles, which, b ...
,
Lower Austria
Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...
,
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
, death_place = Villa Windisch-Graetz,
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 border ...
,
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, Austria
, place of burial = Hütteldorfer Friedhof
Archduchess Elisabeth Marie Henriette Stephanie Gisela of Austria ( hu, Erzsébet Mária Henrietta Stefánia Gizella; 2 September 1883 – 16 March 1963) was the only child of
Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria
en, Rudolph Francis Charles Joseph
, caption = Rudolf in 1887
, spouse =
, issue = Elisabeth Marie, Princess Otto of Windisch-Graetz
, house = Habsburg-Lorraine
, father = Franz Joseph I of Austria
, mother ...
, and
Princess Stéphanie of Belgium
Princess Stéphanie Clotilde Louise Herminie Marie Charlotte of Belgium (21 May 1864 – 23 August 1945) was a Belgian princess who became Crown Princess of Austria through marriage to Crown Prince Rudolf, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hu ...
. Her father was the son and
heir apparent
An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
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 in
Hungarian. Later nicknamed The Red Archduchess, she was famous for becoming a socialist and a member of the
Austrian Social Democratic Party
The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...
.
Early life
Archduchess Elisabeth, nicknamed 'Erzsi', 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
* german: link=no, Leopold Ludwig Philipp Maria Viktor
, house = Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
, father = Leopold I of Belgium
, mother = Louise of Orléans
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Brussels, Belgium
, death_date = ...
. She was named after her grandmothers, Empress Elisabeth of Austria 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. It is situated on the Schwechat river, in the Wienerwald (''Vienna woods''), southwest of Vienna. From 1550, it was in the ...
. 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, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
's gradual destabilization, which culminated in the First World War and the subsequent disintegration of the Habsburg Empire.
![Erzsibeth 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Erzsibeth_2.jpg)
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
Elizabeth Petrovna (russian: Елизаве́та (Елисаве́та) Петро́вна) (), also known as Yelisaveta or Elizaveta, reigned as Empress of Russia from 1741 until her death in 1762. She remains one of the most popular Russian ...
, 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 lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practi ...
, 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, 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, later Prince
Elemér Lónyay von Nagy-Lónya und Vásáros-Namény. Although Franz Joseph provided her with a dowry and
Lónyay eventually
converted, 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, heir presumptive to the
throne of Belgium. However,
King Leopold II
* german: link=no, Leopold Ludwig Philipp Maria Viktor
, house = Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
, father = Leopold I of Belgium
, mother = Louise of Orléans
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Brussels, Belgium
, death_date = ...
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 spous ...
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.
![Archduchess Elisabeth and Prince Otto zu Windisch-Graetz 002](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Archduchess_Elisabeth_and_Prince_Otto_zu_Windisch-Graetz_002.jpg)
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 Windisch-Grätz, is an Austrian-Slovenian aristocratic family, descending from Windischgraz in Lower Styria (present-day Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia). The noble dynasty serving the House of Habsburg achieved ...
(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 two times 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
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
(''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. Located in the centre of Vienna, it was built in the 13th century and expanded several times afterwards. It also served as the imperial winter residence, as Schönbrunn ...
on 23 January 1902. They had three sons:
Prince Franz Joseph (1904–1981),
Prince Ernst (1905–1952) and
Prince Rudolf (1907–1939). Their last child and only daughter,
Princess Stephanie (1909–2005), 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 Egon Lerch, an Austrian submarine captain 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
Fo ...
, where she met
Leopold Petznek from
Bruck an der Leitha
Bruck an der Leitha ( bar, label=Central Bavarian, Bruck aun da Leitha; "Bridge on the Leitha") is a town in the state of Lower Austria of Austria on the border of Burgenland, marked by the Leitha river. In 2018 it had a population of around 8,00 ...
, 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 (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...
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 border ...
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, 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 ( ; 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 Na ...
and sent to
Dachau concentration camp
,
, commandant = List of commandants
, known for =
, location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany
, built by = Germany
, operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS)
, original use = Political prison
, construction ...
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 in ...
.
As 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 or The General Register Office, much more commonly but erroneously registry office (except in official use), is a British government office where births, deaths, marriages, civil partnership, stillbirths and adoptions in England, ...
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 or 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 bred as a herding dog, for h ...
, but became reclusive until her death in 1963.
Aftermath
![Archduchess Erzsi nameless grave1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Archduchess_Erzsi_nameless_grave1.jpg)
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 International.
Honours
* : Dame of the
Order of the Starry Cross
The Order of the Starry Cross (or Order of the Star Cross/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 Habsburg-Lorrain ...
Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie (1915)
Genealogy p. 1
Ancestry
See also
* Elisabeth Island (An island in Franz Josef Land, Russia, that was named in her honor).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elisabeth Marie of Austria, Archduchess
Austrian socialists
Austrian princesses
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