en, Otto Francis Joseph Charles Louis Maria , image = ArchdukeOttoof Austria.jpg , birth_date = , birth_place =

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popula ...

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central- Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria Archduke Karl Ludwig Josef Maria of Austria (30 July 1833 – 19 May 1896) was the younger brother of both Franz Joseph I of Austria and Maximilian I of Mexico, and the father of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (1863–1914), whose assassin ...

, mother =

Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies Princess Maria Annunciata Isabella Filomena Sabasia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (Italian: ''Maria Annunziata Isabella Filomena Sabasia, Principessa di Borbone delle Due Sicilie''; 24 March 1843 – 4 May 1871) was a political figure from the House ...

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Charles I of Austria Charles I or Karl I (german: Karl Franz Josef Ludwig Hubert Georg Otto Maria, hu, Károly Ferenc József Lajos Hubert György Ottó Mária; 17 August 18871 April 1922) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary (as Charles IV, ), King of Croati ...

Archduke Maximilian Eugen , burial_place=

Imperial Crypt The Imperial Crypt (german: Kaisergruft), 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 Neu ...

Archduke Otto Franz Joseph Karl Ludwig Maria of Austria (21 April 1865 – 1 November 1906) was the second son of

(younger brother of Emperor

Franz Joseph I of Austria 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 ...

) and his second wife,

. He was the father of

, the final

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 ...

Biography

Heirs presumptive

Otto was a son of

and his wife,

. Otto's father, Karl Ludwig, was a younger brother of Emperor

; and 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 an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question. ...

to the Austro-Hungarian throne when his cousin Crown Prince Rudolf committed suicide in 1889. Although a newspaper account claimed that Karl Ludwig renounced his rights to the throne that same year (1889) in favour of his eldest son,

Franz Ferdinand Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I. Fr ...

, that story is not certain. On the death of Karl Ludwig in May 1896, Otto's brother Franz Ferdinand did indeed become heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. At the time of their father's death, Franz Ferdinand had been ill with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, ...

and there was speculation that Franz Ferdinand would renounce his rights, which would have made his brother, Otto, heir presumptive. However, this did not happen, and Otto was never first in line to the throne. In 1914, Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by the Serbian nationalist

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

Gavrilo Princip Gavrilo Princip ( sr-Cyrl, Гаврило Принцип, ; 25 July 189428 April 1918) was a Bosnian Serb student who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. Pr ...

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

, and Otto's son

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

became heir presumptive. Charles inherited the throne two years later.

Youth

Otto's mother died when he was six years old. Otto and his elder brother Franz Ferdinand were taught by Alfred Ludwig, Baron of Degenfeld. Otto was not interested in learning and often played pranks on his teachers. Nevertheless, his teachers preferred the cheerful Otto more than his grumpy and irascible older brother. He was also his father's favourite, which led to a challenging relationship with his brother.Friedrich Weissensteiner: ''Franz Ferdinand — Der verhinderte Herrscher'', Österr. Bundesverlag, Vienna, 1983 Otto had a reputation as a loafer and was often involved in scandals. In one instance, he was known to have jumped nude from a private dining room in the Hotel Sacher in front of a visiting British peeress. He is also widely remembered for the widely circulated story that he had been spotted in a hallway at the same hotel, about to enter a lady's room, wearing nothing else but a sword. He was gradually alienated from the imperial court, and eventually even his wife distanced herself from him.

Death

Around 1900, he contracted

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium '' Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, a ...

. This caused him agonizing pain for the last two years of his life. He withdrew from public life and spent a year in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, where he found temporary reprieve. He returned to Austria, where he fell ill again. The last few months of his life, he lived in a villa in the Viennese suburb Währing. He was forced to replace his nose with a rubber

prosthetic In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

due to facial deformity. He was seriously ill, and was nursed by his last mistress, Louise Robinson, using the pseudonym ''Sister Martha'', and by his stepmother Infanta Maria Theresa of Portugal. He died on 1 November 1906, in the presence of his spiritual adviser, Godfried Marschall ( de), the auxiliary bishop of

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

Succession

After their father's death, Otto's elder brother Franz Ferdinand automatically became heir-presumptive to the throne under the Habsburg house laws. There was no need for a special declaration to make him heir presumptive. However, it did not escape the public's attention that the Emperor never commented on his new heir-presumptive. Franz Ferdinand suffered from some serious medical problems, and there were concerns that his health might never allow him to fulfill his role as emperor. In 1896 it was brought to Franz Ferdinand's attention that Count Gołuchowski, the

Foreign Minister A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

, had suggested that the emperor, considering Franz Ferdinand's

lung disease The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in humans and most other animals, including some snails and a small number of fish. In mammals and most other vertebrates, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side ...

, might reconsider the line of succession. This led to speculations that Otto might inherit the throne. It was noticed that Otto had more personnel than was usual for an archduke and that he carried out representative tasks that would normally be done by the heir presumptive. Despite his life style, Otto was more popular among the courtiers than his elder brother. Franz Ferdinand was outraged by these speculations and by the fact that he had received the modest Modena Palace as his residence and Otto the larger

Augarten Palace Palais Augarten is a Baroque palace in the district of Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria.Gaillemin 1994, p. 269. Constructed in the late seventeenth century by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach on the site of a hunting château and gardens, the palac ...

. Franz Ferdinand felt snubbed, although Otto assured him he had no ambitions for the throne.

Marriage and issue

Under pressure from the imperial court, he married Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony, daughter of King Georg of Saxony on October 2, 1886. The court in Vienna urgently needed such a wedding to repair their relationship with the

Saxon royal family The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

, after both Crown Prince Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Otto's brother

had snubbed the Saxons by rejecting Maria's elder sister Mathilde. Otto and Maria had two sons: *

married Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma and had issue. *

Archduke Maximilian Eugen of Austria 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 ...

married Princess Franziska von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst and had issue. Their marriage was unhappy, and the Archduke was often unfaithful. He had illegitimate children including two by his mistress, Marie Schleinzer: * Alfred Joseph von Hortenau, father of the actress Isabel del Puerto * Hildegard von Hortenau

Honours

The

mountain lodge Mountain Lodge was the former summer residence of the Governor of Hong Kong on Victoria Peak on the Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. The second building was a two-storey Renaissance style home and was demolished in 1946. The site is now the V ...

Erzherzog-Otto-Schutzhaus on the

Rax The Rax is a mountain range in the Northern Limestone Alps on the border of the Austrian federal provinces of Lower Austria and Styria. Its highest peak is the ''Heukuppe'' (2,007 m). The Rax, together with the nearby Schneeberg, are a traditio ...

plateau in

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 ...

, is named after him.

Decorations and awards

Ancestry

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Otto Franz, Archduke of Austria House of Habsburg-Lorraine 1865 births 1906 deaths Deaths from syphilis Austrian princes Burials at the Imperial Crypt Knights of the Golden Fleece of Austria Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary Knights of Malta Grand Crosses of the Order of the Star of Romania Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Russia)