Adelheid of Habsburg-Lothringen

Adelheid of Habsburg-Lothringen

Adelheid Habsburg-Lothringen, full name Adelheid Maria Josepha Sixta Antonia Roberta Ottonia Zita Charlotte Louise Immaculata Pia Theresia Beatrix Franziska Isabella Henriette Maximiliana Genovefa Ignazia Marcus d'Aviano (born January 3, 1914 in Schloss Hetzendorf , Vienna ; † October 2, 1971 in Pöcking , Bavaria ) was the second child and eldest daughter of the last Austrian emperor, Karl I , and his wife Zita von Bourbon-Parma .

Life

Four days after her birth, Adelheid was baptized by the Prince Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Vienna, Cardinal Friedrich Gustav Piffl . Her paternal grandmother, Maria Josepha von Sachsen , and her maternal uncle, Sixtus von Bourbon-Parma , acted as godparents .

Adelheid Habsburg-Lothringen (right) and her younger brother, Felix Habsburg-Lothringen , 1918

After the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War I and Charles I's declaration of renunciation of government, the Republic of German-Austria was proclaimed on November 12, 1918 . Since the last emperor did not want to become a citizen of the republic, he and his family, including Adelheid, who was only five years old, went into exile in Switzerland in the spring of 1919 . When the family lived in Madeira in 1922 (where the war winners had banished their father after two restoration attempts in Hungary), their father died on April 1st of pneumonia . Adelheid's mother then lived with the children mainly in Spain.

Even in exile, Adelheid was brought up in the spirit of an Austrian princess. She not only spoke German and Hungarian, but also learned the Czech and Croatian languages. After attending a grammar school in Brussels , she studied in Leuven and obtained a doctorate in the disciplines of political and economic sciences in 1938 .

From 1935 she was allowed to live in Austria again. After Austria's "annexation" to the National Socialist German Reich in March 1938, she emigrated to the United States and Canada . At Fordham University in New York City she worked as a professor of sociology .

The children of the imperial couple: Otto, Adelheid , Robert, Felix, Carl Ludwig, Rudolph, Charlotte and Elisabeth (from right to left)

After the end of the Second World War (1945) she lived again in Europe and worked a. a. for her older brother Otto von Habsburg . Later she was able to visit Austria again several times. Adelheid remained unmarried. She died in 1971 at the age of 57, more than 17 years before her mother, and was buried in Tulfes near Innsbruck .

literature

• Adelheid . In: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.): Die Habsburger , Ueberreuter, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-8000-3247-3 , p. 28.