Karl Albrecht von Habsburg-Altenburg
Karl Albrecht Nikolaus Leo Gratianus of Austria (born December 18, 1888 in Pola , † March 17, 1951 in Östervik , Sweden ) was a member of the House of Habsburg , an officer of the k. u. k. and the Polish Army. A Polish citizen after 1919, he called himself Karol Olbracht Habsburg-Lotaryński, and since 1949 Karl Prince von Habsburg-Altenburg .
Life
Karl Albrecht was born in Pola, Austria (now Croatia ) as the eldest son of k. u. k. Admiral Archduke Karl Stephan and his wife Maria Theresa were born. After graduation he began in 1907 to study at the Military Institute of Technology in Vienna , which he finished in 1910 with success and his military career as a lieutenant in the 2nd field howitzers - Regiment began, from which he in 1912 added to the second division of the Horse Artillery has been. Due to his talent as an artillery officer , he received a special letter of recommendation from the Minister of War and was soon promoted to lieutenant .
At the outbreak of the First World War he was first deployed on the Eastern Front, where he received the k. For his bravery in the field . u. k. Military Merit Cross and the Iron Cross 2nd Class. After that he held a post in the Regional Defense Command in Tyrol . In 1916 he returned to active service as an artillery officer and commanded the 1st Battalion in the 14th Field Howitzer Regiment. Soon afterwards promoted to major by fast-track procedure , in the autumn of 1916 he was given command of his own regiment, the 8th Field Howitzer Regiment, which he led until the autumn of 1917. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel earlier this year and to colonel that fall . From autumn 1917 until the collapse of the dual monarchy, he commanded the 23rd Infantry Brigade .
After the establishment of a new Polish state, the reign of Poland , on November 5, 1916, Karl Albrecht was next to his father the most promising candidate for the Polish crown and was supported by the emperors Franz Joseph I , Wilhelm II and the kings of Bavaria , Bulgaria , Saxony and Württemberg supported. This changed after the death of Franz Joseph, because the new Emperor Charles I himself had ambitious plans to unite Congress Poland with Galicia and parts of the Ukraine and Lithuania under his scepter. Therefore, he delayed his approval for the acceptance of the crown by one of the two archdukes residing in Saybusch (Galicia) and ultimately refused to accept it altogether. Karl Albrecht's youngest brother Wilhelm was temporarily traded as a candidate for the throne for Ukraine in 1918.
The Saybuscher Habsburgs stayed in their castle in newly formed Poland after 1918. Karl Albrecht took Polish citizenship in 1919 and took the name Karol Olbracht Habsburg-Lotaryński , was also taken over as a colonel by the Polish army and fought in the wars against the Ukrainians (1919) and the Soviets (until 1921).
In 1920 he married Countess Alice Badeni , the widow of the former Prime Minister Badeni von Zisleithanien . Her marriage to the native Swede (born Ankarcrona , 1889–1985) had four children. Since this marriage was considered improper according to the Habsburg house laws , Karl Albrecht's family renounced the use of the archduke title (which had been legally obsolete since the end of the monarchy). Since 1949 the family members called themselves, according to a corresponding decision of the head of the family Otto von Habsburg , Prince or Princess of Altenburg .
The Polish monarchists, still active in the 1920s and 1930s, endorsed Karl Albrecht's candidacy for the Polish king and hoped that Józef Piłsudski would recommend the monarchical form of government in his will. But it did not come to that, because the Marshal left no political will at all.
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Karl Albrecht was promoted to Polish major general and was in command of the Grudziądz fortress during the fighting in September 1939 . After the German victory over Poland, Karl Albrecht refused to accept German citizenship ( Deutsche Volksliste ) and was therefore expropriated by the Nazi authorities, tortured and held captive in Krakow during the entire occupation ; he was paralyzed on one side and blind in one eye.
The new communist regime in Poland did not give him back his land because he was a "racial German", but let him emigrate to Sweden, his wife's homeland, in 1946, where he died in 1951 in Östervik near Stockholm , Sweden .
progeny
- Karl-Stefan Maximilian Ferdinand Narcissus Maria (born October 29, 1921, Balice near Krakow; † June 20, 2018 in Stockholm), lived in Östervik near Stockholm.
- Maria-Christina Immaculata Elisabeth Renata Alice Gabriela (* December 8, 1923, Saybusch; † October 2, 2012, ibid), after years in exile, lived in two rooms at Saybusch Castle in Poland from 2002 at the invitation of the city of Żywiec .
- Karl-Albrecht Maximilian Leo Maria Dominic (1926–1928)
- Renata Maria Theresia Alice Elisabeth (born April 13, 1931, Saybusch)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Timothy Snyder: The cleared sense for the eternal. In: Die Zeit Hamburg, No. 38/10 September 2009, Austria edition, p. 14.
- ↑ Never żyje syn ostatnich właścicieli dobr żywieckich. Zmarł książę Karol Stefan Habsburg on PCh24.pl (Polish) on June 21, 2018
literature
- Almanach de Gotha , Gotha 1931
- Alice von Habsburg: Prinsessa och partisan (memories), Stockholm 1973
- Sveriges Ridderskap och Adels Kalender , Stockholm 1933 and 1957
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Habsburg-Altenburg, Karl Albrecht von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Habsburg-Lothringen, Karl Albrecht von; Habsburg-Lotaryński, Karol Olbracht; Prince of Habsburg-Altenburg, Karl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian and Polish officer and heir apparent |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 18, 1888 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pola , Croatia |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 17, 1951 |
| Place of death | Ostervik , Sweden |