Charles I (Austria-Hungary)

Charles I (* 17th August 1887 when Archduke Carl Franz Joseph Louis Hubert Georg Otto Maria of Austria at Schloss Persenbeug , Archduchy Austria below the Enns , † 1. April 1922 in Funchal , Madeira , Portugal ) of the dynasty of Habsburg-Lothringen was from 1916 until he renounced “every share in state affairs” in 1918, last emperor of Austria .

As Charles IV ( Hungarian IV. Károly , Croatian Karlo IV. ) He was king of Hungary and Croatia at the same time, and as Karl III. ( Czech Karel III. ) King of Bohemia .

In 2004 he was beatified by Pope John Paul II .

Emperor Karl I of Austria, King Karl IV of Hungary (1917)

Life

Origin and family

Archduke Otto and Archduchess Maria Josepha with their children

Karl was the eldest son of Archduke Otto , a member of the Austrian Imperial House of Habsburg-Lothringen, and his wife Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony . His paternal grandfather, Archduke Karl Ludwig, was a younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I and, after the suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf, he was heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy from 1889 to 1896 ; Karl was thus a great-nephew of the emperor. Otto's older brother, Karl's uncle Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este , was heir to the throne from 1896 until his assassination in 1914.

Life until 1916

Archduke Karl Franz Joseph as Lieutenant Field Marshal, 1916

Archduke Karl was born on August 17, 1887 at Persenbeug Castle and baptized there two days later by the Bishop of St. Pölten . During the first years of his life he lived with his parents either in Persenbeug, the Villa Wartholz or the father's various stations in Prague , Brno and Ödenburg . The upbringing was the responsibility of nannies until the age of seven , before Count Georg Wallis was appointed his tutor. From the beginning, Maria Josepha attached great importance to the fact that her son was brought up in the Catholic faith, and later also called in the theologian Godfried Marschall . In addition, special attention was paid to the acquisition of foreign language skills. Educational trips across Europe completed the Archduke's training program.

In principle, Karl was taught by private private tutors, but his parents decided to combine private and public teaching from the age of twelve. From August 1899 to June 1901, he therefore attended the Schottengymnasium run by Benedictines in Vienna , which was unusual for a member of the ruling house. Here he took the final exams on the middle school curriculum.

In 1903 Emperor Franz Joseph I appointed him lieutenant in the Uhlan Regiment "Archduke Otto" No. 1 and from then on Karl was trained primarily in the military. Theoretical subjects such as weapons and gun science, railways and telegraphs, tactics and army organization were on his curriculum. Afterwards, Karl embarked on a career as an officer in the cavalry and on September 1, 1905, he took up active military service with the "Duke of Lorraine and Bar No. 7" dragoon regiment in the Bohemian Kutterschitz near Bilin . In 1906 he was stationed in Brandeis-Altbunzlau . On November 1, 1906, Karl was promoted to first lieutenant . In the same year he interrupted his military service to study for two years at the Karl Ferdinand University in Prague . As a private listener Karl lectures heard of selected university professors especially legal subjects taught (u. A. Constitutional law , canon law , civil and criminal law as well as Economic and Financial Sciences ). On July 1, 1908, he returned to his regiment and took over a squadron command.

After the death of Karl's father in 1906, his older brother and heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand took over the guardianship of his nephew. Franz Ferdinand had been married in an inappropriate morganatic marriage ("on the left hand") since 1900 , which is why his descendants were excluded from the line of succession. Therefore, Archduke Karl was second in line to the throne after his uncle. With his declaration of majority in 1907, Karl received his own retinue , headed by his chamberlain, Prince Zdenko Lobkowitz . From 1916 to 1918 this was adjutant general to the new emperor.

Heir to the throne Archduke Karl Franz Joseph as General of the Cavalry (1915)

Between March and November 1912, Karl served in Kolomea , Galicia , before taking over as major of the kuk Infantry Regiment No. 39 in Vienna. In the capital and residence city, Karl lived with his wife Zita at Schloss Hetzendorf and maintained friendly relations with Franz Ferdinand, who should have informed his nephew about his reform plans from 1913 onwards .

After Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in the assassination attempt in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, Charles was heir to the Archduke "ex lege" under the house laws of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen, ie without a new decision by the Emperor. However, Karl was not involved in the decision-making processes during the July crisis , which ultimately led to the outbreak of the First World War . On the emperor's orders, Karl was assigned to the Army High Command (AOK) after the outbreak of war , where Chief of Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf did not give him any say in strategic operations. Rather, Karl visited the front on behalf of the emperor, took on troop parades and distributed awards. On July 1, 1915, he was promoted to major general and appointed by Franz Joseph I to his immediate environment in order to gain insights into the "art of governance" and to learn about the making of ongoing political and administrative decisions at the highest level. The monarch could not bring himself to transfer political co-responsibility.

On March 12, 1916, Karl was appointed field marshal lieutenant and assigned to the 11th Army under Colonel General Viktor Dankl on the Italian front . Karl took command of the XX. Corps (Edelweiss Corps ) and led his troops during the South Tyrol offensive in the spring of 1916. On August 12, 1916, Karl was assigned to the Romanian theater of war , where he took over the newly formed Archduke Carl's army group and set up his headquarters in Schässburg, Transylvania .

Marriage and offspring

Wedding at Schwarzau Castle on October 21, 1911

On June 13, 1911, Karl became engaged to Zita von Bourbon-Parma in the Villa delle Pianore near Lucca ( Italy ) , whom he married on October 21 of the same year in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I in Schwarzau am Steinfeld Castle (Lower Austria) . His decision in favor of the "Italian", as his wife was called by opponents of this connection especially after Italy's declaration of war on Austria-Hungary in 1915, did not, in the opinion of critics, contribute to the desirable international anchoring of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen, since Zita from one did not (more) ruling noble house came from a country not friendly with Austria.

The marriage had eight children:

• Otto (1912–2011) ⚭ 1951 Regina Princess of Saxony-Meiningen (1925–2010)
• Adelheid (1914–1971)
• Robert (1915–1996) ⚭ 1953 Margherita of Savoy (* 1930)
• Felix (1916–2011) ⚭ 1952 Anna Eugenie Duchess of Arenberg (1925–1997)
• Carl Ludwig (1918–2007) ⚭ 1950 Yolande von Ligne (* 1923)
• Rudolph (1919-2010)
  1. ⚭ 1953 Xenia Tschernyshev Besobrasov (1929–1968)
  2. ⚭ 1971 Anna Gabriele Princess von Wrede (* 1940)
• Charlotte (1921–1989) ⚭ 1956 Georg Herzog of Mecklenburg (1899–1963)
• Elisabeth (1922–1993) ⚭ 1949 Heinrich, Prince von und zu Liechtenstein (1916–1991)

title

Charlemagne's only Great Title reproduced in the last State Handbook read:

“Charles the First, by the grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, that name the Fourth, King of Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria; King of Jerusalem etc; Archduke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bukowina; Grand Duke of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia, Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator, of Teschen, Friuli, Ragusa and Zara; prince count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Görz and Gradiska; Prince of Trient and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria; Count of Hohenembs, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, etc., Lord of Triest, of Cattaro and on the Windischen Mark; Greater Voivodeship of the Voivodeship of Serbia etc. etc. "

Residences

Karl I and his family lived in Hetzendorf Castle in Vienna from 1912 to 1914 . He mostly spent the summer months in his Villa Wartholz in Reichenau an der Rax in Lower Austria. After his accession were in the Amalienburg the Hofburg apartments for the emperor and his family set up. In Schönbrunn Palace , rooms were also adapted; In 1917 a bathroom was installed there for Empress Zita. The Blauer Hof in the palace gardens of Laxenburg served as further residences, and in 1917 and 1918 also Eckartsau Palace and the Imperial House in Baden . Baden had been the operational headquarters of the Army High Command (AOK) since January 1917 .

Reign (1916-1918)

In the government

Emperor Karl I.

Taking the oath as King of Hungary at the Trinity Column in front of Matthias Church (Budapest, December 30, 1916)

Austro-Hungarian military post stamp (Michel no. 68 A) from 1917

With the death of Emperor Franz Joseph on November 21, 1916, Karl was "ex lege" Emperor and King. A formal accession to the throne was not required in the kingdoms and countries represented in the Imperial Council ( Cisleithania ), i.e. in old Austria. The leading politicians in the Kingdom of Hungary ( Transleithanien ) attached great importance to the historic coronation ceremony, with which the oath on the Hungarian constitution was connected.

On December 30th, Karl registered himself as "Karl IV." Or, in Hungarian, "IV. Károly ”as King of Hungary. From then on, his hands were largely tied in the Hungarian half of the empire as far as the constitutional possibility for reforms was concerned. In particular, a spin-off of areas from the sovereignty of the Hungarian crown was excluded, which would have been necessary to satisfy the national wishes of the Slavs of the dual monarchy. (Franz Ferdinand had planned to rebuild the dual monarchy immediately after taking office, before this would have made it impossible for him to take the Hungarian coronation oath.)

Emperor Karl and Empress Zita each received 50,000 gold pieces from Hungary as a coronation gift, which they donated for apartments with many children in war invalids and their widows or for the reconstruction of Transylvania.

Karl did not imitate the now legendary style of government of Emperor Franz Joseph, who - also due to his old age - had handled all matters solely from his study in the Vienna Hofburg and in the last years of his life from Schönbrunn. He regularly chaired the meetings of the Joint Council of Ministers , which decided on foreign and war policy. It was also unusual that Karl discussed all important decisions with his wife Zita and took her advice. Zita was also present as a listener at many of the meetings.

Karl was determined to reduce the influence of the military elite. On December 2, 1916, he took over the command of the army and moved the Army High Command (AOK) from Teschen to Baden . He now intervened directly in warfare and took responsibility for both victories and defeats. On March 1, 1917, Karl deposed the chief of staff, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf . In doing so, he switched off the influence of the military in the civilian sphere and transferred political and diplomatic leadership back to the Austrian and Hungarian governments and the foreign ministers. At the same time he distanced himself from the state of emergency that had been imposed on Austria since 1914. However, due to its weakness in comparison to its “brother in arms”, Austria-Hungary had become dependent on the Supreme Army Command of the German Reich for military decisions even before Charles took office .

During the personnel changes that Emperor Karl carried out soon after the beginning of his reign, he appointed shop stewards, most of whom had belonged to Franz Ferdinand's environment. With the dismissal of Foreign Minister Burián and the powerful Hungarian Prime Minister István Tisza , Karl pushed back the Hungarian dominance in foreign policy, and with the new Foreign Minister Ottokar Czernin and Heinrich Clam-Martinic as Austrian Prime Minister, politicians from the Bohemian high aristocracy, loyal to Austria, took over the leadership. The main reason for Czernin's appointment on December 22, 1916 was that he shared Karl's view of the need for an early peace treaty.

In 1917 Austria-Hungary found itself in a crisis, especially domestically. War and the Allied blockade had led to a shortage of materials and raw materials, an economic crisis, poverty and hunger. In the face of protests and strikes as well as the rise of the labor movement, the new emperor feared a revolution.

From January to March 1917, ordinances on tenant protection, health insurance and labor law in companies that served military purposes came into force in Cisleithanien. With the Tenant Protection Ordinance , an attempt was made to absorb the rising cost of living and, in particular, to protect soldiers' wives from giving up their homes due to rent arrears. It is a matter of dispute in the literature whether these were personal initiatives by Charles I in the sense of modern social policy or soothing measures by the Clam-Martinic kk government .

The first domestic political measures that were personally attributed to Charles I were the reconstitution of the Reichsrat in the spring of 1917 and a political amnesty; they followed not least dynastic considerations.

On June 1, 1917, the Kaiser commissioned the establishment of a Ministry for Social Welfare , which was supposed to fight the epidemic of war and introduce social welfare for those injured in the war, but also to include child welfare, housing and social security. On December 22, 1917, he appointed Viktor Mataja, who was appointed to the government on August 30 without a portfolio, as the first minister of ministry .

The Clam-Martinic ministry was viewed as unsuccessful and therefore on June 23, 1917 Charles I exchanged it for the (hardly more successful) Seidler ministry . On November 24th the resolution was passed to create the Ministry of Public Health , for which the Ukrainian chemist Ivan Horbaczewski had been appointed to the government on August 30th, 1917 without a portfolio. It was not until July 30, 1918, under the Prime Minister appointed on July 25, 1918, Hussarek , the penultimate head of government of the emperor, that he was appointed by the monarch to the ministerial position.

In those circles of the Entente who wanted the monarchy to be preserved, the changes made in 1917 raised hopes that the monarchy could reform itself and break away from Germany . In fact, according to the British historian Francis Roy Bridge, it was only a question of gestures and not a clear political program.

Peace efforts and war aims

The new ruler recognized the hopelessness of the Central Powers' situation more and more clearly. The peace offer of December 12, 1916, however, failed due to the refusal of the German Reich to name specific peace goals.

At the Council of Ministers for Common Affairs on January 12, 1917, the peace conditions were discussed in detail. Karl put a maximum program up for discussion, which provided for the (no longer probable) annexation of Congress Poland , Montenegro , the Serbian Mačva , border improvements at the Transylvanian border and the deposition of the Serbian Karageorgewitsch dynasty . His minimal program, however, was limited to the demand for the full territorial integrity of the monarchy, the annexation of the Montenegrin Lovćen and the change of the dynasty in Serbia (for Karl the killer house Karageorgewitsch ).

In the spring of 1917 Karl tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a separate peace with the Entente through his brother-in-law Sixtus Ferdinand von Bourbon-Parma ( Sixtus affair ). The Sixtus letter was later described as a sign of the "naive impulsiveness" of Emperor Charles because he misjudged the dangers of uncovering the secret process and the reaction of the Entente. The approval of French claims to Alsace-Lorraine by the emperor was in obvious contrast to the unwillingness to make one's own territorial concessions (for example on the question of the cession of Trentino to Italy). The emperor's wish for peace talks ultimately failed because of the French hope of victory (the USA entered the war on April 6th), the demands of Italy, but also because of the intransigence of the German Empire, where more and more of those forces set the tone information that relied on a victory peace .

Emperor Karl I on August 17, 1917 (his 30th birthday) at the award of the Maria Theresa Order in the Villa Wartholz

The peace efforts, the reservations against unrestricted submarine warfare , the ban on bombing civil targets and the positive response to Pope Benedict XV's appeal for peace . , who was seen as an ally of Italy, led to ever greater differences between Charles and the German Empire, but also with German national circles in his own country. In connection with the papal peace appeal, Emperor Karl Czernin instructed the Vatican that “Austria-Hungary was not opposed to the question of restoring the state of Serbia and Montenegro from the outset.” However, this should “not mean that Austria-Hungary would renounce territorial gains can be derived from these two states ”(September 26, 1917).

Karl rightly saw the plans for Central Europe represented by Friedrich Naumann , a close amalgamation of the two empires, as simply a plan against the independence of the monarchy (May 14, 1917). He spoke out against this close economic connection with Germany because he feared that this would put the monarchy on a par with Bavaria and also make peace negotiations impossible. He protested to Czernin against the Central European plans because he considered them to be "an attempt by the Hohenzollerns to make Austria completely dependent on Germany". Karl even feared a German victory in the war because this would have meant the end of Austrian sovereignty: "A blatant German military victory would be our ruin."

Karl was against the use of poison gas within the command area of ​​the Austro-Hungarian Army, but ultimately allowed the Supreme Army Command of the German Reich to use poison gas in October 1917 in the 12th Isonzo battle , the Battle of Karfreit .

Karl hardly had any advisors who supported his course and whom he could fully trust. Foreign Minister Ottokar von Czernin endorsed the peace plans at the beginning, but later he too was in favor of stronger ties to the allies. In a speech on April 2, 1918, Czernin accused France of having conducted secret peace negotiations. Since this was not the case, the French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau published the contents of the secret Sixtus letters on April 14th. As a result, the emperor's reputation suffered enormous damage, especially because he clearly denied the letter untruthfully. Karl was defamed as a "slipper hero" and Zita as an "Italian traitor". Czernin was forced to resign on April 24th. Karl had to go on a Canossa trip to Kaiser Wilhelm in Spa and bind himself even more closely to the German Empire.

Renunciation of government and collapse of the monarchy

Return of the Habsburgs to their ancestral home (1919). Caricature in Theo Zasche 's Laughing Vienna. 50 master caricatures from 1890–1922. Steyrermühl, Vienna 1923.

Karl's attempt to save at least the Austrian half of the empire and convert it into a federal state with extensive autonomy for the individual nations came too late with his national manifesto of October 16, 1918, which was jointly responsible for the kk Prime Minister Max Hussarek von Heinlein . His invitation to the nationalities of Cisleithania to form national councils was accepted; These new popular representations founded states that were independent of each other and of old Austria (most recently on October 30, 1918, the German Austrians ).

Disintegration of the army

At the end of October, mainly Hungarian units of the Austro-Hungarian Army mutinied on the Italian front. Hungary decided, with the consent of Karl, to end the Real Union with Austria on October 31 and recalled its troops from Italy. In order not to have to sign the armistice of Villa Giusti with Italy of November 3, 1918, which contradicted the intentions of the allied German Reich, the emperor and king handed over the supreme command of that which still obeyed the old order of the Austro-Hungarian army, on November 3, 1918 to General Arthur Arz von Straussenburg and on November 4, at his request, appointed Field Marshal Hermann Kövess von Kövesshaza as Commander-in-Chief. On November 6, the Austro-Hungarian army was demobilized by Karl; the navy had been handed over to the new South Slav state on October 31st on orders of Charles .

After the end of the monarchy (1918–1922)

The complete military collapse and the internal dissolution of the Danube monarchy could no longer be denied. The abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II was announced on November 9th without his consent; on the same day the republic was proclaimed in Berlin. Therefore, the resignation of Charles I from his imperial office now seemed inevitable.

Disclaimer in Austria

Charles I was on 11 November 1918 by ministers of his last kk government, the so-called " liquidation Ministry " under Heinrich Lammasch , at the insistence of the Social Democrats, the state chancellor Karl Renner and Karl Seitz moved as well and other German Austrian politician in the Austrian half "on to renounce any share in state affairs ”and to remove his government, which has since become inoperative. However, he did not formally relieve the army and officers of their oath of allegiance to the emperor .

The “imperial manifesto”, which was supposed to satisfy all sides with their demands, was drafted by kk ministers like Ignaz Seipel together with Renner and others. On the one hand, it was in a hurry to get the emperor's signature, since the proclamation of the state of German Austria , which had arisen on October 30, 1918, as a republic was planned for the following day ; on the other hand, a legal clash was to be avoided, with which the emperor would have to be dethroned by law by the new republic. In addition, they did not want to bring the officials and officers into any conflicts of loyalty to the still-monarch.

Although the tone of the explanation was also conciliatory, avoiding the stimulus word “abdication” and even less stipulating the renunciation of the crown for the soon to be six-year-old Crown Prince Otto and the dynasty, Karl's wife Zita protested against it, because for her, in her death until her death held understanding, an abdication due to the " divine grace of the monarch" was an impossibility:

"No way! A ruler can lose his sovereign rights. That is then violence that excludes recognition. Never abdicate - I'd rather fall with you right here - then Otto will come, and even if we should all fall - there are still other Habsburgs. "

Nevertheless, "after a heated argument", Karl signed the "abdication proclamation" (as Josef Redlich called the document in his diary) on the urgent advice of the (still) imperial government on November 11 at noon in Schönbrunn Palace , after the German-Austrian State Council had already decided shortly before had to submit the application for a law on the state and form of government of German Austria the next day to the Provisional National Assembly . At 2 p.m. the emperor rescinded his government in a formal act.

With an "extra edition" of the official Wiener Zeitung the waiver was published on November 11th (together with the draft law for the next day):

Emperor Karl's declaration of renunciation of November 11, 1918, countersigned by Prime Minister Lammasch. Photograph of the copy that is exhibited in the Vienna Army History Museum .

Vienna, November 11, 1918.

The emperor issued the following rally:

“Since my accession to the throne, I have ceaselessly endeavored to lead My peoples out of the horrors of the war, for the outbreak of which I am not to blame.
I did not hesitate to restore constitutional life and
opened the way for the peoples to their independent state development.
Still filled with unchangeable love for all of my peoples, I do not want
to oppose my person as an obstacle to their free development .
I acknowledge in advance the decision that German Austria will make about its future form of government.
The people have taken over the government through their representatives. I renounce any share in state affairs.
At the same time I remove my Austrian government from office.
May the people of German Austria create and consolidate the new order in harmony and conciliation. The happiness of my peoples has been the goal of my hottest wishes from the beginning. Only inner peace can heal the wounds of this war.

Karl mp

Lammasch mp "

This served both sides for the time being. The German-Austrian State Council had a document signed by Karl of quasi-abdication in their hands. For his part, Karl interpreted his “imperial manifesto” in the belief that he had only “withdrawn” temporarily and not surrendered the throne.

Relocation to Eckartsau

Karl's study in Eckartsau Palace in 1918

Since Schönbrunn Palace belonged to the Hofärar and thus now belonged to the new state of German Austria, the former bearer of the crown (as he was subsequently referred to in the Habsburg Law from 1919 ) could no longer remain as the private person Karl Habsburg-Lothringen. On the evening of November 11th, he left the city with his closest family and the imperial entourage and went to Schloss Eckartsau in Marchfeld near Vienna, which at the time was still owned by the imperial family fund and thus privately owned by the Habsburg family In April 1919 passed into state ownership without compensation with the Habsburg Law.

Declaration of waiver also regarding Hungary

With a similar approach as in Austria, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy and Count Emil Széchenyi forced Karl to renounce his state business in the Kingdom of Hungary on November 13 at Eckartsau Castle . Although he did not abdicate formally, the crowned King of Hungary and Croatia, Charles IV, was history. Nevertheless, in October 1921 (see below) he attempted a restoration in Hungary .

Revisionist considerations

For the German-Austrian state government Renner , Karl Habsburg-Lothringen, now staying in Schloss Eckartsau, was only a private person. However, he did not want to come to terms with the created realities, not least driven by Zita, for whom it was impossible to imagine that a ruler could be forced to abdicate by God's grace. With this he also interpreted his declaration of renunciation, an "ambiguous manifesto" a little later, as if he had not renounced the throne, but had only temporarily withdrawn from state affairs.

He wrote from Eckartsau to Cardinal Piffl , Archbishop of Vienna , whose support for the monarchy Karl had hoped in the days before the declaration of renunciation (quoted in the daily newspaper Die Presse , February 2010):

“… I am and will remain the rightful ruler of German Austria. I have never and will never abdicate […]. The current government is a revolutionary government because it has eliminated the governmental authority established by God. I would like to compare my manifesto of November 11th with a check which a mugger with a revolver is forcing us to fill out with many thousands of kroner. [...] After the army could no longer be relied on and we had left the castle guard myself, I decided to sign. I feel absolutely not bound by this. "

It is true that the ex-emperor was far enough away from political decisions in his exile in Lower Austria and was unable to mobilize a large following. Nevertheless, in Vienna, State Chancellor Renner, who did not go unnoticed by Karl's revisionist considerations, was alarmed; a political solution had to be found. As the abdicated German Kaiser Wilhelm was deported abroad earlier, this should now also happen with Karl Habsburg-Lothringen. In addition, he “tirelessly sent letters across Europe in which he bluntly agitated against the policies of the Social Democrats. They want to connect Austria to Germany. ”That was out of the question for Karl and his wife Zita. For Renner, this was a second important reason, and Renner argued that the situation in Eckartsau was becoming increasingly unsafe for him and his family, as the castle had only been protected by twelve Viennese police officers on the orders of the Vienna Police President Johann Schober .

At the beginning of January 1919, Renner drove to Eckartsau unannounced to “break the Gordian knot himself” to talk to Karl personally about his future. Since he had not asked for an audience according to the court ceremony, Karl and Zita refused to meet him and sent frigate captain von Schonta to the ground floor to intercept the supplicant and provide him with lunch.

In the meantime, it was no longer just the Social Democrats, but also the Christian Socials who wanted to take the former emperor out of the country. After the Renner II state government was installed as a coalition of the two parties on March 15, 1919, the following three alternatives were agreed (quote from Die Presse ):

1. Should the emperor renounce all of his rights, he could stay with his family as a simple citizen in Austria.
2. If he refuses to abdicate, he must go into exile.
3. If he rejects both options, he must expect internment.

Departure for exile in Switzerland

The British King George V, meanwhile, feared for the life of the imperial family, the fate of the murder of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his family (see also: Murder of the Tsar's Family ) should not be repeated. Zita's brothers Sixtus and Xavier von Bourbon-Parma got the king through that the British Lieutenant Colonel Edward Lisle Strutt was transferred from Venice to Eckartsau and from February 27, 1919 to protect the Habsburg family, officially with a royal address of solidarity and an assurance of "moral support" as "Honorary Officer", was posted.

Strutt, who was informed by the state government about the advanced plans and the three proposed alternatives, was able to persuade Karl to leave and organized this. The only remaining condition of the Emperor Strutt: "Promise me that I will leave as Emperor and not like a thief in the night." Switzerland agreed to take in the family.

Former station building at Kopfstetten-Eckartsau (2016), departure point of the Habsburg family with the Hofsalonzug

Thereupon Lieutenant Colonel Strutt prepared the departure of the imperial family to Switzerland . Karl had agreed on the condition that the departure be made “in all honor”. For this purpose Strutt organized the court parade of the former Imperial and Royal State Railways .

At the headstetten-Eckartsau train station on the Siebenbrunn – Engelhartstetten local railway, which is closest to the palace , on March 23, 1919, around 7 p.m., Karl - in the uniform of a field marshal and "in all honor" - and Zita, their children Otto, Adelheid, Robert and Felix, as well as Karl's mother Archduchess Maria Josepha and a small entourage of some faithful, started the trip to Swiss exile. On the platform, British military policemen saluted in front of the saloon car and, although it was raining and it was already dark, around 2000 people stood to see the emperor farewell, to whom Karl shouted “Goodbye, my friends!”. Turning to Strutt, according to tradition, he resigned: "After seven hundred years ...".

The imperial automobile, which has been in the Imperial Carriage Museum in Schönbrunn Palace since November 2001 , was on permanent loan from the manufacturer Gräf & Stift , which was able to acquire the “Kaiserwagen” at auction in 1974.

In exile in Switzerland , Karl lived with his family at Schloss Wartegg near Rorschach on Lake Constance and from May 20, 1919 in Prangins on Lake Geneva .

Revocation with "Feldkircher Manifest"

In the morning hours of March 24, 1919, the special train passed Feldkirch on the border with Switzerland. Here, still on home soil, Karl signed his declaration of renunciation with the "Feldkirch Manifesto", which he had already prepared in Eckartsau and which had remained largely secret, and thus protested against his removal:

"What the German-Austrian government, the Provisional and Constitutional National Assembly [...] have decided and decreed since November 11, 1918 [...] and will continue to resolve, is null and void for Me and My House."

- Quoted from Markus Benesch, 2003

Karl had copies of the manifesto sent to befriended heads of state. In German Austria, however, the manifesto was not published, as the top politicians in the Christian social community had urgently advised Karl against it. Before crossing the border into Switzerland on March 24, 1919, Karl revoked his declaration of November 11, 1918 in the Feldkirch Manifesto and protested against his deposition as ruler. He entered Switzerland in civilian clothes.

Habsburg law: expulsion and expropriation

Karl's “Feldkircher Manifesto” was ultimately reason enough for Karl Renner, with the law of April 3, 1919, concerning the expulsion from the country and the takeover of the property of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen ( StGBl. No. 209/1919) Karl Habsburg-Lothringen, his To forbid Ms. Zita and her descendants to return to Austria for good if they do not commit to the Republic of Austria. With the constitutional law, all rulers rights of the dynasty were therefore abolished and anchored in it, still in force today:

" § 2. In the interests of the security of the republic, the former bearers of the crown and the other members of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen, insofar as they do not expressly renounce their membership in this house and all claims to power derived from it, and claim to be loyal Citizens of the republic have known to have expelled from the country. The Federal Government, in agreement with the main committee of the National Council, is entitled to determine whether this declaration is sufficient. "

As a result, some members of the Habsburg-Lothringen family decided to reside abroad, others to recognize republican Austria and to renounce the House of Habsburg-Lothringen. In 1982 the widow of Karl and last Empress, Zita Habsburg-Lothringen , was finally allowed entry again by the Kreisky IV federal government without a waiver . The decision was traced back to a private conversation in February 1982 between the Spanish King Juan Carlos I and the social democratic Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky in his holiday villa on Mallorca. The constitutional lawyers in the Federal Chancellery found a loophole “that the wife of an Austro-Hungarian monarch has no right of succession and thus cannot possibly be subject to the 'Habsburg' law of 1919, which requires members of the imperial family entitled to inherit a declaration of loyalty in favor of the republic. The border guards were instructed to let Zita into the country, although she still refuses to give a declaration of loyalty. "

In addition to the expulsion from the state, the National Assembly of German Austria also decided to confiscate the Habsburg family funds, but not the verifiable private assets of individual family members. On the same day with the needle repeal Act of nobility abolished for all Austrian citizens.

Restoration attempt in Hungary

Second attempt at restoration by Emperor Charles in Hungary; Karl walking off the company of honor at the train station in Ödenburg on October 21, 1921. Empress Zita behind him on the right

Karl's departure from Switzerland to Hungary as a carnival subject

Karl kept in contact with legitimist circles, especially in Hungary, where the monarchy was restored in 1919 after a brief republican interlude and on March 1, 1920 Miklós Horthy, who was supposedly loyal to the Habsburg castle, was elected as Reich administrator. Karl had promised to inform him of his plans and to return only after the political situation had calmed down; nevertheless, he rather trusted the judgment of his advisors, especially Colonel Anton Lehár (the brother of the composer Franz Lehár ), that the time for a restoration of the Habsburgs was ripe.

Without letting Horthy know, Karl returned incognito by car across Austria to Budapest at Easter 1921 and ultimately demanded that the imperial administrator resign. He only insisted on Horthy's oath of loyalty, without taking seriously his objections to domestic political difficulties and, above all, the threat of intervention by the Entente or a declaration of war by the successor states of Czechoslovakia , Romania and Yugoslavia . It was only after a week's stay in Szombathely (Steinamanger) in western Hungary that he was convinced of the hopelessness of his efforts and traveled back to Switzerland, where he stayed with his family in the so-called Schlosshotel Hertenstein in Weggis near Lucerne .

On October 20, 1921, Karl made a second attempt, again without informing Horthy, who had already become suspicious to him, and flew to Ödenburg with his wife Zita in a Junkers F 13 . There, legitimists had meanwhile begun to combine the irregulars under Ostenburg , who opposed the cession of Burgenland to Austria (see Land grabbing of Burgenland and referendum in Burgenland in 1921 ), and other small troop contingents to form an army. Since the telegram with the report of Karl's arrival arrived one day too late, the march was delayed significantly. The slow pace of the advance gave the initially wavering Horthy time to gather troops in response to threats from the Entente powers. In Budaörs , a suburb of Budapest, there was a small skirmish on October 23, 1921 , in which 19 soldiers were killed. Since it became clear that the restoration attempt would end in a civil war, Karl gave up, albeit against the opinion of his military advisers. Karl's initiative had a positive effect on the connection of Burgenland to Austria in that the military pressure of the irregulars on the Austrian gendarmerie and the armed forces subsided. The reason for this was the disempowerment and elimination of the unions loyal to the king among the militants who followed Karl to Budapest and failed at Budaörs and were no longer available to represent Hungary's interests militarily in Burgenland.

Exile in Madeira

After a brief internment in the Tihany Abbey on Lake Balaton , Karl and his wife Zita were brought to the Black Sea on November 1, aboard the British Danube ship Glowworm and then on the British cruiser Cardiff (D58) via Gibraltar to the Portuguese island of Madeira . The Entente had banished him there to make it impossible for him to perform in his former domain. The couple arrived there on November 19, 1921. Karl and Zita's children did not arrive at their parents' home until February 2, 1922.

On November 6, 1921, the Hungarian Parliament passed the Dethronization Act, which the Habsburgs finally declared deposed. Horthy assured the Entente that the Habsburgs would be excluded from the possible election of a future royal family.

Karl initially lived with his family in the Hotel Victoria, an annex of Reid's Palace near Funchal , but soon there wasn't enough money for it. After the theft of the personal jewels that were left over as a last resort, his household moved to the Quinta do Monte , a mansion in Monte near Funchal, which the banking family Rocha Machado gave him free of charge. The climatic conditions on the mountain were, as one of the maidservants quoted by Brook-Shepherd wrote home, very unfavorable: “It was very pretty down in town. We only had three warm days up here. [...] The house is so damp that everything smells of mold. But the fog pervades everything. "

death

On March 9, 1922, Karl caught a cold. It was not until March 21, 1922 that a doctor was called who diagnosed severe pneumonia . This, in turn, is attributed to an infection with the Spanish flu that occurred on March 15, 1922 . The flu with a high fever developed into severe pneumonia. The three doctors from Funchal, who then rented a room on Monte so that they could be available to the patient at night, were unable to overcome the disease. They gave injections of camphor and turpentine, which caused abscesses on the legs, applied cupping heads, and placed mustard leaves on the patient's back, which had been pricked by the hypodermic needles, which burned his skin; otherwise they gave him oxygen. The disease led to unconsciousness on March 27, 1922.

Karl died at noon on April 1, 1922 at the age of 34. On the evening of the same day the embalming took place , followed by the exposure of the deceased in uniform. A death mask was also removed.

The house where Charles died, his last residence on Madeira , the Villa Quinta do Monte , was destroyed by a forest fire in 2016 .

After his death

Funeral and funeral ceremonies

The burial in the side chapel of the Nossa Senhora church in Monte took place on April 4, 1922 in the presence of the Bishop of Funchal. About 30,000 people attended the ceremony.

Funeral services for Karl took place in Prague and Budapest on April 4, 1922: in Prague as a silent mass in St. Kajetan, in Budapest as a requiem celebrated by the Primate of Hungary in the Matthias Church . On April 6, 1922, a funeral service was celebrated for Karl in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna . a. Cardinal Piffl , Federal Chancellor Schober and President Weiskirchner took part. After the service was over, spectators outside the cathedral sang the imperial anthem . On April 8th, the Knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece held the funeral service in the Teutonic Order Church .

Heart and sarcophagus

Emperor Charles's grave in the Nossa Senhora do Monte church on Madeira

Memorial plaque to the right of the entrance to the tomb of Emperor Charles in Funchal

Stele behind the altar of the Loreto Chapel in Muri Monastery with the heart urns of Charles (above) and Zitas (below)

Charles's heart, taken as part of the embalming in 1922, has been kept behind the altar of the Loreto Chapel in Muri Monastery (Switzerland) since 1971 , where the family crypt of his descendants is also located. Karl's silver heart urn bears the chronogram “ C ARO LI A V STR I AE IM PERATOR I S A C H V NGAR I AE REG I S C OR I N D EO Q VJ ESCAT ” written by Karl Wolfsgruber .

When the church authorities opened the coffin (“recognitio cadaveris”) of Charles I in 1972 in order to get an insight into the condition of the mortal remains necessary for the beatification (see below), the body, which was to be buried, proved to be hasty had been embalmed and, in addition, moist air could enter through a broken coffin window, although in good condition, “the imperial corpse [was] owed the hoped-for miracle of being intact. One of the participants in the procedure had to admit, 'The face was somewhat disfigured.' After the examinations were completed, Charles I was dressed in a new uniform and reburied in a new coffin.

No transfer to the Capuchin Crypt

After Zita Habsburg-Lothringen was allowed to return to Austria in 1982, she planned to transfer the body of Emperor Charles from the Nossa Senhora do Monte church to Vienna and to move it in 1983 "with his ancestors in the Capuchin crypt". The then Federal Chancellor Kreisky spoke of “an 'act of piety', it was a 'purely family matter'”, which also dispelled all concerns for his party, the SPÖ. However, Charles's sarcophagus remained in Madeira.

After Zita was buried in the Capuchin Crypt in Vienna in 1989 , her sarcophagus was initially set up on a double pedestal, on which space was also provided for Charles I's sarcophagus. His family, especially his son Otto von Habsburg , did not move to Vienna because Otto saw this as an affront to the people of Madeira, who had helped his father a lot in the last months of his life. Since the beatification of Charles I, his burial place in Monte near Funchal has become even more important for the local population. A possible transfer of the Blessed would now be a matter for the Church. In the course of the reconstruction of the Capuchin Crypt, the double podium was removed in 2008 and the Zitas sarcophagus was converted to a single podium.

Beatification and Adoration

Monument in front of the Nossa Senhora do Monte church (Augusto Cid, bronze, 2005)

Church window depicting Charles I in the Liesing parish church designed by Martin Häusle

1000 shilling gold coin (1999)

Karl's widow Zita, who continued to speak of her husband as “The Emperor”, hoped since his death for the formal beatification of the (quotation from Zita) “Ruler of the Peace, who lived for peace and died for peace” and has been able to do so since she was allowed to re-enter Austria in 1982, press ahead accordingly. The beatification process was initiated on the first day of Emperor Karl's death on April 1, at the same time on Easter Sunday 1923, on the initiative of the Christian Socialist member and President of the National Council , Wilhelm Miklas (1872–1956), and later Austrian Federal President (1928–1938). With the help of the then Viennese Archbishop Cardinal Friedrich Gustav Piffl (1864–1932), who was appointed Archbishop of Vienna by Emperor Franz Joseph (Karl's great uncle) on April 1, 1913 , the prescribed regional initial examination procedure was carried out "at lightning speed" so that the case had already landed at the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints for examination in the mid-1920s . From 1925, the archdiocese of Vienna collected the necessary evidence, statements, and interviews with witnesses for beatification, and a biography of the Habsburgs was drawn up. Historical studies were also carried out in the dioceses of Freiburg (Friborg), Funchal, Le Mans, Luxembourg and New York.

In order to promote beatification, the Kaiser Karl Prayer League for the Peace of Nations was founded, which had developed from a prayer group that had existed since 1895. At that time, the future Emperor Karl was just eight years old, the “stigmatized mother Vizentia from the Ursuline monastery in Sopron prophesied that he would become emperor” and “at the same time, 'extraordinary suffering'. The nun therefore recommended praying for the Archduke at the time. ”In 1953, the Prayer League published its first yearbook. It included accounts of people who believed that after seeking the intercession of Charles, they would be granted grace. Since then, the members of the prayer league have also carried out their Kaiser Karl pilgrimage every year .

Another purpose of the Kaiser Karl Prayer League was to collect the necessary evidence and relevant witness statements for the beatification procedure, which is formally and legally a "complaint to establish the godly way of life of a certain person" with the burden of proof on the plaintiff. Every indication that could speak for the high miraculous power and the call to holiness of the person to be beatified in the process can increase the chances of success and is therefore included in the dossier. In 1982 the German Spiegel quoted it as saying: “The emperor is an unparalleled helper, a real specialist in hopeless situations.” So recently the “miracle reports and answers to prayer” had been increasing.

Under the chairmanship of the Kaiser Karl Prayer League by Kurt Krenn , who was Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Vienna from 1987 and Bishop of the Diocese of St. Pölten from 1991 until he had to resign from this office in 2004 and who had significantly promoted the cause The process will be brought to its desired conclusion on December 20, 2003: the Congregation for Canonization published a decree in the presence of Pope John Paul II , which recognizes a miraculous healing that took place at the invocation of the deceased - the necessary prerequisite for beatification. So did Maria Zita Gradowska , one in Brazil acting nun from Poland , for decades in a very painful venous disease, which was considered incurable, suffered've had open sores and was bedridden. In 1960 she is said to have called Emperor Karl for intercession. The next day she was pain free and her ulcers healed.

The circumstances of the beatification on October 3, 2004, the controversial personality of the advocate Kurt Krenn and the presence of high political dignitaries of the Republic of Austria at the ceremony - the official delegation was headed by National Council President Andreas Khol - sparked discussions in Austria.

The ecclesiastical day of remembrance for Blessed Karl was not the day of his death, but - in memory of his marriage to Zita von Bourbon-Parma - the couple's wedding anniversary, October 21. In November 2009 a beatification process was initiated for the former Empress Zita. He enjoys great veneration in the Vienna Augustinian Church , the former Imperial and Royal Court Church , where an altar was erected for Blessed Karl. In the first decade after the beatification, more than two dozen places of worship of Charles were established in Austria alone. The Kaiser Karl Prayer League for the Peace of Nations has set up branches and locations around the world, some of which have relics of Charles for cultic purposes and which can be used in churches and chapels.

ancestors

Pedigree of Charles I.
Great-great-grandparents	Emperor Franz II (1768–1835) ⚭ 1790 Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily (1772–1807)	King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria (1756–1825) ⚭ 1797 Karoline Friederike Wilhelmine of Baden (1776–1841)	King Francis I of Sicily (1777–1830) ⚭ 1802 Maria Isabel of Spain (1789–1848)	Karl von Österreich-Teschen (1771–1847) ⚭ 1815 Henriette Alexandrine of Nassau-Weilburg (1797–1829)	Maximilian of Saxony (1759–1838) ⚭ 1792 Caroline of Bourbon-Parma (1770-1804)	King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria (1756–1825) ⚭ 1797 Karoline Friederike Wilhelmine of Baden (1776–1841)	Ferdinand von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld-Koháry (1785–1851) ⚭ 1815 Maria Antonie Gabriele von Koháry (1797–1862)	Emperor Peter I of Brazil (1798–1834) ⚭ 1817 Maria Leopoldine of Austria (1797–1826)
Great grandparents	Franz Karl of Austria (1802–1878) ⚭ 1824 Sophie Friederike of Bavaria (1805–1872)		King Ferdinand II (1810-1859) ⚭ 1837 Maria Theresa of Austria (1816–1867)		King John of Saxony (1801–1873) ⚭ 1822 Amalie Auguste of Bavaria (1801–1877)		King Ferdinand II of Portugal (1816–1885) ⚭ 1836 Maria II of Portugal (1819-1853)
Grandparents	Karl Ludwig of Austria (1833–1896) ⚭ 1862 Maria Annunziata of Naples and Sicily (1843–1871)				King George of Saxony (1832–1904) ⚭ 1859 Maria Anna of Portugal (1843-1884)
parents	Otto Franz Joseph of Austria (1865–1906) ⚭ 1886 Maria Josepha of Saxony (1867–1944)
Charles I.

literature

• Karl Franz Joseph. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1965, pp. 236–239 (direct links to p. 236 , p. 237 , p. 238 , p. 239 ).
• Gordon Brook-Shepherd: About Crown and Empire. The tragedy of the last Habsburg emperor. Molden, Vienna 1968.
• Peter Broucek (Ed.), Anton Lehár: Memories. Counter-revolution and attempts at restoration in Hungary 1918–1921. Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-7028-0069-7 .
• Peter Broucek: Charles I (IV.). The political path of the last ruler of the Danube monarchy. Boehlau, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-205-98737-3 .
• Alexander Demblin (ed.): August Demblin: Minister against Kaiser. Notes by an Austro-Hungarian diplomat about Foreign Minister Czernin and Kaiser Karl. Böhlau, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-205-98762-4 .
• Eva Demmerle : Emperor Karl I. "Blessed are those who make peace ...". The biography . Amalthea, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-85002-521-7 .
• Eva Demmerle: Emperor Karl, Myth & Reality. Amalthea, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-99050-044-6 .
• Erich Feigl (ed.): Kaiser Karl. Personal records, certificates and documents. Amalthea, Vienna 1984, ISBN 3-85002-179-3 .
• Hans Flesch-Brunningen (ed.), Karl I. The last emperor. In: The last Habsburgs in eyewitness reports , Düsseldorf 1967, pp. 269–359.
• Josef Gelmi : The last emperor. Karl I. (1887–1922) and Tyrol. Tyrolia, Innsbruck / Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7022-2619-2 .
• Andreas Gottsmann (Ed.): Karl I. (IV.), The First World War and the end of the Danube Monarchy. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-7001-3929-4 ( table of contents ).
• Ludwig Jedlicka :  Karl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , pp. 243-245 ( digitized version ).
• Elisabeth Kovács: Doom or Rescue of the Danube Monarchy? Böhlau, Vienna 2004, 2 volumes, ISBN 3-205-77237-7 and ISBN 3-205-77238-5 .
• Heinz von Lichem : Karl I. An emperor seeks peace. Image documentation. Tyrolia, Innsbruck / Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-7022-1993-5 .
• Bernhard A. Macek : Emperor Karl I. The last emperor of Austria. A biographical picture sheet. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2012, ISBN 978-3-95400-076-0 .
• Jan Mikrut (ed.): Emperor Karl I (IV.) As a Christian, statesman, husband and father. Dom Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-85351-188-0 .
• Arthur Polzer-Hoditz : Emperor Karl. From the secret folder of his head of cabinet. 2nd Edition. Amalthea, Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-85002-122-X .
• Heinz Rieder: Emperor Karl. The last monarch of Austria-Hungary 1887–1922. Callwey, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-7667-0596-2 .
• Markus Roth: Karl of Austria: Emperor - Warlord - Churchman. Political saint in modern times? Kovac, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8300-6804-4 .
• Franz Schausberger : Wedding at Schwarzau Castle. Archduke Karl Franz Josef von Habsburg-Lothringen and Princess Zita von Bourbon-Parma married 100 years ago. Salzburg 2011. ISBN 978-3-902557-13-1
• Katrin Unterreiner : Anyway, he can go: Emperor Karl and the end of the Habsburg monarchy Molden-Verlag, Vienna / Graz / Klagenfurt 2017, ISBN 978-3-222-15008-1

Web links

Commons : Karl I. (Austria-Hungary)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Karl I in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Karl I in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• After the wedding of Karl I and Zita von Bourbon-Parma: Emperor Franz Joseph, Karl, Zita, Franz Ferdinand and Josepha in the gazebo, 1911. Original film recording. In: aeiou.at ( ORF archive).
• Articles and reports on the death of Charles I in the Austrian and Hungarian press. :  Daily overview of  April 2, 1922 (online at ANNO ).
• His Austro-Hungarian Highness Archduke heir to the throne Karl Franz Josef discussed this record in favor of the Imperial and Royal Austrian Military Widows and Orphans Fund (01:12 min.) From December 16, 1916 in the online archive of the Austrian Media Library .
• The new emperor - Karl I. The new emperor Karl I had to take over the throne in the midst of the turmoil of the First World War and found a political and social situation that indicated the near end of the monarchy. In: the first world war. Issue 4: January to December 2016. An online exhibition from the Austrian Media Library.
• Kaiser Karl Prayer League for the Peace of Nations (seat: Abbey Heiligenkreuz ) - official website.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Friedrich Weissensteiner : Women on the Habsburg throne. The Austrian empresses 1804–1918. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-8000-3709-2 , pp. 155–157: Empress Zita: Empress without empire.
2. ^ Eva Demmerle: Kaiser Karl I. Amalthea, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-85002-521-7 , p. 83 ff.
3. ^ Franz Gall : Austrian heraldry. Handbook of coat of arms science. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1992, ISBN 3-205-05352-4 , p. 105 f.
4. ^ The Coronation Celebrations in Budapest. In:  Wiener Zeitung , December 31, 1916, p. 8f. (Online at ANNO ).
5. ↑ The Hungarian coronation gift. In:  Eggenburger Zeitung , June 22, 1917, p. 11 (online at ANNO ).
6. ^ Mark Cornwall: Dissolution and Defeat. The Austro-Hungarian Revolution. In: Mark Cornwall (ed.): The last years of the Danube Monarchy. The first multiethnic place in Europe in the early 20th century. Magnus, Essen 2004, ISBN 978-3-88400-415-9 , p. 178.
7. ^ Ingeborg Meckling: The foreign policy of Count Czernin. Oldenbourg, Munich 1969 (= at the same time: Ingeborg Meckling (née Albrecht): Ingeborg Czernin's foreign policy and the Austro-Hungarian-German alliance relations 1917/18. Dissertation at the University of Hamburg , December 1969), p. 82.
8. ↑ József Galántai: The fall of the Tisza government in 1917. In: Annales Universitatis Scientiarum Budapestinensis de Rolando Eötvös nominatae. Sectio historica 5, 1965, pp. 127–145, here: p. 129.
   Zbynèk AB Zeman: A Diplomatic History of the First World War. London 1971, p. 126.
9. ^ Ingeborg Meckling: The foreign policy of Count Czernin. Oldenbourg, Munich 1969 (= at the same time: Ingeborg Meckling (née Albrecht): Ingeborg Czernin's foreign policy and the Austro-Hungarian-German alliance relations 1917/18. Dissertation at the University of Hamburg , December 1969), p. 7.
10. ^ Robin Okey: The Habsburg Monarchy, c. 1765-1918. St. Martin's Press, New York 2001, pp. 385 f.
11. ^ Ordinance of the entire ministry of January 26, 1917 on the protection of tenants, RGBl. No. 34/1917 . “This ordinance” came into effect with a time limit in accordance with Article II “on the day it was announced and expired on December 31, 1918.” The time limit was repealed on October 26, 1918.
12. ↑ Imperial Ordinance of January 4, 1917, regarding changes to the Health Insurance Act, RGBl. No. 6/1917 .
13. ↑ Imperial Ordinance of January 4, 1917, regarding the amendment and addition to Sections 94 and 121 of the Trade Ordinance, RGBl. No. 7/1917 .
14. ↑ Imperial ordinance of March 18, 1917, regarding the regulation of wages and employment relationships in companies serving military purposes, RGBl. No. 122/1917 .
15. ^ Ernst Bruckmüller: Social history of Austria. Oldenbourg, Munich 2001, p. 360.
16. ^ ^{A b} Francis Roy Bridge: The Habsburg Monarchy among the Great Powers 1815-1918. New York / Oxford / Munich 1990, p. 359.
17. ↑ Miklós Komjáthy (Ed.): Protocols of the Joint Council of Ministers of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1914–1918). Budapest 1966, p. 440 ff.
    Erich Feigl (Ed.): Kaiser Karl. Personal records, certificates and documents. Amalthea, Vienna 1984, ISBN 3-85002-179-3 , p. 116.
18. ↑ Gary W. Shanafelt: The Secret Enemy. Austria-Hungary and the German Alliance 1914-1918. East European Monographs, Boulder (Colorado)  / Columbia University Press, New York 1985, ISBN 0-88033-080-5 , p. 129.
19. ↑ Robert A. Kann : The Sixtus Affair and the secret Austria-Hungary peace negotiations in the First World War. Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1966, p. 55.
20. ↑ Wolfgang Steglich (ed.): The peace appeal of Pope Benedict XV. of August 1, 1917 and the Central Powers. Diplomatic files from the German Foreign Office, the Bavarian State Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the British Foreign Office from 1915–1922. F. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1970, p. 376 (No. 323).
21. ↑ Gary W. Shanafelt: The Secret Enemy. Austria-Hungary and the German Alliance 1914-1918. East European Monographs, Boulder (Colorado)  / Columbia University Press, New York 1985, ISBN 0-88033-080-5 , p. 158.
22. ^ Arthur J. May: The Passing of the Habsburg Monarchy 1914–1918. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 1967, Vol. 2, p. 511.
23. ↑ Helmut Rumpler: The Sixtus action and international manifesto of Emperor Charles. On the structural crisis of the Habsburg Empire in 1917/18. In: Karl Bosl (ed.): Versailles - St. Germain - Trianon. Upheaval in Europe fifty years ago. Oldenbourg, Munich / Vienna 1971, ISBN 3-486-47321-2 , p. 111–125, here: p. 112 f.
24. ↑ Historian pays tribute to the peace efforts of Emperor Karl I. In: religion. ORF.at , September 29, 2004, accessed on November 17, 2019.
25. ↑ His k. u. k. Your Apostolic Majesty has graciously deigned to issue the following Most High Manifesto: To my loyal Austrian peoples! In:  Wiener Zeitung , extra edition, October 17, 1918, p. 1 (online at ANNO ). . (Signed with: "Vienna, on October 16, 1918. / Karl m. P. / Hussarek m. P.")
26. ^ The proclamation of German Austria as a republic and part of Germany. In:  Neue Freie Presse , November 12, 1918, p. 3 (online at ANNO ). . ("... The Lammasch Ministry appeared on the scene as the liquidation ministry. In the meantime the peoples have taken care of the liquidation themselves. ...")
27. ↑ Ludwig Jedlicka : An army in the shadow of the parties. The military-political situation in Austria, 1918–1938. Böhlau, Graz / Cologne 1955, p. 29.
    Hans Hautmann : History of the council movement in Austria. 1918-1924. (= Publications of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for the History of the Labor Movement.) Europe, Vienna / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-203-50985-7 , p. 252.
28. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m} Habsburg: The Hofburg remains firmly locked. ("Why no family member is allowed to run for the office of Austrian Federal President. The ominous passage has existed since October 1, 1920.") In: Die Presse , print edition, February 20, 2010, accessed on November 17, 2019.
29. ↑ Gordon Brook-Shepherd: To Crown and Empire. The tragedy of the last Habsburg emperor. Molden, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1968 (translated from English by Johannes Eidlitz), p. 256.
30. ↑ Josef Redlich in his diary, quoted in: Rudolf Neck (Ed.): Austria in 1918. Reports and documents. Verlag Oldenbourg, Munich 1968, p. 132 f.
31. ^ Vienna, November 11th. The emperor issued the following rally: […]. In:  Wiener Zeitung. , Extra edition, November 11, 1918, p. 1 (online at ANNO ). . (Signed with: "Karl m. P. / Lammasch m. P.")
32. ↑ Wilhelm Brauneder : “An emperor doesn't abdicate just for the sake of it!” - Emperor Karl's resignation on November 11, 1918. In: Susan Richter, Dirk Dirbach (ed.): Renunciation of the throne: the abdication in monarchies from the Middle Ages to the modern age . (= Conference publication, Heidelberg 2007.) Böhlau, Köln / Weimar / Wien 2010, ISBN 978-3-412-20535-5 , pp. 123–140, here p. 130.
33. ↑ Gordon Brook-Shepherd: To Crown and Empire. The tragedy of the last Habsburg emperor. Molden, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1968 (translated from English by Johannes Eidlitz), p. 252.
34. ↑ Gordon Brook-Shepherd: To Crown and Empire. The tragedy of the last Habsburg emperor. Molden, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1968 (translated from English by Johannes Eidlitz), p. 266.
35. ↑ Gordon Brook-Shepherd: To Crown and Empire. The tragedy of the last Habsburg emperor. Molden, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1968 (translated from English by Johannes Eidlitz), p. 290.
36. ↑ Jost Auf der Maur: In the footsteps of a side note in world history: The emperor does not come to rest. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , March 22, 2019, accessed on November 17, 2019.
37. ↑ Entrance via the Ehrenhof: the Kaiserwagen returns to Schönbrunn. The historic Kaiserwagen is on permanent loan to the Wagenburg of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Schönbrunn. ... In: news.ch/bb/ sda , November 4, 2001, accessed on November 17, 2019.
38. ↑ ^{a b} Markus Benesch: The end of the monarchy and the beginning of the republic. Austria between 1916 and 1919. Diploma thesis, University of Vienna , 2003, p. 107. Taken from: Johannes Mattes , Michael Wagner: End and beginning of the Austrian Revolution - November 1918. (“A project as part of the course 'PK Power in Pictures, Texts und Medien '”.) University of Vienna, winter semester 2006/07, p. 11f. ( Full text online (PDF; 62 kB) on the website of the House of History Austria , accessed on November 17, 2019.)
39. ↑ Gordon Brook-Shepherd: To Crown and Empire. The tragedy of the last Habsburg emperor. Molden, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1968 (translated from English by Johannes Eidlitz), p. 299.
40. ↑ Law of April 3, 1919, regarding the expulsion from the country and the takeover of the property of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen ( StGBl. No. 209/1919 ; better known as the "Habsburg Law")
41. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Austria: Honor of the Altars . In: Der Spiegel . No. 45 , 1982, pp. 186-187 ( Online - Nov. 8, 1982 ). Quote: “Will the last Habsburg emperor, Charles I, be beatified? At least that's what his widow Zita, who is now 90 years old, would like to return to Austria. "
42. ↑ Gerald Schlag: "Born out of ruins ...". Burgenland 1918–1921. (=  Scientific work from Burgenland (WAB). Volume 106). Burgenland State Museum (Office of the Burgenland Provincial Government; Ed.), Eisenstadt 2001, ISBN 3-85405-144-1 , pp. 452–454, PDF on ZOBODAT
43. ↑ Gordon Brook-Shepherd: To Crown and Empire. The tragedy of the last Habsburg emperor. Molden, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1968 (translated from English by Johannes Eidlitz), p. 384.
44. ↑ ^{a b} The death of the former emperor. In:  Neue Freie Presse , April 2, 1922, p. 2 (online at ANNO ).
45. ↑ ^{a b c d} Elisabeth Kovács: The fall or salvation of the Danube monarchy? Volume 1: The Austrian Question. Emperor and King Charles I (IV.) And the reorganization of Central Europe (1916–1922). Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2004, ISBN 978-3-205-77237-8 . ( Full text of both volumes online on the website of the author Kovács (1930–2013)) Here: Chapter XXV.
46. ^ Emperor Karl's villa on Madeira burned down. In: Die Presse , August 18, 2016, accessed on November 17, 2019.
47. ↑ Jan Mikrut (ed.): Emperor Karl I (IV.) As a Christian, statesman, husband and family father . (= Conference paper, Vienna 2004. At the same time: Publications of the International Research Institute for the Promotion of Church History in Central Europe. Volume 1). Dom-Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-85351-188-0 , p. 197.
    Josef Gelmi: The last emperor. Karl I. (1887–1922) and Tyrol. Tyrolia, Innsbruck / Vienna 2004, ISBN 978-3-85351-188-6 , pp. 97-98.
48. ↑ ^{a b c} Beatification of Emperor Karl I .: A process lasting more than 50 years. In: religion. ORF.at , beginning of October 2004, accessed on November 17, 2019.
49. ↑ Was there really a miracle? The healing story of Sr. Maria Zita. ( Memento of May 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: emperor-charles.org. Kaiser Karl Prayer League for the Peace of Nations (Ed.), Undated.
50. ↑ Johann Werfring: Military adjusted to the honor of the altars. For Emperor Karl I, who was beatified in October 2004, a museum place of worship was set up in Vienna's Augustinian Church. "Museum pieces" column. In: Wiener Zeitung , print edition of November 7, 2013, supplement “ProgrammPunkte”, p. 7. ( Article online in version July 2, 2016, accessed on November 17, 2019.)
51. ↑ Prayer League Worldwide. In: Website of the Kaiser Karl Prayer League for the Peace of Nations, undated, accessed on November 19, 2019.
52. ↑ Places of worship. In: Website of the Kaiser Karl Prayer League for the Peace of Nations, undated, accessed on November 19, 2019.

predecessor	Office	successor
Franz Joseph I.	Emperor of Austria 1916–1918	End of the empire in 1918
Franz Joseph I.	Apostolic King of Hungary as Charles IV. 1. 1916–1918 2. de jure 1920–1921	1st Republic of Hungary Prime Minister : Mihály Károlyi 2. vacant, imperial administrator : Miklós Horthy
Franz Joseph I.	King of Bohemia etc. as Charles III. 1916-1918	Czechoslovak Republic President: Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
Franz Joseph I.	Archduke of Austria etc. 1916–1918	Republic of German Austria Chairman of the Council of State : Karl Seitz