Rudolf of Liechtenstein (Obersthofmeister)

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Rudolf von und zu Liechtenstein (born April 18, 1838 in Vienna ; † December 15, 1908 in Mährisch-Kromau in South Moravia ) from the Princely House of Liechtenstein had been an Austro-Hungarian Chamberlain since 1862 and an Austro-Hungarian Chamberlain from 1892, and since 1897 lifelong, Hereditary member of the manor house of the Reichsrat since January 16, 1899 (now Prince) , rose as an officer in the Joint Army to General of the Cavalry in 1904 and served as First Chief Steward and Colonel of all the Imperial and Royal Body Guards from June 30, 1896 until his death King Franz Joseph I as head of state of Austria-Hungary .

Rudolf von Liechtenstein , 1895, as Lieutenant Field Marshal ( Th. Mayerhofer )

Life

Rudolph (the spelling of his first name in the Court and State Handbook until 1903) was the second son of Prince Karl von Liechtenstein (1790-1865) and Princess Franziska, née Countess von Wrbna-Freudenthal (1799-1863). He had eight princely siblings: seven sisters and Karl (* 1827), who had been the head of the Liechtenstein secondary school with the title of Prince since 1865 . With Karl's death on January 16, 1899, Rudolf took over this position.

After joining the army after graduating from high school, Rudolf initially made a rapid career as an officer in the vicinity of the emperor. In 1892 he was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece by Franz Joseph I , the highest order of the Empire and house order of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty , and in 1896 he received the Order of St. Stephen , the highest order of the Kingdom of Hungary for civil service , awarded.

With Franz Joseph I, the position of chief court master was by far the highest of the highest court ranks in the court ; The bearer of this function was higher in rank than all other high nobility of the monarchy who did not belong to the House of Austria and was named in the court and state handbook immediately after the imperial family. It was not just an honorary title, but a demanding management position at the interface between the monarch and his family, the political functionaries, the court servants in the monarch's residences and many personalities in the aristocracy, culture, economy and society of the dual monarchy.

As first chief steward, Rudolf, personally chosen and appointed by the monarch in 1896 to succeed the late Prince Konstantin zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, enjoyed the special trust of the emperor and empress Elisabeth . Among other things, he was responsible for the administration of the imperial palaces (including construction work) and for the two Viennese court theaters, the kk Hofoper and the kk Hofburgtheater , and was instrumental in appointing the directors (like Gustav Mahler in 1897 ). The outstanding events with which he was involved included the Badeni riots in Vienna in 1897 over the language dispute between Czechs and Germans in Bohemia , the murder of Empress Elisabeth on September 10th in 1898 and the emperor's 50th anniversary on the throne on December 2, 1900 the family crisis surrounding the morganatic marriage of Archduke heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand with his oath of renunciation in the Vienna Hofburg on June 28, and in 1903 the state visits of King Edward VII (August 31 - September 3), the German emperor Wilhelm II (September 18–20) and Tsar Nicholas II (September 30– October 3) in Vienna.

In the last years of his life, Rudolf was often absent from office due to illness. He was represented by Prince Alfred Montenuovo as Second Chief Chamberlain; after Rudolf's death, Montenuovo took up his position.

As a composer, Rudolf set texts by Walther von der Vogelweide and Heinrich Heine to music . For Empress Elisabeth he was supposedly the beautiful prince .

The highly respected Liechtenstein family did not live in the sovereign but small Principality of Liechtenstein , but mainly in Vienna and Moravia , where they owned castles and extensive lands.

He found his final resting place in the mausoleum of the younger line of the House of Liechtenstein in the cemetery of the All Saints Church in Mährisch Kromau .

literature

Web links

Commons : Rudolf von Liechtenstein  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Court and State Handbook of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy for 1900 , kk Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1900, pp. 15, 17, 25, 30, 54, 56, 205, 208, 257, 283
  2. ^ Website of the Princely House of Liechtenstein
personal data
SURNAME Liechtenstein, Rudolf von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Liechtenstein, Rudolf Prinz von und zu (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian general, imperial chief steward and composer
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH December 15, 1908
Place of death Moravian-Kromau