Wilhelm of Austria

This article deals with the Archduke Wilhelm of Austria. For other people see Wilhelm von Habsburg ; on the novel Wilhelm von Österreich see Johann von Würzburg .

Archduke Wilhelm Franz Karl of Habsburg-Lothringen (born April 21, 1827 in Vienna , † July 29, 1894 in Weikersdorf , Lower Austria) was the fourth son of Field Marshal Archduke Karl and Princess Henriette Alexandrine of Nassau-Weilburg .

Archduke Wilhelm of Austria

Archduke Wilhelm, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber , 1837

Eugen Villa (main building) on ​​the Schwechat wooden canal near Baden near Vienna (1891) 

Eugen Villa (entire complex), seen from not far from the Rauhenstein castle ruins . 

Life

Wilhelm Franz Karl was the couple's fifth and youngest son. His mother died in 1829. Wilhelm had been a colonel in the Imperial Army since 1842 and owner of Infantry Regiment No. 12. He took part in the Italian wars of 1848 and 1849 as a volunteer on the side of the Austrian Empire. In the spring of 1854 he barely survived a cholera illness . In 1853 he was appointed field marshal lieutenant and from 1857 to 1860, as chief of the army command, he was de facto war minister of the Austrian Empire. In 1859 he was in the meantime field artillery inspector in the Sardinian war . In 1862 he was appointed governor of the Mainz fortress (federal fortress) and in 1864 by Emperor Franz Joseph I appointed inspector general of the entire kk artillery. In addition, from 1863 he held the office of high and German master of the Teutonic Order . In the battle of Königgrätz in 1866 he commanded the artillery and was wounded. On January 4, 1867, he was promoted by the Kaiser to Feldzeugmeister .

Wilhelm was the builder of one of the first palaces built on the newly laid out Vienna Ringstrasse , the Palais Archduke Wilhelm . Theophil Hansen built it on behalf of the Archduke 1864–1868 opposite the city ​​park . In 1870 Wilhelm sold the palace to the Teutonic Order, but continued to live in it as Grand Master himself. Since then, the building has also been known as the Deutschmeister Palais.

Wilhelm was an ardent supporter of the Imperial and Royal Court Weapons Museum (now the Army History Museum ) in Vienna. It had existed as a structure in the Arsenal since 1856 and was open to the public for the first time in 1869. In the 1880s, however, the house ran into difficulties due to reclassifications in the imperial collections. On February 22nd, 1885, a committee was formed under the protectorate and chairmanship of Crown Prince Rudolf and Wilhelm as his deputy, which was responsible for the new content of the museum.

Wilhelm sought and found the support of the emperor, his family, the nobility and the bourgeoisie as well as the Reich Ministry of War . With his zeal, an abundance of treasures had been gathered that today's man can hardly imagine. On May 25, 1891, the newly designed Imperial and Royal Army Museum was ceremoniously opened by Franz Joseph I. This happened with a speed and quality that would not have been possible without the work of Archduke Wilhelm.

The Archduke mainly spent the summer months in Weilburg Castle in Weikersdorf, Baden near Vienna , built by his father, Archduke Karl , where he sometimes did not reside in the main building but in the small new building initiated by his brother Albrecht , the Stöckl . From 1882 he pursued his plan to build his own summer residence in close proximity to Weilburg (300 m). That of Franz Ritter von Neumann planned Villa until today after William's heir Eugen -Villa called, was in 1886 granted the use permit.

Archduke Wilhelm suffered severe head injuries on July 29, 1894 in a riding accident that occurred in connection with a train on the Rauhenstein – Baden electric train and died on the same day in his villa not far from the scene of the accident.

His son Karl Borromäus Rott (1860–1881) came from an affair with the actress Maria Lutz , whom the later husband of his mother and father of his older half-brother Hans Rott , the actor Karl Mathias Rott, recognized as a son.

Honors

Johann Strauss dedicated the Archduke Wilhelm convalescence march to him in 1854 .

In view of the first anniversary of his death, Archduke Eugen , the nephew (and heir) of the casualty, donated a memorial, a memorial column erected by Paul Wasserburger . It was consecrated by the church on July 29, 1895 and the donor transferred it to the Weikersdorf community . She took on the obligation to uphold the pillar forever . The memorial column was originally intended to be erected directly at the scene of the accident, but for traffic reasons it was placed not far from it, on the corner of Helenenstrasse and Hildegardbrücke. The inscription on the plaque on the front of the base reads:

“Archduke Wilhelm of Austria Hoch- und Deutschmeister † July 29, 1894 -
The memory of the righteous lasts forever. Psalm CXI, 6 ^557. "

On the 100th anniversary of death, the memorial column was renovated in 1994 in accordance with the donation obligation.

The artillery barracks Erzherzog-Wilhelm-Kaserne , which opened in Vienna- Leopoldstadt near the Prater, in 1896, was named in honor of Wilhelm . Its construction was the result of the so-called barracks transaction . The last buildings of the barracks were demolished in 2005, the area is largely occupied by residential buildings.

The Wilhelmswarte on the Anninger was built in 1887.

literature

• The kk or kuk generals 1816–1918 , by Antonio Schmidt-Brentano, Austrian State Archives

• Sources and studies on the history of the Teutonic Order , Volume 28, Verlag Wissenschaftliches Archiv, 1973
• Johannes Ressel: Churches and chapels, religious memorial columns and signposts in Baden near Vienna. A contribution to history, local history and art history . 2nd, improved and enlarged edition. Grasl, Baden 1982, ISBN 3-85098-131-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Ed.): 100 Years of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum. Known and unknown about its history. Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna 1991, p. 10
2. ↑ (...) The so-called "Stöckl" is to be regarded as a new building (...). In:  Badener Bezirks-Blatt , February 20, 1895, p. 2 (online at ANNO ).
3. ↑ Hermina Hasenauer: The villa architecture of Franz Ritter von Neumann with special consideration of the villa Archduke Wilhelm in Baden (1883–1886) . Diploma thesis, University of Vienna, Vienna 2004, OBV
4. ↑ Entry on Archduke Eugen Villa in Burgen-Austria , accessed on May 1, 2011.
5. ↑ His k. u. k. Your highness In:  Wiener Zeitung , extra edition, July 30, 1894, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
6. ↑ † Archduke Wilhelm .. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt, July 30, 1894, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
7. ^ Archduke Wilhelm † .. In:  Die Presse , July 30, 1894, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
8. ↑ Uwe Harten : Rott (own Roth), family. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 4, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7001-3046-5 .
9. ^ Monument to Archduke Wilhelm. In:  Badener Bezirks-Blatt , July 27, 1895, p. 3 (online at ANNO ).
10. ↑ ^{a b} Ressel: Churches and Chapels , p. 144.
11. ^ Monument for Archduke Wilhelm. In:  Badener Bezirks-Blatt , July 31, 1895, p. 3 (online at ANNO ).
12. ^ Ressel: Churches and Chapels , p. 145.

Remarks

1. ↑ location
2. ↑ Parts of the building on the left: former stables, converted into a residential wing in the 1980s.
3. ↑ location

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm von Österreich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Habsburg, Wilhelm Franz Karl . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 7th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing House, Vienna 1861, p. 155 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Oscar Criste:  Wilhelm (Archduke of Austria) . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 55, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1910, pp. 91-93.
• Archduke Wilhelm's fatal accident: Editions digitized by the Austrian National Library :  Daily overview of  July 30, 1894 (online at ANNO ).

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap