Son of the last Habsburg monarch who campaigned in vain for the restoration of the monarchy after the Second World War
Although banished in 1918 when the country became a republic, the Habsburg family still looms large in the Austrian imagination. In July this year, the funeral of Archduke Otto, eldest son of the last Emperor, Charles, brought vast crowds and a wave of nostalgia to Vienna’s streets. One who missed the occasion was Otto’s younger brother Felix. At 95 he was too old and frail to attend. Now that he has died, the last of Charles’s children has been laid to rest.
Emperor Charles died of pneumonia in Madeira in 1922, leaving eight young children to be brought up by his widow, the Empress Zita, née Bourbon-Parma.
Felix Friedrich August Maria vom Siege Franz Joseph Peter Karl Anton Robert Otto Pius Michael Benedikt Sebastian Ignatius Marcus d’Aviano of Habsburg-Lorraine was born in Schönbrunn Palace in 1916 and named after his uncle Felix of Bourbon-Parma. He was Charles and Zita’s fourth child. His father was away at the front but the old Emperor, Francis Joseph, was present at his baptism. Giving him the name Maria vom Siege (Our Lady of Victory) was perhaps over-optimistic. Defeat was just around the corner, bringing an end to nearly 500 years of Habsburg rule.
The family led a hand-to-mouth existence in the early years of exile, while every attempt was made to win back the throne. They lived in Portugal until 1929, when the King of the Belgians allowed them to settle in his country. After 1935 Kurt von Schuschnigg, Chancellor of the Corporate State, made encouraging gestures towards the Habsburgs, causing Hitler to fear that the old royal family would seize Austria before he did.
In the autumn of 1937 Felix was given permission to study at the Theresian military academy in Wiener Neustadt. In November 1937 he and his sister Adelheid were cheered at a concert hall in Vienna, thereby setting off alarm bells in Berlin. Not for nothing was the Nazi invasion plan of 1937 called Operation Otto.
Felix was allowed to furnish his room at Wiener Neustadt with silver and tableware from the state repository that contained artefacts formerly belonging to the Habsburgs. His course was interrupted when the Nazis crossed the border in March 1938 and Felix had to move quickly to avoid incarceration (or worse) in Gestapo headquarters at the Hotel Metropole in Vienna.
He fled across the border to Hungary in a car provided by the Hungarian Embassy. From Hungary he reached Switzerland and returned to Belgium to continue his legal studies at Louvain. He had taken with him a quantity of silver and damask, giving the Nazis not only the chance to issue a warrant for his arrest but also to brand him a common thief in their party organ, the Völkischer Beobachter.
Felix fled to the United States where he and his brothers continued to agitate for a Habsburg restoration. Felix was much in demand on the lecture circuit, giving talks on the reconstruction of Central Europe on the basis of a democratic “Danube Federation”. He was careful not to say anything that might sound like “monarchist propaganda” even if Austria was clearly cast as the victim of National Socialism.
He was already well ensconced in America when Otto arrived in March 1940, heralding the arrival of Zita and the rest of the family. President Roosevelt received Otto and Felix at the White House and the Senate rose to greet them when they attended a session. Roosevelt initially gave them some encouragement, but ultimately a strong anti-monarchy feeling in America made it necessary for him to distance himself from the Habsburg princes.
Lectures were Felix’s sole source of income at the time, and he also toured South America and encouraged Austrians there. He was an imposing presence, well over 6ft tall, and spoke English convincingly.
In 1942 Felix and his brother Karl Ludwig joined the 101st US Infantry Battalion: a “Free Austrian Battalion” in the US Army. Their period of service at Fort Myer, Virginia, was brief when the unit was rapidly disbanded for political reasons.
In the spring of 1945 the brothers gathered in the Tyrol in the hope that the end of the Nazi regime would allow the Habsburgs to return to power. The French were tolerant, but the other Allies were firmly opposed to a restoration.
Archduke Felix married Princess Anna-Eugénie of Arenberg at Beaulieu in the South of France in 1952 and after a honeymoon at his mother’s house in New York State, the couple settled in Mexico City where Felix worked in a bank. Their first child was born in Mexico in 1953. Felix built up a successful business as a banker and a marketing consultant in Mexico and Belgium. Unlike most of his siblings he never returned to live in Europe.
He continued nonetheless to fight for his family rights and agitated against the Austrian Government and was banned from Austria as a result. An exception was made at the time of his mother’s funeral in 1989. In 1996, when Austria dropped its border controls after joining the European Union, Felix crossed into the country illegally. The following day he held a press conference. The Austrian Government warned him not to try the stunt a second time.
The saga continued when a deal was struck with the Austrian administration whereby Felix and his brother Karl Ludwig swore allegiance to the republic without renouncing their rights. In 1998 they unsuccessfully sued for the restoration of their property.
Felix died in San Ángel, Mexico. He had seven children. Archduchess Anna-Eugénie and one son predeceased him.
Archduke Felix of Austria, son of the last Habsburg monarch, was born on May 31, 1916. He died on September 6, 2011, aged 95
'Бій відлунав. Жовто-сині знамена затріпотіли на станції знов'
