Anton Viktor von Österreich

Archduke Anton Viktor of Austria, also known as Anton Viktor of Habsburg-Lorraine, was born on August 31, 1779, at Poggio Imperiale Palace in Florence. He was the eleventh of the sixteen children of Peter Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany from the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and the Spanish Infanta Maria Ludovika of Bourbon. In 1790, his father ascended the imperial throne as Leopold II, and his mother consequently became empress. Among Anton Viktor’s siblings were Emperor Francis II, who from 1804 was also Francis I, the first emperor of Austria; Field Marshal Archduke Charles; the future Grand Duke Ferdinand III of Tuscany; and Archdukes John and Rainer, who likewise held important military and political offices. Several of his sisters also married into European ruling families or took on ecclesiastical roles. Anton Viktor spent his childhood at the grand ducal court in Florence. When his father inherited the imperial throne in 1790, the family moved to Vienna. Two years later, within the space of only three months, Anton Viktor lost both of his parents. His eldest brother, Francis, then became ruler at the age of 24, initially reigning as Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, and from 1804 additionally as Francis I, Emperor of Austria. Anton Viktor initially pursued an ecclesiastical career. On September 11, 1801, he was elected Bishop of Münster at Wedinghausen Abbey; on October 7 of the same year, he was elected Archbishop of Cologne. He was never able to take up either office in practice. Münster and Cologne were under the control of revolutionary France, and under pressure from the occupying power the German princes opposed the appointment of a member of the Austrian imperial family. Since the archbishop of Cologne was also an elector, the matter had considerable political significance. Anton Viktor’s appointments were therefore withdrawn on December 4, 1801, scarcely three months later. After returning to Vienna, Anton Viktor joined the Teutonic Order and took the knightly vow. At that time, the order’s grand master was his uncle, Archduke Maximilian Franz. After Maximilian Franz’s death, Anton Viktor’s brother, Archduke Charles Louis, was initially appointed grand master. Until the nineteenth century, grand masters of the Teutonic Order were often members of the imperial family. The office was generally representative, and its holders involved themselves only to a limited extent in the order’s internal affairs. By then, however, the order’s political circumstances had fundamentally changed. Revolutionary France had occupied the left bank of the Rhine, and the order’s possessions there were confiscated as a result of the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801. The Imperial Deputation of 1803 also brought about the secularization of ecclesiastical principalities and the transfer of their possessions into state or other secular hands. Archduke Charles, who increasingly focused on military command and army organization, resigned as grand master in 1804. On May 25 of that year, Anton Viktor was formally installed as Hoch- und Deutschmeister of the Teutonic Order. In October 1805, Emperor Francis sent Anton Viktor to Berlin. His task was to persuade Prussia to join the Third Coalition against Napoleon. The effort did not achieve the hoped-for result; the war ended for Austria with the severe defeat at Austerlitz and the Treaty of Pressburg, which was unfavorable to the country. In 1809, Napoleon completely dissolved the Teutonic Order in the territories under his control. The order’s possessions and wealth in German and Italian territories were transferred to the new principalities ruling those areas. Anton Viktor had to give up his previous official residence in Mergentheim, which lay in the Kingdom of Württemberg, and move to Vienna. He was the last grand master of the Teutonic Order to reside within the territory of the Holy Roman Empire. His departure outwardly sealed the order’s end in the empire. Although the order was not officially permitted to reestablish itself in Austria until 1834, and most of its wealth remained in state hands, Anton Viktor continued to hold the title of grand master until his death. An infantry regiment numbered 52, recruited in Hungary, was named after him. After the Congress of Vienna, Anton Viktor received a new political assignment. On March 7, 1816, he was appointed viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, which was linked to the Austrian Empire in a personal union. He resided in Milan. In the same year, he had a palace built in Baden near Vienna and supported the city’s development through several substantial donations. His term as viceroy was short, however. He was recalled on January 3, 1818, and his younger brother, Archduke Rainer, took over the office, retaining it until 1848. Anton Viktor died in Vienna on April 2, 1835, at the age of 55. He was buried in the Capuchin Church, the burial place of the House of Habsburg; his heart urn was placed in the Augustinian Church. His successor as grand master of the Teutonic Order was Archduke Maximilian Joseph of Habsburg-Este, the son of his nephew, Archduke Ferdinand Charles Anton. Anton Viktor also remained part of the urban landscape of Vienna and Baden after his death. In 1862, a street in Vienna’s Wieden district was renamed Erzherzog-Anton-Viktor-Gasse in his honor. The palace he had built in Baden, restored after the Second World War, is known as Antons-Palais. In Bad Mergentheim, the former seat of the grand masters, an annual historical procession in period uniforms and traditional dress also commemorates the centuries-long history of the Teutonic Order.