Erbherzogin Anna, Fürstin zu Hohenlohe-Bartenstein

Anne of Habsburg-Tuscany was born on 17 October 1879 in Lindau, in what was then the German Empire. She was the second daughter and sixth of the ten children of Grand Duke Ferdinand IV of Tuscany and his second wife, Princess Alice of Bourbon-Parma. By the time of her birth, her father had already been deposed from his throne, in 1860. The family therefore lived in the Austro-Hungarian region, at times in Lindau but primarily in Salzburg, where Anne spent her childhood and youth. By birth, Anne belonged to the House of Habsburg-Tuscany and held the titles of Archduchess of Austria and Princess of Tuscany. Her life was also shaped by the political changes that affected many formerly ruling European dynasties during the 19th century. Although her family retained its dynastic status, she no longer lived at a court of its own in Tuscany, but in exile or outside its former territories. On 12 February 1901, Anne married Johannes, the seventh Prince zu Hohenlohe-Bartenstein since 1877, in Salzburg. Johannes had been born at Bartenstein Castle on 20 August 1863 and died there on 19 August 1921. He was the son of Karl Ludwig zu Hohenlohe-Bartenstein, head of the junior branch of his family, and Countess Rose von Sternberg. After their wedding, the couple settled at Bartenstein Castle. Through her marriage, Anne became Princess zu Hohenlohe-Bartenstein. Anne and Johannes had six children. Their eldest daughter, Maria Rosa, was born at Bartenstein Castle in 1903. In 1923 she married Josef Hugo Waldenmaier, a school director. The marriage ended in divorce in 1928, and they had two sons. Karl, born in 1905, married Clara Baroness von Meyern-Hohenberg in 1936. He died in 1950 in a car accident near Königshofen, in Unterbalbach in Baden; the couple had three children. His younger brother Albrecht, born in 1906, also married in 1936, to Therese Countess von Geldern-Egmont. They likewise had three children. Anne’s daughter Elisabeth was born in 1907. She never married and died in 1927, at the age of 19, in Aigen Glas near Salzburg. Margarethe, born in 1909, did not marry until 1971, when she wed Raffaele Corsi nobile dei baroni di Turri e Maggio. The marriage remained childless. The youngest child, Friedrich, was born in 1910 in Aeschach near Lindau. He married Marie-Claire Buet de Villars in 1959, and they had one daughter. Anne was widowed when her husband died in 1921. She survived him by four decades and remained connected to Bartenstein Castle and to her children’s family. Anne died on 30 May 1961, at the age of 81, in Baden-Baden in what was then the Federal Republic of Germany. She was buried in the crypt of Bartenstein Castle. In addition to her family and dynastic status, Anne was honored with several distinctions. She was a Dame of the Austrian-Hungarian Order of the Starry Cross and received the commemorative medal for the 1893 wedding of Prince Ferdinand I and Marie-Louise. Her life thus linked the memory of the deposed Grand Duchy of Tuscany with the traditions of the House of Habsburg and her later role as Princess zu Hohenlohe-Bartenstein.