Rudolf von Österreich-Ungarn

Rudolf Franz Karl Joseph of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine was born on 21 August 1858 at Laxenburg Castle near Vienna. He was the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth, making him Austrian-Hungarian Crown Prince and Archduke. His birth was celebrated in Vienna with cannon fire, festively decorated cities, and church services. He was named Rudolf after Emperor Rudolf I, the first significant ruler of the House of Habsburg. He had two older sisters, Gisela and Sophie, who died in childhood, as well as a younger sister, Marie Valerie. His early education was shaped by his grandmother, Archduchess Sophie, who kept him apart from his mother and favored a strict, conservative, militarized upbringing. Shortly after his sixth birthday, Rudolf was given his own household. His first tutor, Count Leopold Gondrecourt, subjected the sensitive and nervous boy to harsh exercises: he woke him at night with pistol shots, forced him to undertake long marches, and made him stand outside in the rain. This treatment endangered Rudolf’s physical and psychological development. At Elisabeth’s insistence, Gondrecourt was replaced in 1865 by Count Joseph Latour von Thurmburg. Under Latour’s guidance, Rudolf’s intellectual abilities flourished. He proved to be a freethinking, liberal, articulate young man with an unusual talent for writing. His education was provided by numerous teachers from different parts of the monarchy. They taught him history, languages, natural sciences, economics, and about the various peoples of the empire. The Hungarian bishop Jácint Rónay instructed him in Hungarian history and emphasized religious tolerance. Carl Menger introduced him to political economy and awakened his concern about public debt and weak state finances. Teachers such as Anton Gindely and Hermenegild Jireček acquainted him with Czech history and the Czech language. As a result, Rudolf developed sympathy for the Slavic peoples and the vision of a centrally governed, supranational empire in which its different nationalities would be treated equally and minorities protected. Rudolf criticized the idleness and limited education of many aristocrats. He opposed clericalism, nationalism, and antisemitism, and supported constitutional government, democracy, and respect for scientific knowledge. He admired the educated middle class and regarded France as a successful republic. He did not reject religion in principle, but objected to churches or political groups using it as an instrument of oppression or to spread superstition. He was also interested in Darwin’s theory of evolution, which he used as an opportunity to attack the privileged classes and the Church for their historical role in suppressing and keeping the population uneducated. Because his father denied him an active political role, Rudolf sought other ways to publicize his views. Through the journalist Moritz Szeps, he became associated with the liberal newspaper Neues Wiener Tagblatt and published political articles under a pseudonym. In them he attacked conservative politicians such as Eduard Taaffe, Georg von Schönerer, and his uncle Archduke Albrecht. Although he had to represent the monarchy’s official position in public, he frequently criticized it in his anonymous contributions. He favored closer relations with France and Russia because he was concerned about Austria-Hungary’s growing ties to the German Empire and Bismarck’s influence. He also closely followed developments in the Balkans and warned about increasing Russian influence there. In his view, the monarchy’s stability depended on winning the support of the Balkan peoples and of the empire’s various nationalities. Rudolf also developed a distinctive relationship with Hungary. He learned Hungarian and Hungarian constitutional law and admired the liberal ideas of Prime Minister Kálmán Tisza. He did not support Hungarian national interests without reservation, however, and criticized Hungarian nationality policy as well as antisemitism. Whenever he believed the unity of the monarchy was threatened, he nevertheless sided with the Hungarian government and defended the dualist system. He was convinced that the empire could survive only if nationalism were overcome and its peoples brought together peacefully. After completing his studies in 1877, Rudolf was not allowed to attend university because Franz Joseph feared that liberal influences might affect his son. Instead, he continued his education independently and traveled through Europe, including England, Spain, Egypt, and Palestine. In England, he studied the economy and the workings of the political system in particular. He also rose rapidly through the military ranks: in 1878 he became a major, later a major general and field marshal lieutenant, and finally, in 1888, inspector general of the infantry. These positions, however, gave him little genuine political power. In 1881 Rudolf married Stephanie, the daughter of King Leopold II of Belgium, in Vienna. Their daughter, Elisabeth Marie, was born in 1883 and was known within the family as “Erzsi.” The first years of the marriage were considered happy, but profound differences between the couple soon emerged. Rudolf was impulsive, intellectual, and unconventional, while Stephanie was more concerned with social forms and representation. After Rudolf suffered a serious illness in 1886, which he probably transmitted to Stephanie and which left her infertile, their relationship deteriorated further. Both turned to other partners. Rudolf had numerous extramarital affairs, including with Mizzi Kaspar, who played an important role during the final years of his life. His dissolute lifestyle, alcohol use, and growing conflicts in both his private and political life placed him under additional strain. Alongside politics and journalism, Rudolf devoted himself intensively to the natural sciences, especially ornithology and ethnography. He collected minerals, made precise observations during his hunting trips, and published articles on birds of prey, grouse, and other bird species. The zoologist Alfred Brehm valued his expertise and incorporated Rudolf’s observations into his work Tierleben. Rudolf also supported bird conservation. In 1875 he placed the heron colony at Obedska bara under protection, an action regarded as one of the monarchy’s earliest nature-conservation measures. In 1884 he opened the First International Ornithological Congress in Vienna. The major geographical and ethnographic series The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Word and Image was also published under his patronage; Rudolf hoped it would bring the empire’s peoples closer together. During his final years, his situation worsened. Political liberalism lost influence while German nationalists and antisemites grew stronger. Rudolf’s Jewish friends, his openness toward France, and his journalistic activities became targets of public attacks. At the same time, his hopes for a liberal development in Germany faded. The death of Emperor Frederick III and the expected accession of Wilhelm II made such a development seem unlikely to him. The international political situation also appeared increasingly threatening. Rudolf died on 30 January 1889 at Mayerling Hunting Lodge; the following day he was found dead there together with his lover, Maria von Vetsera. According to the evidence underlying the article, the two committed suicide together: Rudolf first shot Maria and then himself. Other theories proposed a political murder, an accident, or different events. His early death ended the hopes that some had placed in his liberal and supranational political program. His memory survived in scientific institutions, monuments, buildings, and even in the names of several bird species.