Hitler and the Habsburgs

by James Longo

  A David and Goliath struggle was about to take place in Europe. American ambassador George Messersmith could see it during his introduction to the small country of Austria and its even smaller Chancellor. They met at the conclusion of a cabinet meeting when he saw a tiny man “scurrying about emptying ashtrays.” Dollfuss, four feet eleven inches tall, smiled shyly and said, “Well, you’ve caught the Chancellor cleaning up.” The American and Austrian quickly became friends.

  Engelbert Dollfuss was a confirmed monarchist determined to keep his country free from internal or external intimidation. When Austria’s Nazi Party and local communists provoked violence, he declared martial law banning both from political activities. Along with most of his cabinet, Dollfuss believed the young Otto Habsburg might be Austria’s best defense against the Nazis. In large and small ways, Dollfuss attempted to create nostalgia for a Habsburg restoration. The Habsburg hymn again became the national anthem, the Austrian army was outfitted in the old Imperial Guard uniforms. Veterans were encouraged to wear their war medals bearing images of Franz Joseph and Emperor Karl. Postcards of Otto Habsburg went on sale throughout the country and became immediate best sellers. Time magazine reported that Otto could end the divisions in Austrian politics by offering “a common figure to rally around… a more glamorous figure to draw impressionable youth from Adolf Hitler.”

  Austria, like its neighbor Germany and most of the industrialized world in 1930, found itself in desperate financial straits. One out of every three workers had lost their jobs. One in five family farms had been auctioned off to pay debts. Only the country’s tourism industry provided a fragile lifeline, but Hitler’s placement of a punitive tariff on German travelers to Austria threatened economic collapse there. Engelbert Dollfuss, Maximilian Hohenberg, and thousands of others hoped Otto Habsburg might rescue the country.

  But more immediate help came from another prince.

  Edward, His Royal Highness Prince of Wales, the handsome son of King George V and Queen Mary of England, was heir to the most respected, powerful monarchy on earth. In the 1930s, he was unquestionably the most popular royal of his generation, celebrated across Europe and around the world as a genuine Prince Charming. Edward’s love of Austria’s spectacular mountains, crystal-clear lakes, and fairy-tale cities made it his favorite holiday destination, bringing with him wealthy tourists from as far away as America. In the mid-1930s, he may have single-handedly saved Austria’s tourist industry. When his American-born mistress Bessie Wallis Warfield Simpson and her cuckolded, compliant husband joined him there, the American press followed.

  Gossips in Viennese coffeehouses and newspapers across the United States breathlessly reported the unholy trinity’s every move. Only the British press provided a news blackout, explaining Edward’s visit was “unofficial and devoted to pleasure.” The irony was not lost on pundits. The activities of the world’s most eligible royal bachelor provided a pleasant diversion from troubling economic and political news, but headaches for MI-6, the British Intelligence Service.

  The British Prince was enamored with Adolf Hitler despite the Führer’s book burnings, political persecutions, and spreading of anti-Semitism across Germany. As heir to the throne of a constitutional monarchy, he was forbidden from discussing politics, yet was heard to exclaim, “It was no business of ours to interfere with Germany’s internal affairs (regarding) Jews or anything else.”

  Mrs. Simpson presented additional problems. British Intelligence Services feared she might be an agent of Nazi Germany. Ambassador Messersmith quickly entered Edward’s inner circle and described Mrs. Simpson as “charming and intelligent.” He was not naïve. The way to Edward’s heart was through his mistress.

  On July 14, 1934, the day following Sophie Nostitz-Rieneck’s thirty-third birthday, Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated in a failed Nazi coup attempt. As he lay paralyzed in his chancellery office with two bullets in his neck, he slowly bled to death in the shadow of the Hofburg Palace. His Nazi assassins ignored his pleas for a doctor and a priest. Three quarters of a century later, Maximilian’s son Georg, who later became an Austrian diplomat, recalled his feelings at the time:

  It was my first political remembrance, a total horrible shock that this good man was killed. He was a loyal Austrian who tried to save the country. We admired him greatly because he took the country into his strong hands. He was not afraid—so we were not afraid. Until his death, we felt safe.

  One day before his assassination, Dollfuss confided to Karl Winter, Vienna’s deputy mayor, that the only hope for Austria’s survival was a quick restoration of the constitutional monarchy headed by Otto Habsburg. Dollfuss’s successor, Kurt Schuschnigg, was also a monarchist, an admirer of Franz Ferdinand and his son Max. In his memoir, Schuschnigg wrote of his recollections of Sarajevo as a sixteen-year-old schoolboy. His feelings of “impending disaster” might have also described how many Austrians felt following the Dollfuss assassination: “We Austrian boys had been accustomed to look on Archduke Franz Ferdinand as the living embodiment of our patriotic hopes… no one could picture what would come afterwards. National reorganization and consolidation, the conception of a stronger Austria… hope was associated with his name.”

  The assassination of Austria’s Chancellor brought the nightmare of Sarajevo back to the Hohenbergs. Half a million Austrians attended Dollfuss’s funeral. The Nazi perpetrators were caught, tried, and quickly executed. Feelings ran so high that one of the wounded assassins was carried to the gallows on a stretcher. The country teetered on the brink of chaos.

  Schuschnigg did not inspire the confidence of his predecessor. Yet he did his best to find allies in the fight against the rising Nazi tide. Baron Gabriel Apor, a member of Hungary’s Foreign Service, reached the same conclusion, but with a Habsburg twist. He wrote, “It was becoming clearer that Austria and Hungary would have to begin sleeping with each other again… and they might have to take a Habsburg into bed with them.” Many in Czechoslovakia agreed, but their Foreign Minister did not. Eduard Beneš, who hated all things Habsburg, would have rather seen Austria disappear into Germany than a Habsburg restoration. His pronouncement had a chilling effect throughout the region. Czechoslovakia and Hungary stepped away from Austria.

  At the time of the Dollfuss assassination, only one foreign leader offered Austria help. Minutes after learning of the attempted Nazi coup, Benito Mussolini mobilized the Italian army. He dispatched troops to the Austro-Italian border and threatened to repel any German advance into Austria. Hitler quickly backed down. Messersmith wrote that Mussolini was the only “head of state in Europe with no illusions about Hitler.” In the early years of the 1930s, Benito Mussolini seemed the most human of dictators, declaring Mark Twain his favorite author and dismissing Mein Kampf as a “boring tome.” Dollfuss’s wife and children were his guests in his Adriatic villa at the time of the assassination. Mussolini personally informed them of the tragedy with tears in his eyes. He took the timing of the attempted coup as a personal and political affront. For a time, Mussolini was Europe’s most powerful dictator, respected, even admired by many. He was the lone voice on the public stage loudly condemning Hitler’s anti-Semitism. In a well-publicized interview with American publisher Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., Mussolini was widely quoted as saying, “Peace! That is my motto! Eternal peace. … Another world war? Nonsense! There will be no war in Europe as long as Mussolini is alive.” Many believed him. Compared to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in Germany and the communist dictator Joseph Stalin who had assumed power in Soviet Russia, the Italian dictator seemed Austria’s best and only hope for a supportive ally.

  Schuschnigg could have sent any diplomat as his personal representative to Rome, but he selected Maximilian Hohenberg—the man Adolf Hitler, Otto Habsburg, and many Austrians considered the leader of the Habsburg restoration movement. He wanted assurances the country could count on Mussolini’s loyalty, but also wanted to uncover the dictator’s position on the Habsburg restoration. Schuschnigg may ha
ve hoped sending Otto’s cousin to Rome could positively influence the answer. Mussolini and Italy’s own monarchy continued to coexist side by side. The Fascist leader privately confided, “You seize power with one set of people, but govern with another.”

  Mussolini not only pledged strong support for Austrian independence, but to Max’s relief, offered no objections to a Habsburg restoration. The dictator told him Otto would make an excellent constitutional monarch. He even offered to play matchmaker between the unmarried Habsburg prince and the daughter of the King and Queen of Italy.

  With the support of Chancellor Schuschnigg and Benito Mussolini, Maximilian redoubled his efforts to return his cousin to the throne of Austria, and perhaps Hungary. A headline in the October 28, 1934, edition of the New York Times read, RESTORATION OF HABSBURGS WITHIN YEAR IS PREDICTED. Count Anton Sigray, the monarchist leader in Hungary, confidently declared, “The restoration of the Habsburgs has ceased to be an academic question and has become a burning question of practical politics. … Only a great State in which various races live in equality offers a possibility of peace; and only the institution of monarchy can guarantee its permanence.”

  A November New York Times headline and following article documented escalating events, VIENNA CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY OF OTTO—MONARCHISTS HAIL ‘EMPEROR’ AT SERVICES—MUSSOLINI’S APPROVAL OF RESTORATION SEEN.

  Celebrations of Archduke Otto’s twenty-second birthday were conducted by monarchists in Vienna today on a scale never previously attempted. … The main demonstration… (with) over 2000 included the wife of Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg. Duke Max of Hohenberg presided. … The Duke said… “The time was near when Archduke Otto would return to his country. …” Baron Wiesner declared “one of the greatest triumphs for legitimism was securing Premier Mussolini’s approval of restoration as indicated by a declaration in the newspaper he founded, Popolo d’Italia.”

  Maximilian was interviewed by the Anglo-American Press Association following a second address to seven thousand monarchists. Thousands more had been turned away due to a lack of space. Two hundred thousand Austrians sent birthday greetings to the young Habsburg heir. That same afternoon, a former Field Marshal wearing his Imperial Army uniform addressed Jewish war veterans honoring Otto at a Viennese synagogue. News from Germany added a fresh incentive to the festivities. Jewish names from the country’s war memorials were being removed from monuments there.

  The following summer, the Austrian parliament passed a law partially restoring Habsburg properties that had been seized in 1919. Maximilian Hohenberg represented his cousins during the negotiations. The Hofburg and Schönbrunn Palaces would remain the property of the state, but other homes and estates would be returned to them. Adolf Hitler and others kept a close watch over Max’s activities, certain they were the first legal step toward Otto’s return. Austria’s Foreign Minister responded to critics of the move, “The law restoring Habsburg property was a simple act of justice and had no connection with the question of restoration of the monarchy.” Few people in Berlin or Vienna believed him. That November, a plebiscite in Greece recalled the deposed monarchy there by an overwhelming vote of 1,491,992 to 43,454.

  Legislation that Max himself negotiated permitted “the Habsburgs to return to Austria as private citizens.” Many did, but Otto and former Empress Zita were not among them. They waited for a more specific invitation. Twice Schuschnigg met secretly in France with Otto promising unequivocally “to carry out the restoration as soon as possible in the coming year… even if this should eventually lead to a serious European conflagration.” He further promised any attempt by Germany to annex Austria would be met by force.

  Otto later wrote of his cousin’s role during this time:

  Max Hohenberg was a key person. He was very active, held a great deal of meetings, and often came to see us. He was one of our most important links with the government, especially in discussions over my possible return to Austria. He was unconditionally loyal, was an excellent orator, and had the gift of bringing people together who were at odds with one another.

  That winter the country’s tourist and skiing industry was hurt by light snowfall and the absence of the Prince of Wales. As 1936 began, King George V of England was dying, which forced Edward to cancel his scheduled Austrian holiday. Many expected the popular prince to soon become an even more popular monarch. King George, on his deathbed, had his doubts. He sadly predicted, “After I am dead the boy will ruin himself in twelve months.”

  The King certainly knew his son, but few people could have imagined a royal scandal in England involving an heir to the throne, his mistress, and her cuckolded husband would have such a dramatic impact on monarchists in Austria. In Vienna, their confidence had never been higher. The government sponsored a series of winter balls in the Hofburg Palace prominently featuring members of the Habsburg family. Archduke Eugene made a flamboyant entrance upstaging the republic’s president. Princess Ileana of Rumania, married to a Habsburg Archduke, attended wearing a diamond and sapphire tiara that once belonged to the Empress of Russia. Many of the couples happily dancing to Viennese waltzes expected the next winter’s Carnival season to be hosted by Emperor Otto Habsburg.

  In the midst of the turbulent decade Ernst, the Hohenberg’s own bachelor prince, provided his family a happy respite from politics. Newspapers across Europe made the announcement. Under the headline PRINCE ERNST VON HOHENBERG, SON OF THE LATE ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND, WITH HIS ENGLISH FIANCéE, MISS MAISIE WOOD the Illustrated London News reported the engagement of the Austrian prince to the daughter of a British diplomat posted in Vienna and her Hungarian Countess mother.

  Ernst was thirty-two, the same age as his mother when she had married. Like Max he had grown a Franz Ferdinand mustache. With his heavier physical build, he resembled a younger version of their father. Ernst’s future bride, the radiant twenty-four-year-old Maria Theresa Wood, had been named for the Habsburg’s most famous Empress. Despite her regal name, nearly everyone called the down-to-earth countess Maisie. She was fluent in the language of her aristocratic Hungarian mother, and in the high-pitched clipped British accent of her diplomat father, but she spoke very little German. Due to a severe hearing loss, she was also a masterful lip reader.

  The wedding would take place a short distance from Belvedere Palace at Vienna’s beautiful Karlskirche on the city’s Karlsplatz. Years earlier, Adolf Hitler’s first postcard sent from Vienna had featured an image of the famous landmark. The day provided the Hohenberg family a last treasured memory before years of war and imprisonment separated them. And like everything else in 1936 Austria, the wedding was filtered through a political lens.

  Karlskirche had a long association with the Habsburgs. Members of the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s ancient aristocracy, diplomats, and political leaders from across the country were guests. Their attendance was seen by many as a way of showing public support to the Hohenbergs for their loyalty to the Habsburgs and their efforts to restore the monarchy.

  Despite the joy of the wedding, the political situation was deteriorating. Chancellor Schuschnigg sent Max back to Italy. Mussolini had offered repeated assurances that he would continue to stand with Austria, but military entanglements in east Africa reordered his priorities. The lure of nationalism, colonies, and racism seduced him. A headline in the New York Times read: ETHIOPIA NOW SEEMS HEADED FOR DOOM… ITALY TAKES UP WHITE MAN’S BURDEN IN AFRICA’S LAST NATIVE-RULED LAND.

  Following his invasion of Ethiopia, Mussolini wrote of Max’s father, “Franz Ferdinand did not weigh the power of race consciousness. He cherished a dream of melding three races together. Races, I know, are difficult to meld.” Mussolini also rethought his relationship with Austria and Germany. Adolf Hitler’s recent call for “the perpetual domination of the world by the white race” had suddenly become more alluring to him. During a private meeting in Rome, Mussolini signaled his surprising change of heart to Hitler favorite Leni Riefenstahl, “Tell your Führer that I believe in him an
d his mission.”

  Surprised by a statement refuting his public support of Austria, she asked, “Won’t you have problems with Hitler because of Austria?”

  He scowled, telling her, “You can tell the Führer that whatever happens with Austria, I will not interfere in Austria’s internal affairs.” Riefenstahl returned to Berlin, and shared Mussolini’s conversion with Hitler.

  Maximilian Hohenberg’s last meeting with Benito Mussolini took place in the Palazzo Venezia, a fifteenth-century Renaissance palace that had once been the Austrian embassy. The bombastic Mussolini often spoke to cheering supporters from its balcony. Nearby were the ruins of the Roman Forum where Julius Caesar had been assassinated by former friends and allies, and the city’s two-thousand-year-old Jewish ghetto. Like their Austrian neighbors, Rome’s Jews were about to be betrayed. Mussolini had made the palace’s longest corridor into his private office. Visitors were forced to walk the entire length of the room as the sounds of their footsteps loudly echoed off the marble floor and walls. His heavy wooden desk was the largest Max had ever seen. The rapport from earlier meetings between the Italian dictator and the Austrian Duke was absent. The atmosphere was considerably cooler, the discussion shorter, and the ending more abrupt. With the sounds of the busy Roman traffic as a backdrop, Maximilian concluded the meeting with a prophecy. He warned Mussolini:

  We are a small country, all that is left of a great Empire, but what will happen to Austria, will also happen to you. Here in the heart of Rome where you work the German army will march. Here German banners will be unfurled and wave above the very palace where we are meeting. Just as there is no one to help us today, there will be no one to help you tomorrow. You too will be the victim. You too will be destroyed by the Nazis.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  ONE BLOOD DEMANDS ONE REICH