by James Longo
Lastly I want to thank my agent, Rita Rosenkranz, and my editor at Diversion Books, Keith Wallman, for believing in this story as much as I did.
NOTES
CHAPTER ONE
HITLER AT THE HOTEL IMPERIAL, 1938
1. to the Hotel Imperial in the heart of Vienna.: Toland, John. Adolf Hitler, 454, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, 1976.
2. seized his Austrian homeland without a shot fired.: Weyr, Thomas. The Setting of the Pearl: Vienna Under Hitler, 32, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005.
2. these dual ambitions.: Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf, 3, Trns. Ralph Manheim, Houghton Mifflin, New York, 1999.
2. a powerful attraction for him.: MacDonogh, Giles. 1938: Hitler’s Gamble, 72, Random House, New York, 2009.
2. about his five fateful Vienna years.: Toland, 455.
3. and tonight I am here.: Ibid.
3. five children fled the same hotel to go into hiding.: Hohenberg, Princess Sophie de Potesta.
3. the sons of Franz Ferdinand.: Ibid.
3. a challenge the competitive rivals readily embraced.: Ibid.
4. to immigrate to the United States.: Bloch, Eduard. “My Patient Adolf Hitler: A Memoir of Hitler’s Jewish Physician,” The Journal of Historical Review, May–June 1994. (Vol. 14. No 3) pp. 27–35.
4. also provided his personal protection.: Kellerhoff, Sven Felix. “Wie Hitler seinen jüdischen Kompaniechef schützte”. Die Welt, 7 July 2012; Weber, Thomas. Hitler’s First War, 344, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010.
4. the women who loved them would fight back.: New York Times, 23 March 1938, 38, col. 1. “Habsburg Princes Arrested by Austrian Nazis.”
4. “all mystery, mystery, mystery.”: Whittle, Tyler. The Last Kaiser: A Biography of Wilhelm II German Emperor and King of Prussia, 129, Times Books, New York, 1977. The future King Edward VII wrote his mother Queen Victoria Prime Minister Salisbury was “sure that poor Rudolph…was murdered.”
4. lynchpin of central Europe for six hundred years, never fully recovered.: Brook-Shepherd, Gordon. Uncrowned Emperor: The Life and Times of Otto von Habsburg, 16, Hambledon and London, London, 2003.
5. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, as his successor.: Ibid.
5. a role not suited for his brittle personality.: Zweig, Stefan. The World of Yesterday: Memoirs of a European, 239 (translated from German by Anthea Bell), Pushkin Press, London, 2009.
5. lacked the thing most valued by the Viennese—charm.: Ibid.
5. in a rented palace, might someday be Emperor.: Pauli, Hertha. The Secret of Sarajevo: The Story of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, Collins, 44, London, 1966.
5. “I don’t want to see it.”: Ibid., 43–44.
5. gracefulness his sorely missed cousin Rudolph epitomized.: Hohenberg, Prince Gerhard. Even the German Empress Frederick, mother of the future Kaiser, told an Austrian diplomat, “You cannot think how I admire your good-looking, witty and elegant Crown Prince Rudolph, when I compare him with my clumsy, loutish son Wilhelm!” Kürenberg, The Kaiser, 57.
5. the melancholy shadow of the dead Crown Prince.: Pauli, 29.
5. did nothing to make Franz Ferdinand’s life easier.: Ibid.
5. the way a younger generation worshipped Rudolph.: Kubizek, August. The Young Hitler I Knew: The Definitive Inside Look at the Artist Who Became a Monster, 44–45/52 (Translated by Geoffrey Brooks), Pen & Sword Books, Yorkshire, 2019.
6. a time Franz Joseph had not sat on the throne.: McGuigan, Dorothy Gies. The Habsburgs: The Personal Lives of a Royal Family that Made History for Six Centuries, 388, Doubleday and Company, New York, 1966.
6. stubbornly outliving five younger heirs.: Ibid.
6. he represented stability and permanence.: Unterreiner, Katrin. Emperor Franz Joseph 1830–1916: Myth and Truth, 28, Christian Brandstatter Verlag, 2006.
6. the bureaucratic labyrinth of the Habsburg’s Ministry of Finance.: Kubizek, 52–53.
6. and a bullying martinet at home.: Ibid., 56.
6. intimidated, mocked, and beat his children.: Jones, J. Sydney. Hitler in Vienna 1907–1913: Clues to the Future, 193, 25, Cooper Square Press, New York, 2002.
6. “I became a little revolutionary.”: Hitler, Adolf, 14–15.
6. her son was a “lost soul.”: Delaforce, Patrick. Adolf Hitler: The Curious and Macabre Anecdotes, 11, Fonthill Ltd., London, 2012.
7. selling out German Austria to its ethnic inferiors.: Kubizek, 226.
7. from the Empire’s largest ethnic minority.: Ibid.
7. rather than the many Austrian palaces at his disposal.: Brožouský, Miroslav. Konopiste Chateau, 35, The Institute for the Care of Historic Monuments of Central Bohemia in Prague, 1995.
7. ethnic and religious groups poisoning Austria.: Kubizek, 226.
7. glorified in Dr. Pötsch’s lectures, but in the wedding bed.: Jászi, Oscar. The Dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy, 32–33, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1971.
7. over fifty million citizens ruled by Franz Joseph.: Marek, George R. The Eagles Die: Franz Joseph, Elisabeth, and Their Austria, 4, Harper and Row, New York, 1974.
7. Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Silesia, and Modena their ruling Duke.: Brook-Shepherd, Gordon. Archduke of Sarajevo: The Romance and Tragedy of Franz Ferdinand of Austria, 290, Little, Brown & Company, Boston, 1984.
8. making them a minority in their own homeland.: Jones, 7.
8. “nations this monster of Habsburg marriages built up.”: Kubizek, 114.
8. Not so his unpopular heir.: Marek, 39.
8. the Habsburg most hated by Adolf Hitler.: Kubizek, 226.
8. the object of his youthful scorn.: Hitler, Adolf. H.R. Trevor-Roper, ed. Hitler’s Private Conversations, 30, Farrar, Straus, & Young, New York, 1953.
8. the Slavization, marginalization, and destruction of German Austria.: Hitler, Mein Kampf, 92–93.
8. hundreds of thousands of animals during his travels on four continents.: Aichelburg, Wladimir. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand von Österreich—Este und Artstetten, 19, Verlagsbüro Mag. Johann Lehner Ges.m.b., Wien, 2000.
9. close personal friends who were Americans.: Storer, Maria Longworth. The Recent Bosnian Tragedy: A Personal Recollection of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his Wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg, 674–678, Catholic World, Vol. 99, August 1914, No 593.
9. electoral laws to protect their interests.: Brook-Shepherd, Gordon. Archduke of Sarajevo, 290–291.
9. “in or out of office.”: Pauli, 200.
9. of his “multinational State” at least “half way.”: Viktoria Luise, The Kaiser’s Daughter: Memoirs of H.R.I. Princess of Prussia, 12–13, Englewood Cliff, Prentice-Hall, 1977.
10. by dealing with the utmost fairness to all.: Cavendish-Bentinck, William. Men, Women, and Things: Memories of the Duke of Portland, 394, Faber & Faber, London, 1938.
10. but cleansing and desirable.: Hitler, Mein Kampf, 3. On the night war was declared, the French Ambassador to Germany said to the English Ambassador, “There are three people in Berlin tonight who regret that war has broken out; you, me and Kaiser Wilhelm,” Whittle, The Last Kaiser, 271.
10. the war he had prayed for was at hand.: Ibid., 158–159.
CHAPTER TWO
THE ARTIST, THE ARCHDUKE, AND THE EMPEROR
11. boarded a train in 1907 from his hometown of Linz.: Jones, 1.
11. in the capital of the mighty Habsburg Empire.: Ibid., 2.
12. a traditionalist who embraced modernity.: Illies, Florian. (translated by Shaun Whiteside and Jamie Lee Searle) 1913—The Year Before the Storm, 27, Melville House, Brooklyn, 2013.
12. designer of the first hybrid petroleum and electric automobile.: Brooks, Tim. “Ferdinand Porsche—Famed for First Hybrid, Beetle, and Link with Hitler,” 1, The National, February 12, 2012.
12. reading dispatches and signing papers.: Horthy, Nicholas Admiral. Memoirs, 52–53, Simon Publications, Safety Harbor, 2000.
12. “and one cou
ldn’t see anything.”: Linsboth, Christina. Two Rulers in an “Automobile,” World and Worlds of the Habsburgs, A Schloss Schonbrunn Kulturand und Betreibsges, m.b.H. project, Wien, 2007–2008.
12. stability, permanence, and continuity.: Lansdale, Maria Horner. Vienna and the Viennese, 279, Henry Coates & Company, Philadelphia, 1902. Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany’s Emperor and a royal snob, claimed the Habsburg court the most eloquent in all of Europe.
13. “shebang, did make sense in a way.”: Hitler, Mein Kampf, 13.
13. and the times pass on regardless.”: Kurlander, Eric. The Perils of Discursive “Balkanization” Petronilla Ehrenpreis, Krieg und Fridenszible im Diskurs, H-Net Reviews in the Humanities & Social Studies, February 2007.
13. his nearby home and office at Belvedere Palace.: Illies, 27.
13. in a crowded tenement in the heart of the city.: Jones, 6.
13. “I find everything very beautiful.’’: Ibid., 3.
13. an enchantment out of The Thousand and One Nights.”: Hamann, Brigitte. Hitler: Portrait of the Tyrant as a Young Man, 26, Taurus Park, London, 2010.
14. medley of nations together in any set form.: Ibid., 8.
14. Stalin also lived there at one time.: Jones, 248.
14. as a thirteen-year-old runaway.: Ibid., 3.
14. experienced during her visit as a girl.: Cawthorne, Nigel. Hitler: The Psychiatric Files: The Madness of the Führer, 20, Arcturus Publishing Ltd., London, 2016.
14. tapestry of languages, religions, foods, music, dress, and traditions.: Hamann, 304–305.
14. but for the upward mobility his Empire offered.: Ibid., 326.
15. “for the first time in my young life, at odds with myself.”: Hitler, Mein Kampf, 20.
15. What dreams he dreamt, I do not know.: Bloch, 3.
15. rather feed his dreams with music than his body with food.: Kubizek, 183.
15. Both boys were survivors.: Ibid., 49.
16. quit school without graduating at the age of fifteen.: Ibid., 30–31.
16. his solitary friend was a listener.: Ibid., 148.
16. “The whole of Vienna is waiting for you!”: Ibid., 145.
16. proof of his persuasive verbal skills.: Ibid., 150.
16. clasping an ivory-tipped ebony walking stick.: Ibid., 150–151.
16. the “wretched shabby” room where his friend lived.: Ibid., 153.
16. talked as if he were taking art classes.: Ibid., 157.
17. he dreamed of rebuilding Linz and Vienna.: Ibid.
17. “all with the greatest seriousness.”: Ibid.
17. he suddenly seemed “unbalanced.”: Ibid., 160.
17. “They twice turned me down.”: Ibid., 52.
17. as a customs official for the Habsburg government.: Ibid., 157.
17. “Nothing found favor in his eyes.”: Ibid., 234.
17. his friend was a musician, not a soldier.: Ibid., 234.
17. “did not deserve a single soldier.”: Ibid., 204.
18. urged August to flee to Germany.: Ibid., 205.
18. to join the army reserves.: Ibid.
CHAPTER THREE
CAN THIS BE A JEW?
19. traveled to Vienna to celebrate the anniversary.: “The Austrian Emperor’s Jubilee,” 712, The Japan Weekly Mail, Vol. 49, June 20, 1908.
19. Hitler loved all things German.: Hitler, Mein Kampf, 12–13.
19. a horrendous thunderstorm broke over the city.: Japan Weekly.
20. “three generations of German princes.”: Ibid.
20. and high ideals of “monarchial principles.”: Ibid.
20. the struggle for the destiny of the whole nation.: Hitler, Mein Kampf, 141.
21. “an exhaustingly kind ruler and emperor.”: Trosclair, Wade. The Limits and Conceptions of Austrianness: The Bohemian-German Press During Franz Joseph’s Jubilee in 1908, 14, Dissertation, Central European University Nationalism Studies Program, Budapest, Hungary, 2013.
21. “in their own mother tongues.”: Unowsky, Daniel L. The Pomp and Politics of Patriotism: Imperial Celebrations in Habsburg Austria 1848–1916, 141, 144, Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, Indiana, 2005.
21. “guardian angel, custodian, and patron saint.”: Trosclair, 13.
21. “exotic dress and appearance” of the revelers.: Unowsky, 141–144.
21. when he heard other languages, especially Czech.: Hamann, 321.
21. “and above all Galician Jews still a German city?”: Kubizek, 229.
22. the nobility, the capitalist and the Jews.: Hitler, Mein Kampf, 23.
22. “not only the buildings but also the people.”: Kubizek, 229.
22. Archduke’s Czech marriage were his Habsburg relatives.: Pauli, 196.
22. a lady-in-waiting to his cousin, a Habsburg Archduchess.: Ibid., 126. Franz Ferdinand did not have a particularly high opinion of his own relatives, any more than they did of him. In private he described most of them as “cretins” and with these words, “They’re stupid and thick-headed in so far as they’re not crackpots!” Kürenberg, 277.
22. and the Archduke’s own family did not approve.: Ibid., 83.
22. a royal wife after being a mere servant.: Ibid., 96–97, 100.
23. “with her Slav deceit, for our kindness!”: Hohenberg, Prince Gerhard. Empress Elisabeth, who was herself Bavarian, once bluntly told Emperor Franz Joseph, “Above all, no more inbreeding! You should be glad that for once fresh blood comes into the family, instead of Spanish or Bavarian.” Kürenberg, The Kaiser, 272. Franz Joseph was not interested in new blood, only blue blood. He saw selecting the correct royal marriage partner as a dynastic duty.
23. and detested any semblance of a normal family life.: Stephanie of Belgium, Princess. H.R.H., I Was to Be Empress, 153, Ivor Nicholson & Watson, London, 1937. Franz Ferdinand was a close friend of his cousin Crown Prince Rudolph, friendly with Stephanie, and painfully aware of her unhappy marriage. Stephanie may have been the only member of the Habsburg family more unpopular than Franz Ferdinand.
23. “he is stupid, but he has no feelings.”: Hamann, Brigitte. Bertha von Suttner: A Life for Peace, Translated by Ann Dubsky, 233, Syracuse University Press, 1996.
23. remained his companion for the rest of his life.: Unterreiner, Katrin. Emperor Franz Joseph, 1830–1916: Myth and Truth, 88, Christian Brandstätter Verlag, Wien, 2006.
23. his loyal stepmother remained at his side when he died.: Pauli, 216–217.
24. their children could never inherit the throne.: Hohenberg, Prince Gerhard.
24. and fifteen stiff and scowling Habsburg Archdukes.: Pauli, 143.
24. and two younger stepsisters.: Ibid.
25. and eventually dominate Europe.: Kubizek, 226.
25. and destroy Franz Ferdinand and his wife.: Hohenberg, Prince Gerhard.
25. “The older I get the more I like children.”: Unowsky, 141.
26. to Franz Joseph before, during, or after their performance.: Hohenberg, Prince Gerhard.
26. visiting his favorite bench in Schönbrunn’s public gardens.: Kubizek, 207.
26. Hitler could crystallize his thoughts and vent his rage.: Ibid.
26. of which he dreamed in his lonely hours.: Ibid., 229.
27. “Is this a German?”: Ibid., 230.
27. looked like every other citizen.: Ibid.
27. retold the story to his roommate for hours on end.: Ibid.
27. from his eight weeks of military service.: Ibid., 232–233.
27. “how little he wanted to be alone.”: Ibid., 234.
27. postcards from Hitler complaining of his “hermit”-like existence.: Jones, 99–101.
28. annexed by Austria into the Habsburg Empire.: Ibid.
28. example of the “Slavization of Austria.”: Hamann, Hitler, 103–104.
28. once again sold out its German citizens.: Pauli, 228–229.
28. feared the annexation would antagonize Russia.: Ibid., 254.
28. also the leader of the government’s peace party.: Cassels, 90.
28. “to pave the way for revolution?”: Ibid.
29. prevailed against his vehement arguments.: Ibid.
29. the event lingered in the capitals of Europe.: Ibid.
29. and devoted cousin and friend, Willy.: Levine, Don Isaac. Letters from the Kaiser to the Czar, 222–226, Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York, 1920.
29. Hitler had moved with no forwarding address.: Kubizek, 240.
30. “born of this dying imperial Vienna.”: Ibid., 163.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE LION AND THE LAMB
31. but the tragedy was ignored by the Habsburg court.: Hohenberg, Prince Gerhard.
32. glorious triumphs in the Empire’s long history.: Unowsky.
32. “love binds people and ruler.”: Ibid.
32. “with the collective singing of the state hymn.”: Ibid.
32. declare martial law there.: Trosclair, 14.
32. “and had become the most cruelly destroyed.”: Ibid.
32. but poverty and hunger followed.: Jones, 126–127.
32. the smallest rent payment, he became homeless.: Ibid., 127.
33. “could not concern myself much with the people around me.”: Hitler, Mein Kampf, 40.
33. “obtain an opportunity of continuing my education.”: Ibid., 41.
33. morality as a symptom of stupid, sheep-like patience, etc.: Ibid., 39.
33. our nation is pitifully poor in human beings.: Ibid., 40.
34. “leave the building at once or be thrown off the scaffolding.”: Ibid.
34. “which is as dirty and false as he himself.”: Ibid., 90.
34. allowed in ten languages with no interpreters.: Ibid.
34. grisly discovery of frozen bodies near its locked entrance.: Hamann, 153.
35. where to find food, and how to earn money.: Jones, 135.
35. often their last meal until the next morning.: Ibid.
35. caused most travelers to avoid him.: Hamann, 155.