by Greg King
25. Stephanie, 264.
26. Ibid., 256.
27. Information from Dr. Stefanie Platt to authors.
28. Wölfing, 51, 64.
29. Grant, 214.
30. Ibid., 213.
31. Der Polizeibericht, 46.
32. Polzer-Hoditz, 434.
33. Paget, Embassies, 2:475–76.
34. Larisch, My Past, 260.
35. Louise of Belgium, 104.
36. Larisch, My Past, 256–60.
37. Baltazzi-Scharschmid and Swistun, 171; Morton, Nervous, 81.
38. Haslip, Emperor and the Actress, 73–74.
39. Ibid., 91–95.
CHAPTER 17
1. Markus, 29; Hoyos Addendum, HHS, Box 21; also in Mitis, 281.
2. Holler, 364; Harding, 298; Markus, 61–62; Wiener Morgenpost, October 10, 1927; Haslip, Emperor and the Actress, 95.
3. Judtmann, 346.
4. Stephanie, 43.
5. Paleologue, 164.
6. Countess Zoë Wassilko-Serecki, Protocol of September 5, 1955, quoted in Judtmann, 342–44.
7. Der Polizeibericht, 62.
8. Haslip, Emperor and the Actress, 94–95.
9. Morton, Nervous, 222–23.
10. Judtmann, 151.
11. Der Spiegel 32, March 8, 1960,; Friedrich, Der Kriminalfall Mayerling, 46.
12. Hollaender, Hantsch and Novotny, 160n62.
13. Martyrdom of an Empress, 206–7; Vivian, 37–40, 56; de Weindel, 195; Recollections of a Royal Governess, 158; Marek, 255; Burg, 173, 226.
14. Louise of Belgium, 111.
15. Louisa of Tuscany, 241–42.
16. Judtmann, 55–56; Mitis, 185; Lónyay, 149.
17. Slatin, Abschrift.
18. Berliner Tagblatt, February 13, 1889; Der Polizeibericht, 21; Martyrdom of an Empress, 212; de Weindel, 185; Redlich, 433; Crankshaw, 299; Haslip, Emperor and the Actress, 97; Recollections of a Royal Governess, 159; Ketterl, 75–76; Pöldinger and Wagner, 176; Thiele, Elisabeth, 677.
19. Vivian, 54; Loehr, 173
20. Louise of Belgium, 112.
21. Margutti, 94–95.
22. Szeps, My Life and History, 119.
23. Baron Robert Doblhoff, statement of 1952, in Friedrich, Der Kriminalfall Mayerling, 268–70.
24. Lambsdorff, 178, Mitis, 156–57.
25. Reuss, dispatch of February 5, 1889, in Hollaender, Hantsch and Novotny, 141.
26. Margutti, 95.
27. Lambsdorff, 178, Mitis, 156–57.
28. Stephanie, 38.
29. Sophie von Planker-Klaps, in Neues Wiener Journal, January 27, 1929.
30. Margutti, 98.
31. Morton, Nervous, 221.
32. Larisch, My Past, 277–82.
33. Ibid., 257–60.
34. Der Vetsera Denkschrift, 66, in Markus and Unterreiner, 256.
35. Fugger, 206; see also Judtmann, 109; Vivian, 60.
36. Larisch, My Past, 264–65, 287–88.
37. Corti and Sokol, 118.
38. Larisch, My Past, 295.
39. Szeps, My Life and History, 120.
40. Der Polizeibericht, 47.
41. Information from Dr. Stefanie Platt to authors.
CHAPTER 18
1. Larisch, My Past, 258.
2. Mitis, 181; Judtmann, 57.
3. Judtmann, 27.
4. Rudolf Püchel, in Reichspost, January 31, 1926.
5. Larisch, My Past, 308.
6. Judtmann, 129.
7. Der Vetsera Denkschrift, 35, in Markus and Unterreiner, 277–78.
8. Listowel, 187; cited in Salvendy, 166.
9. Larisch, My Past, 250.
10. Der Vetsera Denkschrift, 50, in Markus and Unterreiner, 251.
11. Hoyos Addendum, HHS, Box 21; also in Mitis, 283.
12. Judtmann, 55, 111; Mitis, 185–86; Lónyay, 159–60.
13. Le Temps, January 31, 1889.
CHAPTER 19
1. Judtmann, 151.
2. Bibl, 67–69; Der Vetsera Denkschrift, 92–93, in Markus and Unterreiner, 264.
3. Der Vetsera Denkschrift, 52, in Markus and Unterreiner, 251.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., 145–46, in Markus and Unterreiner, 281.
6. Ibid., 147–48, in Markus and Unterreiner, 281.
7. Judtmann, 151.
8. Hoyos Memorandum, HHS, Box 21; also in Mitis, 276–77.
9. Loschek, in Neues Wiener Tagblatt, April 24, 1932; Antonia Konhäuser statement, in Friedrich, Das Kriminfall Mayerling, 263; Baltazzi-Scharschmid and Swistun, 222.
10. Loschek, in Neues Wiener Tagblatt, April 24, 1932.
11. Der Vetsera Denkschrift, 153, in Markus and Unterreiner, 264.
12. Loschek, in Neues Wiener Tagblatt, April 24, 1932.
13. Professor Dr. Klaus Jarosch, Report of September 11, 1991; Professor Christian Reiter, undated report; and Professor Dr. Johann Szilvássy, report of November 20, 1991, in Barta, 41.
14. Ibid.
15. See Krauss notes on January 31, 1889, meeting with Taaffe, in Der Polizeibericht, 26–27.
16. Judtmann, 261.
17. Corti, Empress Elisabeth, 398; Neues Wiener Journal, February 18, 1937; Bibl, 69; Hamann, Reluctant Empress, 342; Le Temps, June 20, 1923.
18. Fugger, 194–95.
19. Stephanie, 248.
20. Marie Valerie, diary entry of January 29, 1889, in Schad and Schad, 170.
21. Count Corti, manuscript copy of Marie Valerie’s diary entry of January 30, 1889, per Ida von Ferenczy, quoted in Judtmann, 145–46; Corti, Empress Elisabeth, 397.
22. Paleologue, 164.
23. Marie Valerie, diary entry of March 14, 1889, in Schad and Schad, 196; Corti, Empress Elisabeth, 398; Neues Wiener Journal, February 18, 1937; Bibl, 69; Hamann, Reluctant Empress, 342.
24. Judtmann, 143.
25. Information from Dr. Stefanie Platt to authors.
EPILOGUE
1. Stephanie, 166.
2. Stephanie to Louise, letter of March 7, 1889, cited in Salvendy, 104.
3. Cited in Hamann, Reluctant Empress, 342.
4. Society Recollections, 236.
5. Schiel, 229.
6. Margutti, 86.
7. Listowel, 250–51.
8. Recollections of a Royal Governess, 310.
9. Markus, 135; Society Recollections, 232.
10. Margutti, 75.
11. Nostitz-Rieneck, 2:130.
12. Margutti, 85–86.
13. Ibid., 291–92; Barkeley, 249.
14. Kiszling, 19.
15. Ascherson, 215.
16. Schiel, 520–21.
17. Judtmann, 18.
18. Weissensteiner, 142.
19. Friedrich, Der Kriminalfall Mayerling, 490.
20. Beéche, 202–3; Ascherson, 206–11.
21. Cassels, Clash, 210.
22. Larisch, My Past, 212.
23. Ffoulkes, 314, 323.
24. Sokop, 407.
25. Rumbold, Final Recollect
ions, 374; Rumbold, Francis Joseph, 349.
26. Cited in Friedrich, Der Kriminalfall Mayerling, 97.
27. Ibid., 104.
28. Quoted in Friedrich, Der Kriminalfall Mayerling, 647.
29. Listowel, 2.
30. Ibid., 254; Friedrich, Der Kriminalfall Mayerling, 82.
31. Franz Josef to Katharina Schratt, letter of June 7, 1890, in Namier, 72.
32. Friedrich, Der Kriminalfall Mayerling, 47.
33. Judtmann, 31.
34. Sulzberger, 381.
35. Greene, 22.
36. Judtmann, 82.
37. Listowel, 192.
38. Judtmann, 308; Haslinger and Trumler, 126.
39. Schiel, 319; de Fontenoy, Within Royal Palaces, 540.
40. Corti, Empress Elisabeth, 415.
41. Marie Valerie, diary entry of January 30, 1890, in Schad and Schad, 212.
42. www.Karmel-Mayerling.org; Neue Kronen Zeitung, June 27, 2007.
43. Judtmann, 119–21, 311; Haslinger and Trumler, 126.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
It is tempting to think that Mayerling documents and files remain to be found: the missing Taaffe papers, secret reports, unsuspected letters—anything that might shed new light on what happened at Rudolf’s hunting lodge. But after 125 years of extensive searches, it is unlikely that such materials—if they still exist—will ever surface, at least not in the foreseeable future. The historian who tackles the Mayerling story thus faces a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, forced to comb through the accumulated information in surviving reports and obscure memoirs seeking a bit of previously ignored evidence or an unrecognized hint that assumes significance when the tragedy is reassessed.
There is no shortage of books on Mayerling: The first, Die volle Wahrheit über den Tod des Kronprinzen Rudolf von Öesterreich (The Whole Truth About the Death of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria) by Ernst von der Planitz, was published in Berlin in May 1889—just three months after Rudolf’s death. Austrian officials promptly banned it, perhaps hoping to quell any unwanted discussion, perhaps because the book suggested that Mary Vetsera had ultimately fallen victim to an insane crown prince.
In 1928 Baron Oskar von Mitis produced his seminal biography, Das Leben des Kronprinzen Rudolf (published in an abridged English translation in 1930 under the title The Life of Crown Prince Rudolph of Habsburg). As the former director of the Haus, Hof-und Staatsarchiv, Mitis benefited from privileged access to a wealth of previously unpublished letters and diaries covering Rudolf’s life. Of necessity he dealt with Mayerling, though one gets the sense that, as a former Habsburg courtier, he found the discussion painful bordering on the traitorous. While attempting a modicum of explanation about events at the lodge, he was overly conscious of offending both the prevailing favorable sentiment surrounding the former dynasty that arose in the 1920s, as well as the crown prince’s remaining family. Certain unwelcome topics, like Rudolf’s drug use and extramarital affairs, were skipped over completely, while Mitis judiciously edited out certain passages in the Hoyos statements that he deemed too intimate for public consumption.
A few years after Stephanie’s death, her nephew Carl Lónyay, drawing on her private papers, published Rudolf: The Tragedy of Mayerling. This offered some original documentation on events at the lodge, reproducing police reports that Stephanie had secreted in her personal archives. The tone, though, was unfortunate. If Carl Lónyay despised the Habsburgs, he positively loathed his late aunt by marriage. His hysterical descriptions of her as an unsympathetic shrew fell little short of blatant and unreasoned misogyny—establishing a highly questionable condemnatory strain that runs through many of the works on Rudolf’s life and death.
Other documents about the Mayerling tragedy have come to light by accident. After Hitler’s Third Reich absorbed Austria in 1938, the Nazis appointed SS officer Josef Fitzthum as deputy chief of the Vienna police. Fitzthum apparently scoured the official archives and stole certain documents, taking them back to Berlin in the last days of World War II. After the fall of the Third Reich, the new German government appointed a certain municipal councilor named Baierle to confiscate former Nazi possessions, among them Fitzthum’s belongings. Rather than turn the Viennese files over to authorities, Baierle apparently kept the dusty dossiers stashed away in his own apartment. Sorting through Baierle’s papers after his death in 1955, officials discovered former Viennese Chief of Police Krauss’s 1889 files on Mayerling. After some intense negotiations over rightful ownership, the dossier was returned to Vienna, but not before being published as Der Polizeibericht: Mayerling: Authentische Darstellung des soeben aufgefundenen originalaktes des K. K. Polizeipräsidiums Wien No. 1 Reservat 1889. This discovery filled in some gaps, although Prime Minister Taaffe had forced Krauss to end his investigation a few days after the tragedy. Two years later the historian Albert Hollaender discovered a cache of English and German ambassadorial reports about Mayerling that British officials had seized from Berlin after World War II and taken to London. Published in Festschrift für Heinrich Benedikt, a book of historical essays, these documents not only added layers of context to the story but also revealed the origin of many of the conspiracy theories surrounding the tragedy.
Other important works on the Mayerling story include Viktor Bibl’s 1938 book, Kronprinz Rudolf: die Tragödie eines sinkenden Reiches, which benefited from access to the remaining participants, including the crown prince’s only daughter, Elisabeth; and Richard Barkeley’s 1958 work The Road to Mayerling: The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, which, though overly fawning to the point of credulity where Rudolf was concerned, contained some interesting archival materials. Then, in 1968, came Fritz Judtmann’s seminal work on the tragedy, Mayerling ohne Mythos (published in 1971 in English translation as Mayerling: The Facts Behind the Legend). This, more than any other book, set itself the task of ferreting out truth from fiction, pulling together the available scattered information, and examining the contradictions about the tragedy. Reproducing a number of important statements previously hidden in forgotten files, Judtmann offered a sober analysis of events at the lodge that stripped away many of the previous conspiratorial claims. While groundbreaking, the book suffered from a certain reticence. The rather genteel treatment of Mary and her mother likely stemmed from Judtmann’s friendship with Helene Vetsera’s modern descendants, while he selectively edited a few official documents to remove some of Rudolf’s more inflammatory statements. Though outdated in several respects, Judtmann’s remains the crucial work on Mayerling and is essential reading for anyone attempting to understand the tragedy.
That same year Heinrich Baltazzi-Scharschmid—Helene Vetsera’s nephew—coauthored Die Familien Baltazzi-Vetsera im Kaiserlichen Wien with the historian Hermann Swistun. While presenting important materials from the family’s private collection, the book took a rather too credulous approach to the Mayerling story, presenting Helene Vetsera’s version of events without question and ignoring contradictory evidence, especially any that portrayed Mary and her liaison with the crown prince in a less than flattering light. More details about Mary’s life emerged in Swistun’s 1983 book, Mary Vetsera: Gefährtin für den Tod, though the tone was still tempered by considerations for her modern-day relations. A slew of minor titles heralded the hundredth anniversary of the tragedy in 1989: Gerd Holler’s Mayerling: Neue Dokumente zur Tragödie 100 Jahre danach; Clemens Loehr’s Mayerling: Eine Wahre Legende; and Clemens Gruber’s Die Schicksalstage von Mayerling. But not until the historian Georg Markus’s 1993 work, Kriminalfall Mayerling: Leben und Sterben der Mary Vetsera (published in English translation as Crime at Mayerling: The Life and Death of Mary Vetsera), did the story take a new turn in examining the 1991 theft of her corpse. Markus’s slim volume detailing this extraordinary development seems to have been rushed into print to capitalize on the attendant publicity. As a result Markus
missed the results of some of the later forensic tests on Mary’s remains and the denouement of the case.
Markus returned to the subject in 2014 when, with the historian Katrin Unterreiner, he published Das Original Mayerling-Protokoll der Helene Vetsera: “Gerechtigkeit für Mary,” which included not only a biographical essay on the young baroness but also reprinted her mother’s original Denkschrift. The most notable of recent titles was Lars Friedrich’s 2009 work, Das Mayerling Sammelsurium. Setting himself the goal of picking up and expanding Judtmann’s book, Friedrich studiously analyzed the various theories advanced about Mayerling and gathered all known statements by those claiming knowledge of events at the lodge. Additionally Friedrich has published his original manuscript, Der Kriminalfall Mayerling, online, along with recent discoveries, making his work an important resource for anyone interested in researching the story.