Habsburg: Last heir to Austro-Hungarian empire dies

Morlar

I was going to put this post in the WWII forum given the impact of the Fall of the Austro-hungarian empire and it's post WWI consequences, but on second thought it probably belongs in the WWI forum :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14019319

4 July 2011 Last updated at 16:07 GMT

Habsburg: Last heir to Austro-Hungarian empire dies


Otto von Habsburg - 26 June 2007 Otto von Habsburg only relinquished his claim to the fallen Austro-Hungarian empire in 1961

The eldest son of the last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian empire has died in Germany at the age of 98.

Otto von Habsburg was born in 1912, as the heir to the empire, but it collapsed at the end of World War I and the Habsburg family went into exile.

After World War II, Mr Habsburg became a champion of European unity during its Cold War division.

He served as a member of the European parliament for two decades. He is to be buried in the Austrian capital, Vienna.

Mr Habsburg only officially relinquished his claim to inherit the empire in 1961 and five years later was allowed to return to Austria for the first time since the family fled in 1919.

He was an opponent of the Nazis and spoke out against Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938.

In 1989 he helped organise the Pan-European Picnic demonstration on the border of Austria and Hungary.

The border was briefly opened, an event credited with helping usher in the fall of the Berlin Wall months later.

Mr Habsburg then dedicated himself to having the former communist-ruled states of eastern Europe brought into the EU.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso paid tribute to him as "a great European... who gave an important impetus to the European project throughout his rich life".

paul71

Interesting fact about this gentleman. You may recall that Reverend Ian Paisley shouted and accused Pope John Paul 2nd of being the anti-Christ when the Pope adressed the European Parliament.

The reaction of several MEPs was to physically remove Paisley from the Parliament and this man was the first to reach Mr. Paisley.

Corsendonk

paul71 wrote: »

Interesting fact about this gentleman. You may recall that Reverend Ian Paisley shouted and accused Pope John Paul 2nd of being the anti-Christ when the Pope adressed the European Parliament.

The reaction of several MEPs was to physically remove Paisley from the Parliament and this man was the first to reach Mr. Paisley.

Hard to really tell from the footage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRxtkIEhY8w

Another interesting fact is that his father is well on his way to Sainthood and his mothers sainthood is under consideration. There can't be too many the child of two saints.

http://catholicism.org/karl-hapsburg.html

On October 10, 1988, Pope John Paul II flew from Rome to Strasbourg in order to address the European Parliament. There is probably not one member of that body present that day who remembers what the Pope said. The day was memorable, however, on account of an incident that took place just as His Holiness began to speak.
That was when the Rev. Ian Paisley, the notorious anti-Catholic bigot and a member of the parliament from Northern Ireland, stood up, unfurled a banner, and started shouting the same thing proclaimed by his banner. That was that the Pope (for Paisley it would be any pope) is the Antichrist.
Paisley’s demonstration did not last long. Another member of the parliament, one from Bavaria, raced up the aisle, tore the banner from Paisley’s hands and, with three other men, hustled the obscene Protestant leader out of the chamber. The member from Bavaria was Archduke Otto von Habsburg.
That of everyone present it was the Archduke who acted to defend the Pope ought to have been expected. For 1,200 years his family’s historical mission was to uphold the interests of the Faith temporally. In the unity of throne and altar and sword and cross that was the political basis of Christendom and which found its highest expression in the Holy Roman Empire, his ancestors occupied the throne and wielded the sword during the five centuries before 1918. In that year, the Empire — become by then the Austro-Hungarian one — was dissolved as a condition for peace demanded by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson at the end of World War I.
There was also historical reciprocity in the Archduke’s defense of the Pope. That is because during World War I, when the corner of Poland where Karol Wojtyla grew up was still part of the Empire, the Pope’s father, a professional military man, wore its uniform. I.e., he was under arms to defend the Archduke’s father, Ven. Karl I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, the last emperor.
We are going to talk here about Ven. Emperor Karl, his life, and the cause for his canonization. We shall do this with a view to showing why the cause merits the popular support it has enjoyed since being introduced in 1949. We shall also speak of Karl’s spouse, Empress Zita, whose own life was exemplary in its Catholicity.

Fuinseog

Corsendonk wrote: »

Hard to really tell from the footage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRxtkIEhY8w

Another interesting fact is that his father is well on his way to Sainthood and his mothers sainthood is under consideration. There can't be too many the child of two saints.

http://catholicism.org/karl-hapsburg.html

was kaiser Karl not canonised about seven years ago?
Otto Habsburg was a leader. until 1966 he was not permitted to enter his Austrian homeland.