THE ILL-FATED HAPSBURGS

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1929, Page 7

THE ILL-FATED HAPSBURGS

(Proud Imperial Family That Is Now Scattered : Archdukes As Film Actors: Others Deal In Hops: Ix!o----|)old, the insurance Agent. By John Bannister).

VIENNA November 2G. wi all the ex-archdukes and ex-arch-duchesses of the Hapsburg family, which was till ten years ago one of the proudest royal and imperial houses in the world, hardly any now reside in Austria.

To he permitted to do so each individual must sign a declaration renouncing all claims to rights and privileges as a member of the Hapsburg family, and few have done this.

Young ox-Archduke Leopold Salvator junior, who is Jil and now a Him actor at ilollyood, was until about a year ago an active partner in a firm ol Vienna wholesale hop merchants, and Ins name, “Leopold Hapsburg-Loth-ringen,” the full name of this, branch of the Tfapslnirg" family, still stands in gold letters upon a small black doorplate underneath that of tho firm.

The firm really ceased to exist, however, when the expert partner died, for young ox-Archduke Leopold Salvator could not carry on the business of buying hops, malt, and barley himself.

lie is the son of the e.v-Arelidukc Leopold Salvator senior. His wife, Frail T)agmnr ITapsburg who is a daughter of Baron Nieolios-Podrinska, a landowner in Croatia, divides her time, with her little daughter of seven, between Vienna and Agram. The name “Hapsburg” stands upon the door of her small Vienna fiat.

The cx-Arehdiike Bainer Salvator, also a son of tho ex-A rend like Leopold Salvator, lives quietly in Vienna and had no share in his brother’s business. But every voar he travels to Saybuseh, in Poland to buy hops for the celobrnt—•d hrewerv of his uncle, the cx-Ar*'

duke Karl Stephen, and his aunt,, the ex-Arohdiiohess Maria Theresa, who is a daughter of the Archduke Karl Salvalor.

They wen l able to keep their hrewerv and ether property at Saybuseh through the intervention of the widowed Oueen-Mothor Christina of Spain, on condition they handled over a tenth of tin' profits to the Academy oil Science at Warsaw.

They have three sous, ol whom Karl Alhreel)t and Leo Karl are married, and live at Saybuseh, while the third,

Wilhelm, who was a candidate for the kingship’ of the Ukraine, lives near Paris under the names of Colonel Wischiwanjy.

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“The ex-Archduko Leopold Salvator himself with his wife and remaining eight children (besides Leopold in Hollywood and Rainer in Vienna) at Barcelona.

They are very poor, and one dangm ter gives language lessons. His immense wealth, which includes castles and estates all over the empire, has been confiscated. The ex- Archduchess Blnnkn is now in a sanatorium in Vienna, where she has had to undergo a serious operation. The only brother of the ex-Emperoi Karl, the ex-Archduko Max, also lives in Spain. As “Count Max Meinberg” he lived with his wife in the mountains of Bavaria for some years after the revolution, and lost all he possessed later in unsuccessful speculations in Spain. He is now employed in the office of an engineering company in Barcelona. The only child of the Crown Prince Rudolph is now Frau Petznek, of Moedling, wife of a Socialist politician. Her first husband was Prince Otto Windisohgrabz. She is an eloquent speaker and an ardent Socialist. She was once the favourite grandchild of the Emperor Francis Joseph. The only other Hapsburg living m Vienna is Leopold Wolfing, who renounced his rank before the war He was a nephew of the Archduke Johann Salvator, who was called Johann Orth and is believed to have been drowned Leopold Wolliing is now sixty, and lives very modestly at Mnuer, between Moedling and Vienna. He has been film actor, film runner, and motorbicycle, keeper of a general shop, bank clerk, and insurance agent, and now teaches languages. Ho is a very good linguist and a man of cheerful disposition.