HOMES OF EMPERORS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 24, 29 January 1938, Page 19

HOMES OF EMPERORS.

RESTORED TO HABSBURGS. VIENNA. Duke Ernst von Hohenberg and Margrave PiilliM ieiiii. two leading Austrian Monarchists, will he the administrators of the castles which wore restored to the Hahsburjr famjly by a decision of the Austrian Cabinet. ' Among these castles are historic family scats such as Muerzi>to<r, where Tsar Nicholas of Russia in 1903 met the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph to make an agreement on the Turkish question. Laxenhjirg, the favourite resort of the last Emperor Charles, and Eckartsau, where he stayed after hie abdication in 1918. Most of the estates have yielded no profits during the last few years. The Haheburge hope to make them profitable in a few years by good management. The Cabinet's decision is a consequence of the law of 1935, which empowers the Government to give back to the Habsburgs part of the former Imperial property. Until now, they had received about £10,000 in shares and some houses in Vienna. Duke Ernst von Hobenberg is a cousin of Archduke Otto. He and his elder brother Max, who is president of the "Iron Ring," the eupreme Monarchist organisation, are the sons of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, whose death at Sarajevo in 1914 caused the war.