UNLUCKY HAPSBURGS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6857, 12 March 1929, Page 4

UNLUCKY HAPSBURGS

SCATTERED OVER WORLD FILM ACTORS AND BREWERS Of all the ex-archdukes and ex-arch-duchesses of the Hapsburg I family, which was till ten years ago one of the proudest royal and imperial houses in the world, hardly any now reside in Austria, says “The Daily Mail.” To be 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 ex-Archduke Leopold Salvator, junior, who is 31 and now a film actor at Hollywood, was until about a year ago an active partner in a firm of Vienna wholesale hop merchants, and his name, “Leopold Hapsburg-Loth-ringen,” the full name of this branch of the Hapsburg family, still stands in gold letters upon a small black doorplate underneath that of the firm. The firm really ceased to exist, howere, when the expert partner died, for young ex-Archduke Leopold Salvator could not carry on the business of buying hops, malt and barley himselt. He is the son of the ex-Archduke Leopold Salvator, senior. His wife, Frau Dagmar Hapsburg, who is a daughter of Baron Nicolics-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 flat. The ex-Archduke Rainer Salvator, also a son of the ex-Archduke Leonid Salvator, lives quietly in Vienna and had no share in his brother’s business. But every year he travels to Saybu3ch, in Poland, to buy hops for the celebrated brewery of his uncle, the exArchduke Kari Stephan, and his aunt, the ex-Archduchess Maria Theresa, who is a daughter of the Archduke Karl Salvator. They were able to keep this brewery and other property at Saybusch through the intervention of the widowed Queen-Mother Cristina of Spain, on condition they handed over a tenth of the profits to the Academy of Science at Warsaw. They have three sons, of whom Karl Albrecht and Leo Karl are married, and live at Saybusch, while the third, Wilhelm, who was a candidate for the kingship of the Ukraine, lives near Paris under the name of Colonel Wischiwanjy. The ex-Archduke Leopold Salvator himself lives with his wife and remaining eight children (besides Leopold in Hollywood and Rainer in Vienna) at Barcelona. They are very poor, and one daughter gives language lessons. His immense wealth, which included castles and estates all over the empire, has been confiscated. The ex-Archduchess Blanlca is now in a sanatorium in Vienna, where she has had to undergo a serious operation. The only brother of the ex-Emperor Karl, the ex-Archduke Max,_also lives in Spain. As “Count Max Weinberg” 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 Windischgratz. 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 in 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 at sea. Leopold Wolfing is now sixty, and lives very modestly at Mauer, between Moedling and Vienna. He has been film actor, film runner, with motorbicycle, keeper of a general shop, bank clerk, and insurance agent, and now teaches languages. He is a very good linguist and a man of cheerful disposition.