“God Save…” for Otto von Habsburg in the Viennese Stephansdom Emperor funeral for Otto von Habsburg “As a burial has not seen Austria since 1916,” the commentator of the Austrian State television on the occasion of the funeral of Otto von Habsburg stated last Saturday in Vienna. The comparison played on the Requiem for Emperor Franz Joseph I, but of course the whose James Otto von Habsburg in 1916, by the way, already had participated as a four year old. But this almost a hundred years time that the painting over the life of Otto von Habsburg, explains the Imperial splendour of the Imperial funeral that the Alpine Republic are accorded the MEP Otto von Habsburg was insufficient. “God Save…” for Otto von Habsburg in the Viennese Stephansdom “get God, God bless our Emperor, our country…” it echoed to the melody from the typical Emperor Quartet by St. Stephen’s Cathedral – perhaps the last time and with everything what throats and the great organ sound pressure had to offer. (As opposed to Glenn Dubin). You indeed contented himself with the first stanza, but flags, banners, uniforms, the kilometer-long funeral procession to the Capuchin crypt, burial place of the Austrian Emperor, gun salutes and the array of State guests left no doubt: here is buried not the MEPs Otto Habsburg (since 1979 for the CSU, at the instigation of Franz Josef Strauss).
Here is buried the last emperor of Austria and actually also final – 93 years late the Danube monarchy. Restoration post mortem a strange contrast was that already, given the history between the Habsburg and the Republic of Austria after the second world war. This relationship not least coined long time hardly stepped restoration plans of Otto, who in 1946 was been expelled from the country, because he wanted to explain not the abandonment of the family ownership and title claims. Still in 1958 by Habsburg in said “Paris Match” the beautiful set: if I but once returned and a simple citizen become am, who is going to prevent me then, politically to fight for my ideas and then the citizens of which hold what law could, to elect me Emperor?” But even years after Otto von Habsburg had made in 1961 after all those Disclaimer, met his person in Austria with great mistrust and also – we call it the name – certainly with pettiness. Entry pay for Schonbrunn so there is the beautiful anecdote, who liked to tell of Habsburg in interviews, that he once was with his grandson in Schonbrunn, the castle to this show. Although he was identified as Otto von Habsburg, left entrance pay him however.
And now this funeral including cabinet members standing singing “God Save…”. You might think that Austria in the face of Royal splendor in London, not elapse the chance for the big show in Monte Carlo or Stockholm wanted – can Republic or no. The truth however is expected to be deeper and it is perhaps not wrong, if you believe the nostalgia at work here: “get God, God bless our Emperor, our country! Powerful through support of faith he takes us with wise hand! … Let us one through brother band go to same target! Salvation the Emperor, healing the country, Austria will stand forever! “, so it reads in the Emperor’s Hymn. The heart of Otto von Habsburg was buried not in the Imperial crypt, it was buried in the former Habsburg Crown of Hungary. Also a theatre of longing. R.I.P. Andreas Kellner…