Post by lighthorseman on Jul 6, 2011 7:00:27 GMT -5
BERLIN (AP) — Otto von Habsburg saw the crumbling of the empire his family had ruled for centuries and emerged from its ashes as a champion of a united and democratic Europe.
The oldest son of Austria-Hungary's last emperor fought Nazism and Soviet communism during his long decades of exile from his homeland, and was lionized by leaders across the continent as "a great European."
Habsburg died Monday at age 98 in his villa in Poecking in southern Germany, where he had lived since the 1950s, with his seven children nearby, his spokeswoman Eva Demmerle told The Associated Press.
Habsburg used his influence in a vain struggle to keep the Nazis from annexing Austria before World War II, then campaigned for the opening of the Iron Curtain in the decades after the war.
With the fall of the Berlin Wall, he used his seat in European Parliament to lobby for expanding the European Union to include former Eastern bloc nations.
"My father was a towering personality," Habsburg's oldest son Karl Habsburg-Lothringen told the Austria Press Agency. "With him we lose a great European who has influenced everything we do today beyond measure."
Born in 1912 in Austria, Habsburg witnessed the family's decline after the empire was dismantled and Austria became a republic following World War I. He became head of the family at his father's death in 1922 and continued to claim the throne until the 1960s.
www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jVKjF8v2vHrD6hGo0ZHHnMyNqckQ?docId=0eb1e4fec4b74bbfb2a1dc335faeb89f
The oldest son of Austria-Hungary's last emperor fought Nazism and Soviet communism during his long decades of exile from his homeland, and was lionized by leaders across the continent as "a great European."
Habsburg died Monday at age 98 in his villa in Poecking in southern Germany, where he had lived since the 1950s, with his seven children nearby, his spokeswoman Eva Demmerle told The Associated Press.
Habsburg used his influence in a vain struggle to keep the Nazis from annexing Austria before World War II, then campaigned for the opening of the Iron Curtain in the decades after the war.
With the fall of the Berlin Wall, he used his seat in European Parliament to lobby for expanding the European Union to include former Eastern bloc nations.
"My father was a towering personality," Habsburg's oldest son Karl Habsburg-Lothringen told the Austria Press Agency. "With him we lose a great European who has influenced everything we do today beyond measure."
Born in 1912 in Austria, Habsburg witnessed the family's decline after the empire was dismantled and Austria became a republic following World War I. He became head of the family at his father's death in 1922 and continued to claim the throne until the 1960s.
www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jVKjF8v2vHrD6hGo0ZHHnMyNqckQ?docId=0eb1e4fec4b74bbfb2a1dc335faeb89f
I've never even HEARD of this guy, and I consider myself a student of history! A claimant to the Austro-Hungarian throne into the 60s!
I love the internet!
