Endgame for the Habsburgs

“Otto von Habsburg was the last man to have a real idea of ​​the democratic metamorphosis of the Austrian Empire in Europe.” Thus Die Presse reports the death of the eldest son of the last Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary at the age of 98. The funeral of the former MEP will “revive the nostalgia of the Austrians”, the Vienna daily continues, for “Otto was the last intellectual and biographical link with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.... The biography of this man,” who lived through the Anschluss of Austria to Germany and especially the ‘homecoming’ of Hitler, “is the history of Austria.” “A nation that had so little confidence in itself that it could see itself only as a victim [of Hitler] feared a man [Otto von Habsburg] who for decades held to his convictions.” For Die Presse, “the anti-Habsburg cannibalism” was part of the “historical neurosis” of the Austrians, which was eased only in “the therapeutic treatment rooms of the European Union.”