*20.11.1912 Reichenau an der Rax  -  †04.07.2011 Pöcking, Germany

Archduke of Austria

Otto Franz Joseph was the eldest son of Emperor Charles and Empress Zita, née Princess of Bourbon-Parma. He was born in Villa Wartholz in Reichenau.

Otto was the great-grandnephew of Emperor Franz Joseph I. At the end of the war, under pressure from the government, his father Emperor Karl renounced his share in the affairs of state, but not his rights to the throne.

After the proclamation of the republic, the family was forced to leave Austria in 1919 and went into exile in Switzerland, where Emperor Charles attempted to regain the throne in Hungary. However, the family was banished to Madeira, where the emperor died of exhaustion and pneumonia in 1922. After his death, Otto became head of the House of Habsburg.

The family was completely expropriated by the Habsburg laws and was dependent on the help of relatives and friends, living in the Basque Country and later in Belgium. Zita attached particular importance to her children's education; Otto studied law and graduated with the highest possible honours at the age of 23. 

After that, Spain, Belgium, the USA and France were stations in his life. Otto rejected Hitler's offer to make contact in 1933, was wanted by the Nazis from 1938 onwards and sentenced to death in absentia. At the beginning of the war, Otto was able to help more than 10,000 victims of Nazi persecution flee overseas. 

In November 1945, Otto Habsburg returned to Tyrol from the United States, but left again shortly afterwards, before the Renner government had a chance to expel him once more. On 10 May 1951, he married Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen; they had seven children.

In order to be able to re-enter Austria, Otto Habsburg signed the declaration of renunciation required by the Habsburg Law in 1961. After years of legal wrangling, he was finally able to set foot on Austrian soil again on 31 October 1966.

Otto was elected President of the International Paneuropean Union in 1973 and ran for the Bavarian CDU in the 1979 European Parliament elections, to which he belonged until 1999. After leaving the European Parliament, he remained a sought-after advisor to Central European governments and an ardent advocate of Europe and Christian values.

Dr Otto Habsburg-Lothringen died in 2011 at the age of 98 at his home in Pöcking on Lake Starnberg.

Since 16 July 2011, he has been laid to rest alongside his wife Regina, Princess of Saxe-Meiningen, in the Imperial Crypt.

Otto Habsburg's heart is buried in the Abbey of Pannonhalma in Hungary.