Maximilian, Duke of Hohenberg


Maximilian, Duke of Hohenberg, was the elder son of Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife Countess Sophie Chotek von Chotkowa und Wognin, Duchess von Hohenberg. Because his parents' marriage was morganatic, he was excluded from succession to the Austro-Hungarian throne, to which his father was heir presumptive, and to inheritance of any of his father's dynastic titles, income, and properties, although not from the archduke's personal estate nor from his mother's property.

Life

Maximilian was born on 29 September 1902 and baptized in Vienna two days later with Archduke Charles Stephen of Austria as sponsor. From birth he had the lesser princely title and the nobiliary particle von Hohenberg accorded his mother as a predicate at the time of her marriage, and in 1905 he shared with his siblings her receipt of the style "Serene Highness". Although Sophie had been raised from Princess to Duchess in 1909 by Emperor Franz Joseph, because that title was accorded ad personam, Maximilian did not inherit it upon her death in 1914. On 31 August 1917, however, Emperor Charles I granted him the dukedom on a hereditary basis, simultaneously raising his treatment from "Serene Highness" to "Highness".
In 1911, it was rumored among French circles that Germany planned to install Maximilian as Imperial Governor of Alsace-Lorraine.
Following the assassination of his parents in Sarajevo in 1914, which resulted in the outbreak of World War I, Maximilian, his sister, Princess Sophie and their brother, Prince Ernst, were initially taken in by their maternal aunt and uncle Marie and Jaroslav, Prince and Princess von Thun und Hohenstein, subsequently being raised in the care of their step-grandmother, Archduchess Maria-Theresa of Austria.
In 1919, following the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and collapse of the Habsburg monarchy, the new republic of Czechoslovakia expropriated Konopiště Castle, Maximilian's chief residence, and other family properties in the former Kingdom of Bohemia, and expelled the brothers to Austria. Subsequently, they lived in Vienna and at Artstetten Castle in Lower Austria. Maximilian obtained a law degree from the University of Graz in 1926. He managed the family properties and worked as a lawyer.
Because he had never been a dynast of the Austrian Imperial Family, he was neither banished nor had his properties expropriated under Austria's law of exile of 3 April 1919. Remaining in Vienna, by the 1930s the Duke became the leader within Austria of a significant movement for restoration of the monarchy and of his kinsman Otto von Habsburg to the former Imperial throne.
In March 1938, Austria became part of the German Reich as a result of the Anschluss. Having spoken out for the independence of Austria and against the Anschluss, Maximilian and his brother were arrested by the Reich authorities and interned in Dachau concentration camp, where they were chiefly employed in cleaning the latrines. According to Leopold Figl, they did so cheerfully and maintained comradely relations with fellow prisoners. Maximilian was released after six months and was then compelled to stay at Artstetten Castle; the Reich authorities also expropriated the family's other properties in Austria.
After the liberation of Austria in 1945, the residents of Artstetten elected Maximilian as mayor, with the concurrence of the Soviet occupation authorities. He served two five-year terms as mayor.
Maximilian died on 8 January 1962 at the age of 59. He is buried in the crypt of the Hohenberg family's Artstetten Castle. His wife's remains are in a sarcophagus to his left. His eldest son, Franz, took the ducal title.

Marriage and issue

Maximilian married on 16 November 1926 in Wolfegg, Countess Maria Elisabeth Bona von Waldburg zu Wolfegg und Waldsee. They had six sons:

Honours and arms