Prince Otto of Windisch-Graetz


Prince Otto of Windisch-Graetz was an Austrian nobleman, who became known through his marriage to Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, the so-called “Red Archduchess”.

Early life

Otto was born into the House of Windisch-Graetz, one of the most distinguished noble houses of Austrian high nobility, as the second son of Prince Ernst Ferdinand Weriand of Windisch-Graetz and his wife, Princess Kamilla of Oettingen-Oettingen and Oettingen-Spielberg.

Military career

In 1891 he entered the Imperial and Royal Cavalry Cadet School in Hranice as a student, completing the curriculum in two years with moderate success. From 1894 to 1895 he attended the brigade officer school in Olomouc and was promoted to lieutenant on 1 May 1895. After two years stationed in Brno, he was appointed captain in 1899 and entered the war school, from which he graduated in 1901 with good results.
During World War I he commanded a battalion on the Italian front.

Marriage to Archduchess Elisabeth

In September 1900, Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, daughter of Crown Prince Rudolf and Crown Princess Stéphanie and granddaughter of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria, fell in love with Prince Otto. However, he was ten years her senior and below her in rank. Nonetheless she importuned her grandfather to be allowed to marry him. Franz Joseph resisted at first, having intended for Elisabeth to marry the German Crown Prince, but eventually relented. Elisabeth and Prince Otto were related through her grandmother Sissi. They were third cousins twice removed as Otto was third cousin of the late Empress, both descending from Duke Charles Marie of Arenberg. By many accounts it was Elisabeth alone who wanted the marriage, as Otto was already engaged and was reportedly dumbfounded when Franz Joseph informed him of his new engagement. Ordered by the Emperor to break his "lesser" engagement to marry his granddaughter, he complied.
In order to avoid future succession issues, the Emperor made the marriage conditional on Elisabeth's renouncing her right to succession, although he allowed her to keep her personal title and style, as well as providing her with a generous dowry. While Otto's family was officially listed among the Habsburg-approved families for equal marriages with an imperial house, the complication lay in the specific branch of his lineage. Otto did not descend from the first Prince of Windisch-Graetz, whose title as Prince of the Holy Roman Empire made his elder line of the Windisch-Graetz family legally equal for dynastic marriages with other royals. Instead, Otto came from the line of his brother, Weriand, who was created Fürst zu Windisch-Graetz only on 18 May 1822 by Francis I, Emperor of Austria. Otto's title of Prince was an Austrian creation, not one of the Holy Roman Empire, and therefore his branch of the family did not meet the Habsburg standard that their members were to marry only into European reigning families or mediatised princely houses—families that descended from former ruling princes of the Holy Roman Empire—rather than from their non-reigning lines. As a result, while his family was considered princely, many regarded the marriage as a mésalliance or even wished it to be treated as morganatic. Because the emperor's favorite granddaughter was involved and Otto's family main-line was legally equal, the marriage was officially treated as equal; however, his branch's technical inferiority remained a point of dispute and could have given Otto's family grounds to press for Elisabeth's dynastic rights should succession circumstances change. On the occasion of the marriage on 23 January 1902 in Vienna, the Emperor elevated the groom to the personal rank of Fürst, while at the same time his wife was required to renounce all claims to the throne, like many other Archduchesses before her.
The couple separated after an unhappy marriage in 1919, and were divorced in 1948. A custody battle raged for years over the four children they had together.

Involvement in sports

Otto was an excellent horseman and a very good swimmer, gymnast and fencer. In 1911 he became Honorary President of the Austrian Sports Federation. In this capacity he was appointed to the International Olympic Committee in 1911. He opened the Olympic Congress in Paris in 1914 as the highest-ranking noble member of the IOC.
However, because of Austria's role in World War I, his IOC membership was suspended in 1919. When the IOC decided in the 1921 season to reinstate Windisch-Graetz's membership, he refused on the grounds that he no longer resided in Austria.

From 1918 until death

After World War I Otto became a Yugoslav citizen and lived on the vast lands near Bled, which he had inherited from his family. The lands, including a castle which served as his summer residence were sold in 1922 to King Alexander I of Yugoslavia.
He spent World War II with his sister, Countess Eleonore Marie Gabriele Georgine Amalie von Paar, at her palace in Bohemia. After the war they relocated to Switzerland, where they lived together in Lausanne.
Prince Otto of Windisch-Graetz died on 27 December 1952 in Lugano, aged 89. He is buried in the Lugano-Castagnola cemetery in Switzerland.

Descendants

  1. Franz Josef Windisch-Graetz, born and until 1919 as Franz Josef Marie Otto Antonius Ignatius Oktavianus Prince of Windisch-Graetz:
  2. # married Ghislaine Windisch-Graetz, née Countess d'Arschot Schoonhoven
  3. Ernst Windisch-Graetz, born and until 1919 as Ernst Weriand Maria Otto Antonius Expeditus Anselmus Prince of Windisch-Graetz:
  4. # married Ellen Windisch-Graetz, née Ellen Skinner; divorced 1938, annulled 1940;
  5. # married Eva Windisch-Graetz, née Baroness von Isbary.
  6. Rudolf Johann Windisch-Graetz, born and until 1919 as Rudolf Johann Maria Otto Joseph Anton Andreas Prince of Windisch-Graetz.
  7. Stephanie Björklund, by marriage Countess d’Alcantara de Querrieu, born and until 1919 as Princess Stefanie of Windisch-Graetz Eleonore Maria Elisabeth Kamilla Philomena Veronika zu Windisch-Graetz:
  8. # married Count Pierre d’Alcantara de Querrieu ;
  9. # married Carl Axel Björklund.