Otto von Habsburg[1][2] (German: Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xaver Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius, Hungarian: Ferenc József Ottó Róbert Mária Antal Károly Max Heinrich Sixtus Xaver Felix Renatus Lajos Gaetan Pius Ignác; 20 November 1912 – 4 July 2011)[3][4] was the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary from 1916 until the dissolution of the empire in November 1918.

Otto was born at Villa Wartholz in Reichenau an der Rax, Austria-Hungary, during the reign of his great-granduncle, Franz Joseph I of Austria.

[13] In November 1916, Otto became Crown Prince of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia[6][7] when his father, Archduke Charles, acceded to the throne.

However, in 1918, after the end of the First World War, the monarchies were abolished, the republics of Austria and Hungary were founded in their place, and the family was forced into exile in Madeira.

[dubious – discuss] His thesis was on "the right, born of usage and of the peasant law of inheritance, of the indivisibility of rural land ownership in Austria".

[19][20] In 1937 he wrote,[21] I know very well that the overwhelming majority of the Austrian population would like me to assume the heritage of the peace emperor, my beloved father, rather earlier than later ...

God willing, the hour of reunion between the Duke and the people will arrive soon.He continued to enjoy considerable public support in Austria; from 1931 to 1938, 1,603 Austrian municipalities named Otto an honorary citizen.

[23] According to Gerald Warner, "Austrian Jews were among the strongest supporters of a Habsburg restoration, since they believed the dynasty would give the nation sufficient resolve to stand up to the Third Reich".

Otto's supporters, the leaders of the Austrian legitimist movement, were arrested by the Nazis and largely executed (Stefan Zweig's novella The Royal Game is based on these events).

("Special Search List Great Britain"), and was the unofficial head of numerous resistance groups in Central Europe.

These groups hated Nazi ideology and saw the resurgence of a Danube confederation as the only way for small states to exist between Germany and Russia.

These imperial resistance groups became embroiled in ferocious partisan warfare against Hitler, who profoundly hated the Habsburg family tradition.

[35][36][37][38][39] During his wartime exile in the United States, Otto and his younger brothers were in direct contact with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the federal government.

Otto greatly desired Austria to be free, independent and democratic; he expressed concern that after the war the country was in danger of becoming a Soviet satellite state.

He obtained the support of Winston Churchill for a conservative "Danube Federation", in effect a restoration of Austria-Hungary, but Joseph Stalin put an end to these plans.

[44] The Austrian Interior Ministry approved this declaration of citizenship, but on the condition that he accept the name Dr. Otto Habsburg-Lothringen, on 8 February 1957.

In a declaration dated 31 May 1961, Otto renounced all claims to the Austrian throne and proclaimed himself "a loyal citizen of the republic", "for purely practical reasons".

Once you have tasted the opium of politics, you never get rid of it.The Austrian administrative court found on 24 May 1963 that Otto's statement was legally sufficient.

[48] It was only on 1 June 1966, after the People's Party won an outright majority in the national election, that Otto was issued an Austrian passport, and was finally able to visit his home country again on 31 October 1966 for the first time in 48 years.

During his time in the European Parliament, he was involved in a fracas with fellow MEP Ian Paisley, a unionist Protestant pastor from Northern Ireland.

[60] He also held Francisco Franco in a high regard and praised him for helping refugees, stating that he was "a dictator of the South American type, not totalitarian like Hitler or Stalin".

In a newspaper interview[63] in 2002 and in two speeches[64] in 2003 and 2005, he warned of Putin as an "international threat" that he was "cruel and oppressive" and a "stone cold technocrat".

[67] Otto's public advocacy for the weekly Junge Freiheit which was affiliated with the Neue Rechte, and for which he repeatedly made himself available as an interviewee, was met with criticism.

[68] As the first to sign two petitions initiated by the editors, he campaigned in 2002 against the background of a legal dispute against the then constitutional protection categorization of the newspaper as "right-wing extremist" and in 2006 against its uninvitation at the Leipzig Book Fair.

"[70] On the 2008 anniversary of the Anschluss,[71][72][73][74][75] Otto von Habsburg made a statement as part of his "1938 Remembrance Day" address before Parliament that "there is no country in Europe that has a better claim to be a victim of the Nazis than Austria".

Otto's son, Karl von Habsburg, also defended his father's words, in a 2011 statement, stating that "there were guilty parties in practically every country".

[3][8] On 5 July, his body was laid in repose in the Church of St. Ulrich near his home in Pöcking, Bavaria, and a massive 13-day period of mourning started in several countries formerly part of Austria-Hungary.

They were fourth cousins as both were descendants of Karl Ludwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and his wife Countess Amalie Henriette of Solms-Baruth.

At the time of his death in 2011, the couple had seven children, 22 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren:[83] The full titulature of Otto Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary who was supposed to inherited the thrones of the Empire of Austria and the vast realms of Central and Eastern Europe after his father went as following: "His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, Francis Joseph II, by the Grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Germany, King of Hungary, Bohemia, Lombardy–Venetia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria, Illyria, Serbia, Cumania, Bulgaria, Italy, King of Jerusalem, etc.

; Archduke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bukovina; Grand Prince of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator, of Teschen, Friaul, Ragusa and Zara; Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Trento and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia, Istria; Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, etc.