Are you a little Habsburg? Yes? Well, you are unlucky. Forget about carefree childhood. As soon as you say the first words, absolute training begins. The teacher will censor your textbooks, the court theologian will take care of your moral backbone, and boring lecturers will poison your youth with lectures on constitutional law.
Regardless of their natural predispositions (or their lack!), All the little Habsburgs had to receive careful education in the spirit of conservative Catholic values. Since they were to represent the brightest emperor among the Blue Blood society from all over Europe, they had to do so with dignity and in accordance with officially accepted views.
The little prince alone in the thicket of knowledge
Let Archduke Franz Ferdinand be our guide through the world of Habsburg education. This particular Habsburg, whom Gawriło Princip will shoot many years later in Sarajevo and unleash World War I , initially in his wildest dreams he could not have imagined that he would sit on the throne in the future.
Franciszek Ferdynand in 1914 (source:public domain).
His uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph, was doing well and had a male heir in his prime. Franz Ferdinand stood in the second row of the dynasty and was only third in the line of succession. For him to take over, something would have to go very wrong. So the little prince received the education of the little Habsburg in the "standard" version, and not according to royal standards. And although the child was quite gentle and fond of solitude, there was no escape for him. A strict educational regime was inevitable.
The family of Archduke Charles Louis spent the summer months at Castle Artstetten in the Danube Valley. I wonder in which room little Franz Ferdinand studied (author of the photo Arcomonte26, license CC-BY 3.0).
The children of Charles Ludwik Habsburg, the younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph, could not stand out from their aristocratic cousins all over Europe in terms of education. Thus, the Archduke spared no expenses on private teachers. Moreover, he was actively involved in the entire educational process, giving his sons lessons in art history, for example. In order to broaden their horizons, he often invited famous artists, inventors and scientists. With their interesting lectures, these guests were to encourage little princes to study more diligently and interest them in their work. At least that was the theory. Because in practice it was not interesting at all.
One point needs to be clarified. There were no bustling classrooms filled with little Habsburg princes, nor special educational institutions for the highest Austro-Hungarian aristocracy. As was the case with many of the most eminent European families, the children studied singly, in palace chambers, with only teachers. It happened, if the age difference between the siblings was small, that they listened to some of the lectures together. Most often, however, for a few hours a day, six days a week, the little student was condemned only to the company of a strict preceptor and his own.
Already such little ones were instilled with the principle:love Austria and the emperor. The photo shows Maria Annuncjata Sicilian, wife of Karol Ludwik, and her two sons:Franciszek Ferdynand and Otton.
In the case of little Franz Ferdinand and his siblings, the guardian of the strict regime was a man without much imagination and inclination towards innovation . Count Ferdinand Degenfel, a former officer, meticulously oversaw a conservative curriculum packed tightly with science, arithmetic, history, literature, religion, and of course German and grammar. He did not allow for exceptions and cared for the values that the guardians instilled in the little Habsburgs.
Preventive censorship of textbooks
Professor Onno Klopp was involved in the education of young princes in the field of history. The scientist realized that he had a difficult and important task. It is supposed to teach history while capturing and eliminating the tiniest flashes of "reactionary" thoughts that arise in the minds of their students. The method he chose was based on instilling in the children the "only right opinion" as dogma. He carefully censored teaching aids himself, just in case .
As Greg King and Sue Woolmans, authors of the book "To Kill the Archduke" write:
The teacher focused on the critique of liberal political views, the dangers of modern thought, and the ominous warnings of the growing Prussian threat hanging over the sacred mission of the Habsburg Monarchy.
Klopp was so afraid of different ideas that might affect his student that he even wrote his own history textbook for the young archduke to remove unwanted and harmful political terms.
The future duties of the little prince towards the dynasty (e.g. military or diplomatic service in various parts of the country) required knowledge of several languages. The first and basic was the German language, from which the children of the Habsburgs began learning to speak.
Then they learned French, English, Czech and Hungarian. For little Franz Ferdinand, the last one was the real nightmare. The young prince had no polyglot talent. Ba! Throughout his life, he tried to improve his knowledge of Hungarian, but never succeeded in reaching the level of an expert witness. His English was also a bit lame.
There was no leniency when it comes to religious education. Gottfried Marschall, a strict clergyman closely associated with the Habsburgs, was educated in the direction of the theological meanders of Franz Ferdinand. If someone was born in the Austrian Habsburg dynasty and in addition was closely related to the Emperor, there was no other option - Catholicism and that was it.
In addition, the little princes would set an example of faith and piety in the future (at least in public). In the case of Franz Ferdinand, the priest had a particularly easy task.
Karol Ludwik in 1873 with his newly married third wife, Maria Teresa of Portugal, and four children from a previous relationship:Franz Ferdinand, Otto, Ferdinand Karol and Małgorzata Zofia.
The boy was quite spiritual from an early age and showed an unprecedented interest in the liturgy. His fascination with Catholicism was so deep that he even sat in the palace chapels, wanting to soak up their solemn atmosphere. He did not subject the dogmas instilled by Marshall to any criticism. Interestingly, he was alien to religious intolerance. What mattered to him was whether a person was faithful to his faith and lived according to its dictates, not whether he read the Bible, Torah or Koran.
The basic courses were complemented by additional lectures. As the authors of the book "To Kill the Archduke" write, Prince Franz Ferdinand took lessons:
military history, naval maneuvering, architecture and engineering. The future prime minister of Austria, Max Vladimir Beck, taught civil and constitutional law. Nothing was neglected […].
Practical exercises were also continued - horse riding, dance lessons and fencing. It all sounds great and is entirely composed of a thoroughly educated young man, erudite and polyglot. So what if, apart from the liturgy, our hero did not show any special talents.
"Franzi was in a bad mood," noted Emperor Franz Joseph after meeting his nephew. On the left little Franzi, on the right quite large Franz Ferdinand Habsburg.
Despite the teachers' sincere intentions and their strenuous endeavors, the grain of knowledge fell on extremely insusceptible ground. We will not go so far as to call the prince stupid, after all, it would be an insult to majesty! Suffice it to say that he was cramming everything, he didn't learn anything really.
In fact, it wouldn't be a big problem. The fate of Franz Ferdinand seemed doomed. A military career, raising the prestige of a dynasty (or at least not lowering it!) And a comfortable life. Fortune turned out to be perverse and one day turned it all into ruin. The young prince succeeded the throne.
Source:
- The article is based on the book "To Kill the Archduke" by Greg King and Sue Woolmans (Literanova Mark 2014).