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Descendant of WWI's Archduke Ferdinand seeks Czech castle
Dec 6, 2006, 11:36 GMT
Prague - A great-granddaughter of the noble whose assassination sparked World War I is seeking rights to his Czech Republic castle, reports said Wednesday.
In a newspaper interview, Countess Sophie Hohenberg promised that, if she won the case, the gothic-style Konopiste Castle near Prague would remain open to the public.
Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand owned the 13th-century castle before he was gunned down in Sarajevo in 1914.
The subsequent war, and the later confiscations of private land by the former communist Czechoslovakia, has now raised questions about the property's present-day ownership.
Hohenberg, who lives in Luxembourg, claims the Czech government's post-World War I confiscation of property from the defeated Austro-Hungarian Empire should not have included Konopiste.
And rather than remain in state hands, as it has since communist times, Hohenberg says the castle as well as its historic contents and surrounding forest should be returned to the family.
She told the Mlada fronta Dnes newspaper that her property restitution claim, filed last week in a Czech local court, is 'for me a responsibility toward my family and toward my father.'
Similar claims for Czech castles, chateaus and forests have been filed by European nobility since Prague's post-communist government launched a restitution programme in the 1990s. Claimants have had mixed success.
Hohenberg said that if she wins the case, the family would keep the castle open to the public.
'The Czech Republic is my second homeland,' she said. 'Konopiste is something like a family home for our family. It is our historic seat, our traditional grounds.'
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
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While I agree with some of the previous poster's statements (that poor people were exploited by the ruling elite...), it is also true, that Sophie's grandfather Maximilian (and his brother Ernst), sons of Archduke Franz Ferdinand were not Habsburgs (since their father entered into a marriage with Czech countess Sophie Chotek which was not considered equal by the Habsburgs) and that Konopiste was not a Habsburg castle, but private property which FF bought when he sold some of his Este property in Italy. The confiscation of their private property was controversial even in the 1920s.
Furthermore, while it has nothing to do with the legal situation, it is also rather futile to state that part of the SS was made of what were before the Anschluss 1938 Austrian citizens - this is true, of course; but both Maximilan and Ernst von Hohenberg were arrested after the Anschluss and brought to Dachau concentration camp, because they were known to be strong opponents to National Socialism and members of a party that tried to prevent the Anschluss (Legitimists). Max spent over a year in Dachau and was later put under house arrest at Artstetten castle (which was confiscated by the Nazis), Ernst spent over 5 years in various concentration camps. Members of the socialist party who were imprisoned with the Hohenbergs later documented their exemplary behaviour and considered them rolemodels. Both brothers died rather young because of ill health brought upon by their imprisonment. It is rather harsh in my opinion to blame the Hohenberg family for Nazi atrocities that happened during these times, when they were victims of those atrocities and not offenders.
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somename at somplace dot.comDec 10th, 2006 - 04:38:57
Hapsburg nobility lived off of the blood, sweat and tears of the Czech people for many, many years through exploitation and repression. I have discovered that a relative who participated in a peasant rebellion several centuries ago because of confiscatory taxation policies was taken by royal authorites to Castle Taffe southeast of Klatovy and tortured to death. Count Taffe was in charge of treasury matters for the Hapsburg empire.
The Czech Legionaires who fought for their independence with the Allies and helped win the right to have the country of Czechoslovakia The Konopiste Castle is within Bohemia and deserves to remain in the hands of the people of the Czech Republic. The exiles from Czechoslovakia also paid in blood to support the Allies in fighting Hitler.
Austria and its people fought against the Allies in both World War I and World War II and supplied more than its fair share of fanatical SS officers. I have family relatives that were executed by SS troops. Austria was an enemy nation in these wars and does not deserve remedial treatment in any sense in regards to claims against other countries.
Austria also chose to maintain stolen and confiscated art and even property after WW II. Austria is the site of major Nazi concentration camps, Mauthausen, among others. Many former SS officers still maintain their allegiance and reside within Austria to this day.
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