Kaiser Karl, Mythos und Wirklichkeit by Eva Demmerle (review)

When you examine scholarship on the Habsburg family, a few big names stand out. There are countless texts examining the lives and leadership of Maria Theresia, Joseph II, and Franz Joseph, but few scholars have given much attention to the last emperor of Austria-Hungary, Kaiser Karl. Eva Demmerle is an exception to that rule, and her recent book Kaiser Karl, Mythos und Wirklichkeit is an interesting attempt to fill that void. She uses new sources to draw a more complete picture of Kaiser Karl and demonstrates that a lot of what we have assumed about him has been based on myth and perhaps even intentional misdirection. Demmerle makes a strong argument that, based on these previously unavailable documents, we should reassess both Kaiser Karl and the late years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in general.

Demmerle makes no secret of her connections to the Habsburg family. Between 1995 and 2011, she worked with Otto von Habsburg, the oldest son of Kaiser Karl and a member of the European Parliament. She had unique access to the family archives and has made use of that resource for most of her publications. Her experiences and opportunity give her insights that other historians might not have. She does not obfuscate her personal role with the Habsburgs, and the relationship does not invalidate her conclusions as a historian. It is, in fact, precisely what makes this book valuable. The Habsburg's privately held family archive is undoubtedly a treasure trove of material, and it is exciting to see even the small glimpses into it that we get through this relatively narrowly focused text.

A central part of Demmerle's argument is that Kaiser Karl has been treated unfairly by other historians and journalists because he was not mythologized in the same way that his predecessor Kaiser Franz Joseph was. She goes on to suggest that the worst accusations made against the young Kaiser were the result of a deliberate propaganda campaign carried out by nationalists within the German government, such as General Erich Ludendorff and Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg. In response to the Sixtus Affair, the possibility that Austria-Hungary could reach out to France to end the war, the two German military leaders set out to preemptively undermine Kaiser Karl, planting rumors that he was a drinker and that he was dominated by his wife, Zita. A great deal of their vitriol seems to have been aimed at Kaiserin Zita, who was an Italian aristocrat of French origin and was suspected by German nationalists of having mixed loyalties. This aspect of Demmerle's book is particularly compelling and, given the source material to which she has access, I would be excited to see her delve more deeply into Zita's character and role in these major world events. As a woman with access to power in a time when few of her peers had such recourse, she is an interesting figure and perhaps merits a biography of her own.

One of Demmerle's more interesting chapters, titled "Dokumentation," comes toward the end of the book. In this chapter she presents quotations and longer excerpts from documents in the Habsburg family archive that were most relevant for her project. This is undoubtedly the strongest aspect of Demmerle's work. By bringing to light documents that have been privately held and largely unavailable to researchers, Demmerle's work gives us new insights on this important era. My one criticism is that I wish she had done more with those sources to show the reader exactly how they change our understanding of Kaiser Karl and the time in which he lived. I would like to see some of the documents reproduced in full, and she could have included more endnotes to let us know about the sources she used to draw her conclusions.

Overall, this is an enjoyable text to read and presents new perspectives on an important historical figure who has been neglected up to now. Dem-merle presents a great deal...