Archduke Otto was born in Reichenau (Lower Austria) on 20th November 1912 as the oldest son of Archduke Carl of Austria (later Emperor Karl I. of Austria, King of Hungary, Bohemia, Croatia etc.) and of Princess Zita de Bourbon-Parma (later Empress and Queen). From 1916 on he was the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary. Until the end of the first world war, 1918, he lived in Austria-Hungary. After that, because of the special anti-Habsburg laws, in exile in Switzerland, on Madeira, at Lequeitio (Spain), at Steenockerzeel (Belgium), in Paris, and from 1940 to 1944 in Washington D.C. (USA). 1944 he...
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Centesimus Annus Conference Series (Rome - December 12, 2006) - Centesimus Annus and Deus Caritas Est
His Imperial and Royal Highness, Otto von Habsburg was born in 1912 as the son of the last emperor of Austria-Hungary, Blessed Charles I. Dr. Habsburg studied social and political sciences at the Catholic University of Leuven and graduated in 1935. He has lived in several countries, and was a strong advocate for a free Austria during the period of Nazi occupation. He served as a member of the European Parliament for the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) party from 1979-1999. An early proponent of a unified Europe, Dr. Habsburg has written and spoken widely on this theme, including books such as The Social Order of Tomorrow (1957). He has also authored a biography of his ancestor, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1970).
