#rudolf of austria

[obscurehistoricalinterests]

'Sisi' was a terrible empress. Her romanticization needs to STOP.

In more recent decades, Elisabeth has received a growing attention in pop culture: there are several series, films and even a musical paying tribute to her legend. Her beauty is admired, her trials and tribulations are pitied, her struggle to escape the chafing constraints of royal life is celebrated. There's a whiff of feminism surrounding her lately - a strong, intelligent woman, metaphorically, and if we take the film Corsage, even literally flipping off the patriarchy. She's galloping through forests barefoot, she's facing off her tyrannical mother in law, she's fighting for her freedom, for control over her own life. German writer Karen Duve goes as far as to call Elisabeth "an undiscovered feminist icon." 

But... was she? One of her ladies in waiting once said that Elisabeth will "live on in legend, not in history". And right she was. You see, Elisabeth has triumphed. When I look around, it seems as if we see her exactly as she would have wanted us to. A tragic heroine, a beautiful apparition, a nymph who somehow got trapped in the mortal realm, to her immense suffering. And for a modern woman,  there is much to empathize with in Elisabeth: her sublime sensitivity, her iron self-discipline, her headstrong character, her inborn thirst for freedom. But upon lifting the starry veil of this ethereal fairy-tale queen, one will find the face of a much more complex, flawed and ultimately human woman. Self-obsessed and narcissistic, monstrously selfish and possessive, cruelly indifferent to her empire (with one all-consuming exception), incessantly self-victimizing and deeply, deeply unhappy - overwhelmingly through her own fault.  

[vixonimus]

hello rudolf nation this took me 6 hours and downloading lots and lots of stuff i hope you enjoy

[sisionscreen]

Arian Wegener (Crown Prince Rudolf) behind the scenes of the third season of Sisi (2021).

[eridonna]

Elisabeth De Musical, Netherlands Premiere

📍Schouwburg Het Park (14.03.2025)

Pia Douwes as Empress Elisabeth

Danique Dusée as Young Elisabeth / Jonge Elisabeth

Milan van Waardenburg as Der Tod / De Dood

Ann Van den Broeck as Archduchess Sophie

William Spaaij as Lucheni

Ronald Jorritsma as Rudolf

Guido Gottenbos as Franz Joseph

Sjoerd Oomen as Maximilian of Bavaria

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Rudolf Bacher (Austrian, 1862-1945) The Adoration of Angels, n.d. Church of Breitenfeld, Josefstadt

[germanpostwarmodern]

Church St Theresia (1959-62) in Linz, Austria, by Rudolf Schwarz. Photo by Jamie McGregor Smith.

[wardrobeoftime]

Best dressed Elisabeth "Sisi" of Austria - Vote

I always wanted to do a Best Dressed vote and matching gif sets, and well now the time has come. I've decided to start with Elisabeth of Austria aka Sisi/Sissi because she is portrayed in so many adaptations in recent years.

I'm sorry if I'm missing some but those are the ones I can gif right now. If you know another one, drop it in the comments and I will try to do an honorable mentions gif set of that adaptation as well.

If you want to, you can also drop a comment or reblog including your favourite costume overall.

Examples:

There are gif sets of The Sissi Trilogy, Sisi (2009), Sisi (2021) and Ludwig II (2012) on my blog. Gif sets of dresses from The Empress/Die Kaiserin have been made by @awkward-sultana. Pictures from Corsage and Sisi & I can be found at @sisionscreen.

[mioritic]

Rudolf Hayder

"Wien - Perchtoldsdorf", n.d.

Dorotheum

[fitzrove]

guys lets practice finnish together :) the words may be a bit Old but its ok its funnier that way

(i always find it funny to browse old travel guides, especially the "useful dialogue" sections. one time when my family went to poland we had a guide that was from the soviet era and it had instructions on how to bribe people and deal with the milicja shjssjdj)

Thomas Michell: Handbook for travellers in Russia, Poland, and Finland. London: Murray, 1868. Digitised by the Austrian National Library.

[archduchessofnowhere]

Family life actually existed only at Christmas time, when Grandmother Sophie gathered the family around her, including all her grandchildren. In her diary, Archduchess Sophie captured in her diary the “governing” game of the little archdukes during Christmas 1868: Rudolf appoints the five-year-old Franz Ferdinand, who is sitting in a big comfortable chair, to be King. He and all the others are the ministers. Now the Crown Prince approaches and asks: ‘What representatives do you wish to elect?’ Franz Ferdinand wants to get up, but he proceeds rather clumsily and falls down. Great merriment, but Rudolf says thoughtfully: ‘It is not a good omen when a king falls from the throne.’

Hamann, Brigitte (2017). Rudolf. Crown Prince and Rebel (translation by Edith Borchardt)

[Pictured: Archduchess Maria Annunziata with her sons, Franz Ferdinand and Otto, circa 1866 (left); Crown Prince Rudolf, circa 1867 (right). Via ÖNB.]

[illustratus]

Farmer with a team of oxen near Schottwien with a view of the Klamm ruins

by Matthias Rudolf Toma

[little-candy-store-of-horrors]

"Bella gerunt alii, tu felix Austria nube!"

Day 6 of @spaus-week 's challenge

"Let others wage war, you, happy Austria, marry!" Was the political strategy of the Habsburgs, and marry did the House of Austria! Infamously, scandalously, sensationally. A mangled wreath of a family tree. We all know this horror story. And we all know the bitter end.

((completed pedigree chart of Habsburg rulers from 1500-1918 here))

After Emperor Charles V&I divided his Spanish and Austrian inheritance ((also gained through his parents' and grandparents' marriages)) to his descendants and those of his younger brother Ferdinand I respectively, the Habsburg dynasty split into two branches. The Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs notoriously intermarried for generations, right up till Charles II of Spain whose heirless death in 1700 sparked the War of the Spanish Succession. The inbreeding and this informal Latin motto behind it has been blamed to hell and back for their implosion, for the physical ugliness that ran in this royal bloodline. But it is not to say the Habsburgs never went to war, nor that dynastic marriage was a political strategy unique to them! But they were, if anything, bloody successful at it seeing how they did rule half of Europe for 200 years, and then a lot of it in the Austrian line for another 200. Before anyone figured out inbreeding was bad it was considered a privilege to marry into the Habsburgs, with Louis XV claiming that Louis XVI's betrothal to Marie Antoinette was marrying the "Daughter of the Caesars", and Napoleon Bonaparte infamously ditching Josephine for Marie Louise. Charles II was a poor sod who took the fall and the mugs were wretched from the same ugly gene being passed around countless times*, but they did wear power and privilege well.

💅✨ Symbolism bc I'm a NERD and this my Category 10 autism event ✨💅 :

Charles V & Ferdinand I's joint portrait based on that propaganda woodcut, behind them the colours of the Habsburg flag.

The Spanish branch, comprising Charles V & I's descendants, is represented with a black background, and the Austrian branch, comprising Ferdinand I's descendants, gold, both colours pulled from their flag, a dynasty intertwined but split in two.

Round frames denote that the individual had no heirs.

Only the most influential ruler on both sides, the King of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor, are represented as framed portraits, explaining Archduke Charles II's unframed depiction.

The unconventional placement of Charles II of Spain and Emperor Rudolf II's nameplates are a nod to their queerness: their intersexuality and bisexuality respectively.

Ferdinand III's portrait is lopsided because of the losses of the 30 Years War.

Cracks in Charles II's portrait: 🙃🙃🙃

[vixonimus]

it's good to know that rudolf was an odysset and maybe iliad girly

[foreverinthepagesofhistoryy]

September is National Suic1de Prevention and Awareness Month. Never forget the brave souls who did all they could to fight. Always reach out for help and never stop fighting.

~ Princess Alfred of Edinburgh, Hereditary Prince of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, 1874-1899

~ Princess Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, 1858-1899

~ Princess Feodora of Saxe Meiningen, 1879-1945

~ Princess Joachim of Prussia, 1890-1920

*

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Rudolf Ritter von Alt (Austrian, 1812-1905) Der Stephansdom zur Weihnachtszeit, ca.1847

[germanpostwarmodern]

H. + M. Wäger House (1960-62) in Götzis, Austria, by Heinz Wäger with Rudolf and Siegfried Wäger