B008AITH44 EBOK (34 page)
Authors: Brigitte Hamann
Elisabeth actually did go to Vienna for a few days. But her visit was not an unmixed pleasure to the Emperor. The Hungarian affairs completely occupied her mind. Once again she used the opportunity to put political pressure on her husband. Franz Joseph continued reluctant to give in to the Hungarians’ demands, plagued as he was by scruples concerning the Bohemians. He stalled Andrássy, who was in Vienna for an audience, with the words, “I will study the matter thoroughly and think it over.”
47
The following day, Empress Elisabeth invited Andrássy to an interview at Schönbrunn. Andrássy did not know whether she was speaking on the Emperor’s instructions or on her own initiative (the latter is more
probable)
. On July 30, 1866, he entered the following sentence in his diary: “What is certain is that if the matter is successful, Hungary will be more beholden to the Beautiful Providence [a phrase by which he always meant the Empress] that watches over her than she suspects.”
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In the interview, Elisabeth showed herself more pessimistic, going so far as to state that she harbored no hope of seeing her efforts crowned by success. Thus she made it very clear to Andrássy that she did not approve of the Emperor’s position. Nevertheless, Andrássy was given one more long audience with the Emperor; he was also allowed to submit a
memorandum
concerning the reorganization of the monarchy in the spirit of dualism (rather than feudalism).
Sisi’s harsh demands on behalf of Hungary embittered the Emperor during these few shared days and cast a dark cloud over their relationship at the time. Franz Joseph to his wife after her renewed departure for Budapest: “Even though you were quite angry and importunate, I still love you so infinitely much that I cannot live without you.”
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And two days later, a little irritable: “I am very happy that you are now resting well and sleeping late, though I do not believe that your stay here and my company have tired you so much.”
50
The tensions escalated into a serious quarrel when Sisi adamantly continued to refuse to leave
Budapest
with the children. Instead, she suggested that the Emperor visit her in Budapest.
It is necessary to imagine Austria’s military and political situation and the countless cares weighing the Emperor down. No peace had yet been made with Italy; in fact, a resumption of the fighting had to be expected. Negotiations with Prussia were still up in the air. The Hungarian Legion fanned the flames of unrest in Hungary. The Bohemian lands needed immediate aid with food. Cholera and typhoid fever ravaged the downcast Austrian soldiers. In this desperate situation, the Empress of Austria not only refused to be with her husband; she even reproached him for not returning her visit. Elisabeth completely ignored her obligation as mother of the country and indulged herself in the role of neglected, sulking wife. Under the spell of the Hungarians, she worked with unparalleled
fanaticism
and energy toward one goal and one goal only: conciliation of the sort envisioned by Deák and Andrássy.
The Emperor, on the other hand, in spite of the Hungarian demands, was forced to consider the needs of the other provinces as well; in the current situation, these actually had a much greater claim to consideration than Hungary. For the Bohemian villages and countryside were devastated by battles, sickness, hunger, and misery, while Hungary was practically untouched by the war. Franz Joseph appealed in vain to Sisi’s
understanding
“that it would go counter to my duty for me to adopt your exclusively Hungarian point of view and to discriminate against those lands which, in unswerving loyalty, have endured unspeakable suffering and which now more than ever require special consideration and care.”
But Elisabeth gave no sign whatever of affection for her “lonely
manikin
” in Vienna. With the transparent excuse that the Viennese air was unhealthy, she continued to stay in Budapest. Franz Joseph, resigned: “so I simply have to console myself and once again bear my soul in patience and continue alone, as I have become used to being. In this respect, I have already learned to put up with a great deal, and finally one gets used to it. I shall not waste another word on this point, otherwise our
correspondence
will become too tedious, as you quite rightly note, and I shall calmly await your decision.”
51
Sisi’s selfishness did not stop there. In a time of extreme need and the most exigent thrift, she conceived the intense desire to buy a castle in Hungary. By the terms of the Truce of Nikolsburg, Austria had obligated herself to pay 20 million thalers as the precondition for withdrawal of the Prussian troops. For the Emperor, the most urgent matter was “to pay them, so as to get them out of the country they are ruining.”
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In every area, the small as well as the large, there would have to be economies in order to raise the huge sum. The spending reductions went hand in hand
with discharges. The populace, already decimated and famished by war, now also had to struggle against massive unemployment.
Instead of concerning herself with these hardships, the Empress saw nothing but her own comfort and her own need to establish herself more solidly in her beloved Hungary. The villa she rented at present was too small for longer stays in the country, the Budapest castle was too hot in summer; she wanted a castle in the countryside, and she knew exactly which one: Gödöllö.
In the midst of armistice negotiations with Italy, Franz Joseph wrote his wife:
If you like, you can go to Gödöllö to visit the wounded. But do not look at it as if we wanted to buy it, for I have no money now, and in these hard times, we must economize rigorously. Even the family holdings have been terribly devastated by the Prussians, and it will take years before they recover. I have reduced the court budget for next year to 5 million, so that we have to economize by 2 million. Almost half the stables have to be sold, and we have to live in very reduced circumstances.”
53
During these various excitements, the news suddenly arrived that
Empress
Carlotta of Mexico had descended on Paris in order to ask Napoleon III for help for her hard-pressed empire. Franz Joseph’s first reaction: “I only hope that she does not come here, for at the present moment, she is all we need.”
54
Serious worry about Maximilian did not seem called for. In his regular letters to Archduchess Sophie, he always pictured his
situation
in optimistic terms. The fact that in the meantime the insurgent natives had put the Emperor—who, though well-meaning, was a stranger to the country—on the defensive was not known in Vienna. All the problems in far-off Mexico had been pushed into the background by the unfortunate events in Austria. Furthermore, it took six to eight weeks for mail from Mexico to reach Vienna. No one could know precisely what was really happening, and it was therefore reassuring to believe that matters could not be so very bad.
When the Emperor’s birthday on August 18 approached, Sisi had no choice but to go to Vienna, a trip that occasioned Franz Joseph’s almost abject gratitude. “I thank you with all my heart for being so good and paying me another visit…. Be good to me when you get here, for I am so sad and lonely and in great need of some cheering up.”
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The children, however, remained in Budapest. Landgravine Fürstenberg, at that time still
lady-in-waiting to Archduchess Sophie: “They did not even bring the children to see him for the day from Pest! That does hurt ‘my lady’ [Archduchess Sophie].”
56
Elisabeth actually spent only one day in Vienna. August 19 was St. Stephen’s Day, the festival of Hungary’s patron saint, and on that day she was back in Hungary. Franz Joseph after her departure: “Oh! If only I could be united soon with my family and experience somewhat better times. I am very melancholy, and my courage ebbs ever more the closer we come to peace and I can see more clearly the internal difficulties that will have to be overcome. My sense of duty alone keeps me going, as well as the gentle hope that perhaps, after all, one day better times will emerge from the European entanglements that are now beginning.”
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In the meantime, cholera had begun to spread to Hungary. The epidemic had already claimed some deaths. Nevertheless, Sisi, usually so concerned with her health, remained in Budapest with her children. Franz Joseph wrote her: “I miss you terribly, for with you I can still talk, and then you cheer me up sometimes, though at the moment I find that you are a little troubling.”
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Finally, in late August, the Peace of Prague was concluded with Prussia. It was not until October, however, that the peace with Italy came about. In spite of Austrian victories, Venetia was lost. First ceded to France, the province, in a plebiscite, joined Italy. Prussia annexed Hanover, the
Electorate
of Hesse, Schleswig-Holstein, Nassau, and Frankfurt am Main; it established the North German Confederation (which also included Saxony, the former Austrian ally), and concluded an alliance with the South German states. After a thousand years of shared history, Austria left
Germany.
Not until the beginning of September—that is, after a stay of almost two months—did Elisabeth and her children leave Budapest for Vienna.
*
During all these crucial months, Ida Ferenczy did not leave the
Empress’s
side. In the autumn of 1866, another Hungarian was added to Elisabeth’s intimate circle; this was Max Falk, a journalist then living in Vienna. Employed by a savings bank, he also wrote articles for the
Budapest
newspaper
Pesti
Naplo
; he was a close friend of Andrássy—and known to the police. In 1860, the Vienna constabulary had instigated a house search, confiscated his entire correspondence, and carried it off in two flour sacks.
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Falk had spent some time in a Viennese prison for offenses against the press laws and had written widely read articles on the experience.
The astonishment of Countess Königsegg can be imagined when the
Empress ordered her to ask Max Falk of all people to give her Hungarian lessons. The Countess was anti-Hungarian in any case, and Falk was Jewish to boot. He, too, was taken aback at the request. “I replied that, thank God, I was long since past the time when I was forced to ‘give lessons.’ But Her Majesty’s wish, I added, was not only my command, but also a high honor.”
The daily meetings were no more than a pretext or a profitable side effect. The issue at hand was the matter of Hungary—in Andrássy’s sense. Obviously Max Falk would not teach Elisabeth, whose Hungarian was excellent, grammar. He suggested that he would recite the history of Hungary to her, “the more remote periods as briefly as possible, the more recent ones in greater detail”; furthermore, he would make her more familiar with Hungarian literature, and for “homework” he assigned
translations
into Hungarian.
Subsequently, Falk wrote that “the lessons in the narrower sense of the word receded further and further into the background…. We began occasionally to discuss current events, then very gradually moved on to politics, and with a few cautious forward steps, we arrived at Hungarian affairs.”
Falk established a connection with another liberal politician and writer, Josef Eötvös. In this matter, too, he proceeded with extreme caution, first reading the Empress some of Eötvös’s poems, then arousing the Empress’s curiosity about a banned poem. The Empress to Falk: “What do you mean, banned? So even an Eötvös is already banned? But do tell me what the poem says.” Falk: “I had been ready for this moment for a long time, and the manuscript of ‘Zaszlotarto’ [The Standard-Bearer] had been in my pocket for several days. I read the poem to Her Majesty, who liked it extraordinarily; she took the manuscript from me and kept it.” The poem dealt with the symbolism of the Hungarian flag as the sign of national freedom and independence.
Sisi also expressed a wish for the banned pamphlet by the Hungarian national hero Stefan Széchenyi,
A
Look
at
the
Anonymous
Backward
Look
, published in London in the late 1850s; the printed sheets had been smuggled into Hungary one by one. When Falk was reluctant to bring the pamphlet to the Hofburg, the Empress took from a drawer still another banned brochure, which had appeared in 1867 and caused a secret scandal,
The
Collapse
of
Austria.
The anonymous author, the son of an imperial official (as Elisabeth knew), addressed hate-filled tirades, bolstered with the most accurate facts about Austrian policies of recent years, blaming especially the
Kamarilla
around Count Grünne, as well as the young Emperor. He concluded
with the sentence, “The collapse of Austria is a European necessity!”
The significance of these daily conversations with Falk can hardly be overestimated. There are clear parallels to the subsequent meetings of young Crown Prince Rudolf with the journalist Moritz Szeps during the 1880s. Both—Elisabeth as well as Rudolf—were interested in politics but uninformed. The information that was officially kept from them they managed to obtain by private means. In both cases, the political informants—Falk and Szeps—seized the opportunity for massive political indoctrination.
