B008AITH44 EBOK (42 page)

Elisabeth also remained remarkably cool when Gisela gave birth to a second daughter. She wrote to her son (in Hungarian), “Gisela’s child is of a rare ugliness, but very lively, it looks exactly like Gisela.”
⁶⁵

The Emperor turned his first grandchild’s birth into an occasion to compliment his beautiful wife. Proudly he wrote to his son-in-law, Prince Leopold, “When I look at your mother-in-law, when I think of our fox hunts, it seems very strange to me to think that she can be a grandmother already.”
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*

A few weeks after Gisela’s wedding, the Imperial House was faced with a task of the first order requiring public appearances: the Vienna World
Exhibition. The preparations had taken years. The rotunda, built in the Prater, as the center of the exhibition, was to be an emblem of modern Vienna. (Countess Festetics: “A monstrously large building, man only an atom before it!”)

In view of the expected huge profits, speculation on the Vienna stock exchange took on hitherto unknown proportions. Even people in modest circumstances gambled their scraped-together savings. The rich (up to Archduke Ludwig Viktor, the Emperor’s brother) invested millions in the hope of multiplying them many times over. For a while, their hopes were fulfilled—in pure paper profits, as it turned out soon after the opening of the exhibition. Thousands of people lost their wealth in the notorious crash of 1873. A wave of suicides among the formerly wealthy and now dirt poor accompanied the pomp of the exhibition, which failed to meet the high expectations placed in it.

But Vienna went on celebrating. Marie Festetics was outraged by the “frightening extravagance”: “Almost no one appears in the same dress twice. I thought that it must be terribly rich people who were filling the boxes, foyers, and salons. One is literally blinded, so many diamonds—pearls—lace are put on show. And now gradually they are saying that with few exceptions, all of it is stock-exchange wealth, does not permanently belong to anyone—perhaps today, tomorrow no longer. Shame on the times. One grows fat on the losses of the other … lives on the profit that have turned the other into a beggar.”
⁶⁷

Visitors were expected from every corner of the globe. Everyone, even the Emperor, was extremely nervous. For it was very difficult to lodge the many high-ranking visitors (at the expense of the Imperial House) in a manner suited to their rank and to prevent quarrels about precedence.

One of the first arrivals was Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia—the same man who had been a leading general fighting the Austrians at Königgrätz. All the old feelings of hate for the enemy of 1866 had to be suppressed. The German Crown Prince and his Princess were to be received with special cordiality and with demonstrative brotherly love—along the lines of Andrássy’s new policies.

And even on the opening day of the exhibition, when the tension was at its height, everything went wrong in connection with the German Crown Prince and Princess. The carriages left the visitors’ quarters, the little castle of Hetzendorf, for the rotunda too soon, while the Emperor was still waiting with his entourage at the Hofburg. This meant that the Crown Prince and Princess could not, as was proper, be received at the Prater by the Emperor, their official host. Marie Festetics:

The Crown Prince’s party was delayed for a while, and everything ran its planned course after all. Once again, the court had received proof of the great influence the Empress had on Franz Joseph’s mood, had seen him yield as soon as she took a stand. No matter how given to outbursts of temper the Emperor might be—his wife succeeded in calming him down at her first attempt.

There were the inaugural speeches, the imperial anthem, a walk lasting for hours through the exhibition, with its many pavilions from every nation under the sun—all this in oppressive heat, with bad air and hordes of curious onlookers. Dinners, soirees, and large balls alternated with each other. Invitations and counterinvitations, courtesy calls had to be endured. After only a few days, Marie Festetics, concerned, wrote in her diary, “if the Empress will be able to endure it?—it is too much, it goes on too long. They expect too much of her.”
⁶⁹

Hardly had the German Crown Prince and Princess departed than King Leopold of the Belgians arrived. Marie Festetics: “very engaging, not likable and I believe very
médisant
[a great scandalmonger].” “With so many people around, one has hardly enough strength to reflect on everything,” she complained and had no chance to mention all the “lesser” royal personages: “it would be fair to say that all Germany has already been here.”

The Prince and Princess of Montenegro also came: “he is a handsome robber chief, she the Princess from Trieste…. Everything is simply wild,” the exhausted lady-in-waiting’s diary notes tersely.
⁷⁰

Then Czar Alexander II arrived—with the successor to his throne and
his wife, and with Grand Duke Vladimir, “seventy items of entourage,” as Marie Festetics wrote, and Foreign Minister Count Gorchakov. This visit had to be organized with “extreme police protection, to which we are not accustomed.”
⁷¹

Elisabeth—along with the Emperor and the archdukes—had to be at the railway station to receive the Czar’s family. She appeared in a purple silk dress, a white embroidered jacket bordered in Siberian silver fox, and a white hat, as all the Viennese newspapers reported the following day. She held punctiliously to protocol: a slight bow to the Czar, followed by a kiss on the hand of the Czarina; then an embrace and kiss for the Grand Duchess, a bow to the Grand Duke and acceptance of a kiss on her hand, then merely a “slight nod to the ladies of the entourage.” She had no need to concern herself with the rest of the Russians.

Stern Count Crenneville, of all people, was chosen to look after the Russians. He complained, “What an effort it is to remember the names and faces of all the Muscovites at all the presentations.”
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Elisabeth’s efforts were extremely moderate. After a dinner with the Russian visitors, Crenneville noted, “Sisi made bored faces and is stiff.” Once, when she was supposed to drive to a parade with the Russian Grand Duchess, Elisabeth kept the visitor waiting in vain. “To the general regret,” according to Crenneville, the Grand Duchess had to drive alone because Sisi “has to get her sleep.” The Emperor came in for praise once again: “The poor master is untiringly kind, may it bear fruit vis-à-vis the false Muscovites.”
⁷³

Then came the English successor to the throne, Edward, Prince of Wales, a favorite of the Viennese ladies but a scourge of protocol because he was never on time for any function. Nor did he otherwise submit to any constraints; Crenneville: “At the ball, it is said … because it was too warm, he broke a window with a chair.”
⁷⁴

The German Empress Augusta also arrived. Crenneville: “Ridiculous, florid, garrulous dolled-up creature, with the voice of a corpse.”
⁷⁵
As hostess, it fell to Elisabeth to make special efforts for the German
Empress.
Crenneville: “At her side, Sisi makes the impression of a bored
deaf-mute,
the Emperor on the other hand dutifully amiable and touchingly attentive.”
⁷⁶

Another visitor, Queen Isabella of Spain, was, according to Crenneville, “very decked out and yet ugly, taciturn. Prince of Asturia her son a bright little fellow.”
⁷⁷
The King and Queen of Württemberg also left an
impression.
“He is most insignificant,” wrote Marie Festetics. “She makes a most imposing appearance … the only one who is a queen except for the Empress!”
⁷⁸

Marie Festetics: “This is not life, but a fantasy!!! The World Exhibition is like a purgatory that devours everything. All other interests seem to have disappeared, and the craze for making merry as wildly as possible prevails over everything else, as if in truth all seriousness had disappeared. It is almost frightening.”
⁷⁹

In late July, Elisabeth retired to Payerbach near Reichenau, to the good mountain air far from the Viennese hubbub. She was criticized by the court officials, who saw how untiringly the Emperor and even the Crown Prince, not yet quite fifteen years old, fulfilled their public functions. This time, Elisabeth claimed that she was “unwell.” The dates of her monthly “indisposition” were widely known at court and did, of course, have to be taken into consideration when it came to social events. Elisabeth always made a considerable fuss about this debility, and in her letters (for example, to Ida Ferenczy, but also when she wrote to the Emperor) would discuss its course in detail. Without a moment’s hesitation, she would decline to participate in official events (for which special preparations had been made just with her in mind) because of her menstruation—and very openly and publicly. The ladies-in-waiting made fun of the Empress, for they were unused to such habits from the former Empress Maria Anna and from Archduchess Sophie. They saw the emphasis on Sisi’s “indisposition” for what it was—another pretext for escaping from the Hofburg for a few days.

Once in Payerbach, Elisabeth decided not to return to Vienna but to go on to Bad Ischl. She had had enough of foreign princes, of soirees and balls and fireworks. She wanted her peace and quiet, wanted to take her solitary walks and horseback rides.

She proposed that her husband take a long holiday as well, and she reproached him when he would not comply. “You already spoil all the people so much that you no longer even receive thanks for your
exaggerated
courtesy, on the contrary. Actually you agree with me, but you won’t admit it. It is always that way when you have been stupid….”
⁸⁰

Elisabeth’s absence caused great confusion in Vienna. After all, she was one of the main attractions of the Vienna World Exhibition. Every royal personage who visited the city naturally wished to see, not only the always diligent Emperor, but also the world-renowned Empress. With great regret, they were forced to accept the fact that Elisabeth was “unwell” and in need of pure air far from Vienna.

Only one sovereign could not be moved to accept these reasons: Nasr-ed-Din, the Shah of Persia. In late July, he arrived in Vienna with a most colorful entourage, a multitude of court dignitaries and relatives, as
well as two “ladies of pleasure,” as Crenneville wrote (using the phrase in English), forty wethers (gelded rams), many horses, five dogs, and four gazelles (intended as a gift to the Empress, who was known to love animals). Once again, it fell to Crenneville to look after the visitors. He referred to the Persians only as “the horde” and “the riffraff”: “One can have no idea what a crew this is, by comparison, the Turks are gentlemen.”
⁸¹

The Shah was quartered in Laxenburg, where once the Emperor and Sisi had spent their honeymoon and where Crown Prince Rudolf had been born. For weeks, the place had undergone renovations, all according to specifications supplied by the “Center of the Universe.” In the middle of the imperial apartments, a kitchen with an open hearth was installed, where the consecrated wethers, reserved for the Shah, could be roasted on the spit. An adjoining chamber served as a slaughtering block, where daily the butcher killed a lamb in the Shah’s presence. On the parquetry floors, hearths were installed for the narghiles (long water pipes that required smoldering coals). At the last minute, a chicken coop was built because the Shah was in the habit of personally slaughtering three fat hens each morning at sunrise.

The Shah hardly ever kept to his schedule, arriving late everywhere (generally by hours, while the Emperor and his entourage stood waiting). He would give as his reason that his astrologer had told him that the stars were not auspicious for the appointment and that it was better to wait for an hour or more.

The Shah was particularly zealous and crude in his flirtations with women, and the newspapers devoted endless columns to his choice of the moment. Thus, even at the first official tour through the exhibition, with the Emperor himself acting as guide, the Shah seized the opportunity when a rather dubious young woman, out of curiosity, pushed her way close to him.
Neues
Wiener
Tagblatt:
“He remained standing before the charmingly smiling Dulcinea, looked her over attentively through his eyeglasses … pinched her arm with an amused laugh, passed his fingers over her bosom, and then nodded while dampening his lips with his tongue, as always when something pleased him.” Immediately, the young woman was deferentially absorbed into the Persian entourage. Franz Joseph discreetly stared off in a different direction. Finally,
Neues
Wiener
Tagblatt
advised “certain good mothers” “to spare themselves the sending of letters and photographs of their daughters to the Shah’s supreme master of
ceremonies,
” for the “Center of the Universe” could not “bestow his favors on all the penniless daughters of negligent parents.”
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