I’m sure the singing of the Kaiserhymne is illegal in the Republic of Austria. You are not even allowed to use the ‘von’. Austrian TV doggedly referred to the Archduke as ‘Otto Habsburg’. The BBC rather absurdly referred to ‘Mr Habsburg’. Apparently, deposed Crown Princes aren’t even allowed Doctorates. Vienna is a city which feels hopelessly empty without its sovereign. It would be slightly odd for so small a country as Austria to be an Empire but there seems no reason why it shouldn’t be an Archduchy. If one is not going to have an executive presidency I can’t see any advantage in being a republic. In the case of Austria the republic seems to embody a kind of Damnatio memoriae. One wonders sometimes if many Austrians resent the universalism of the Habsburgs which separated them them from the Prussian Reich and then resented the opposition of Otto to National Socialism so embarrassingly different to their own behaviour. Adenauer said immediately after his liberation that there was a struggle between two Germanies: the Germany of Austria and Roman Civilisation and the Germany of Prussia, militarism and the will-to-power. That struggle goes on inside Austria herself.
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Words underneath so you can join in….
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Gott erhalte, Gott beschützeUnsern Kaiser, unser Land!Mächtig durch des Glaubens Stütze,Führt er uns mit weiser Hand!Laßt uns seiner Väter KroneSchirmen wider jeden Feind!|: Innig bleibt mit Habsburgs ThroneÖsterreichs Geschick vereint! 😐
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Wonderful post by Sancrucensis on the life of Archduke Otto.
Laodicea 
July 18, 2011 at 8:39 pm
As could be predicted, various people in my parish have taken an enormous interest in the funeral.
July 18, 2011 at 9:16 pm
This funeral was like a monument to what the twentieth century could have been like instead of what it turned out to be. It was too melancholy for words!
July 20, 2011 at 4:30 pm
It makes me weep.