Habsburgs are amusing

[winter]

Back from Vienna, alive. I had an immensely enjoyable weekend, including seeing Rebecca again (more on which, hopefully, later) and fyrie killing my feet with all the walking we did ;)

One of the highlights of the trip was the temporary exhibition on Crown Prince Rudolf that's currently on at the Hofmobiliendepot. He was a deeply disturbed individual. One quote: "I have a deep respect for death. I often seek out dying people, to witness their last breath. Each of them dies differently. I watch dying animals as well..."

But what slayed me was a pair of photos of Rudolf clinging - there is no other word - on the arm of Wilhelm II of Prussia. Who, before the unfortunate moustache, apparently was a dead ringer for Jesper Tyden. And of all the Rudolf photos in the exhibit, the one with his arm through Wilhelm's was the only one in which he looked comfortable. On top of Wilhelm's documented predilections, I really do not need this plotbunny.

Comments

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

According to all the sources I've read on the matter, Rudolf and Wilhelm II couldn't stand each other. At least they loathed each others' political views, and as far as I know didn't like each other personally either. Rudolf was good friends with Wilhelm's dad, Frederick III.

[winter]

Which really isn't helping my plotbunnies ~_~ A recent fic challenge has rekindled my love for hate-pairings.

(Mind you, freaking fantastic exhibition. As is the entire Hofmobiliendepot, of course.)

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

My mind is refusing to go as far as Rudolf/Wilhelm, but that doesn't mean I won't read it if you write it. :P

I wish I could see the exhibition. And Hofmobiliendepot is one of the many museums I haven't got around to seeing in Vienna yet.

[winter]

You really should :) It's like the Habsburg attic, entire sections of candlesticks, vases, random knicknacks. Plus it's apparently a favourite haunt of Elisabeth set designers, especially the Hungarian version - we were running around and pointing out the various props.

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

I put that on my mental list of things-to-visit-when-next-in-Vienna. That city has way too many museums and other things worth seeing. ;)

[winter]

That it does :) It was my third time, and only now I made it to the Museum of Military History, which is to barracks what the Notre Dame is to village churches, for example.

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Seriously, Rudolf looked more comfortable on Wilhelm's arm than he did when he was arm in arm with Stephanie ;)

(Also, Beth, according to our Viennese sources, Rudolf was definitely experimental ;))

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

Seriously, Rudolf looked more comfortable on Wilhelm's arm than he did when he was arm in arm with Stephanie ;)

Well, that doesn't take a lot. ;)

(Also, Beth, according to our Viennese sources, Rudolf was definitely experimental ;))

*raises eyebrows* Tell me more?

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

Austria-Hungary was probably very fortunate that Rudolf committed suicide. Can you imagine what he might have done as Emperor?

[winter]

Rudolf's pretty much proof that the Habsburgs did not take the right direction in trying to out-breed the jaw and the lip by crossing repeatedly with the admittedly handsome Wittelsbach line. Concentrated mental instability is not a good thing in an emperor.

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

I can't say things went so swimmingly for Austria without Rudolf. In fact, had he been able to stay healthy and sane, he might have done a lot of good for Austria, because he was a very intelligent and progressive political thinker. Alas, with his heritage combined with his cruel childhood education and emotional estrangement from his parents plus weak health plus STD plus too little meaningful occupation in his adulthood, it isn't a wonder he went the way he did. Poor guy.

[winter]

Again coming back to the exhibition, there was a handful of his drawings (both childhood and adult) and I was struck by the easy, dry wit in some of them. If he'd got therapy instead of Gondrecourt and then channelling his morbid inclinations into hunting and morphine, he might have accomplished things. I think that the root of his problem (just like Sisi's, and to some extent Franz Joseph's) was that he wasn't cut out for power. He would have been a very happy deranged scientist-journalist type.

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

I think that the root of his problem (just like Sisi's, and to some extent Franz Joseph's) was that he wasn't cut out for power. He would have been a very happy deranged scientist-journalist type.

*nodsnods* Very much my conclusion, too. I need to get around to reading his writings, but I'm told that he was a very skilled writer and probably would have made an excellent journalist, and on the other hand he loved sciences and was very intelligent as such. With a more normal family and childhood, and with fewer pressures on him, he might have turned out a decent, accomplished person who just has some weird quirks but nothing so terribly disturbing.

FJ would have made an excellent ordinary civil servant, and I'm not sure what Sisi should have been but definitely not an Empress. If she'd become some more normal nobleman's wife, she could have gone on with her riding and poetry and done charity work (which she did seem to care about in her early years) but not have had those Empress-pressures on her, and would have gone a lot less crazy.

[winter]

*eyedart* I do have an unfinished story in which Sisi gets the flu, Nene marries Franz, and Sisi ends up as a traveller/writer type tramping all over Africa...

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

She would have fun with that. :D

[tokugawa.livejournal.com]

"I have a deep respect for death. I often seek out dying people, to witness their last breath. Each of them dies differently. I watch dying animals as well..."

Ohh now I see why he befriended Death and their friendship hasn't ended from there, ;)!

[winter]

The image I had in mind was more of him as the lovestruck puppy trying to find any way at all to see Death ;)