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Karl von Habsburg: Head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine

The Habsburgs have not reigned since 1918, but the family still has a recognised head. Today that is Karl von Habsburg, grandson of the last Emperor of Austria. This page sets out who he is, how he took on the role, what the role involves, and who is expected to follow him. For the dynasty's history, see our House of Habsburg page.

Who Is Karl von Habsburg?

Karl von Habsburg was born on 11 January 1961 in Starnberg, Bavaria [1]. His father was Otto von Habsburg, son of Charles I, the last reigning Emperor of Austria. His mother was Regina, Princess of Saxe-Meiningen [1][2]. Otto and Regina had seven children: five daughters, Andrea, Monika, Michaela, Gabriela and Walburga, born between 1953 and 1958, then Karl, then a younger son, Georg, born in 1964 [2].

As an Austrian citizen, his legal name is Karl Habsburg-Lothringen [1]. He does not use his ancestral titles: Austrian law does not permit even their unofficial use [1][4]. The 1919 Habsburg Law abolished the house's sovereign rights and privileges "for all time" [4].

How He Became Head of the House

According to his house website, Otto von Habsburg handed his son the role of Sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece on 30 November, and in 2004 also transferred to him the function of head of the house [3].

Date note: Wikipedia gives 1 January 2007 as the start of Karl's headship [1], while his house website gives 2004 [3]. GOTHA reports both dates and does not choose between them.

Otto von Habsburg died on 4 July 2011, and Regina on 3 February 2010 [2]. In 1961, as a legal condition of being allowed back into Austria, Otto had renounced all claims to the defunct Austrian throne [1].

What the Role Involves

Like other former and reigning royal families, the Habsburgs have their own house law (Hausgesetz). The court or house website plays this down: "That sounds very spectacular, but it is not" [3]. One example it gives is that under the house law Habsburgs came of age at 18, at a time when the state set a higher age of majority [3]. The members covered by the house law now number more than 600 people, living on every continent [3].

The head of the house also holds dynastic and charitable offices. His website lists him as Sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece and Grand Master of the Order of Saint George, among other roles [5]. He became Grand Master of the Order of Saint George in 2008 [1].

Career

Karl studied law at the University of Salzburg from 1982 and spent the 1984–85 academic year at Michigan State University [2]. He was elected to the European Parliament in 1996, Austria's first European election, and served three years [2]. He was president of the Pan-European Movement Austria from 1986, and was a member of the international presidium of the Pan-European Union from 1994 to 2019, which his father Otto had led from 1973 to 2004 [2]. From 2008 he was president of Blue Shield International, an organisation that protects cultural heritage [2]. He works as a media entrepreneur in the Netherlands, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Austria [2].

Family, Heir and Succession

In 1993, at Mariazell, Karl married Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza (born 1958 in Lausanne). They have three children [2]:

The couple later divorced [2]. In 2022 Karl married Christian Reid, from Portugal, in a small family ceremony [2]. Eleonore married the Belgian racing driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio in 2020. Karl's first grandson, Otto, was born in 2021, and his first granddaughter, Zita, in 2024 [2].

Ferdinand Zvonimir, Karl's only son, is listed as heir apparent to the headship [1]. GOTHA has not found a published copy of the house law setting out the full order of succession, so we do not list one.

Key Facts

Licence: contains material adapted from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). This article is released under the same licence. Primary and institutional sources are summarised or briefly quoted.