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Mayerling is a hunting lodge in Lower Austria, where on January 30, 1889 Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, only son of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Empress Elisabeth of Bavaria and heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, was found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera, apparently as a result of suicide.
Conspiracy theories
The tragic and mysterious death of Archduke Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria and Hungary, immediately caused a dynastic crisis. Rudolf and his mistress, Baroness Vetsera, were found dead at the hunting lodge, Mayerling (hence the name for the incident). The death of his only son devastated Francis Joseph I, since he had no other male heirs.
Much has been said, speculated and written about the deaths at Mayerling. Speculation has pointed to political intrigues, unspeakable love affairs, and international conspiracies. Yet the great mystery surrounding the death of Crown Prince Rudolf and Baroness Marie Vetsera still remains after more than a century. *
It was claimed by, among others, Empress Zita, widow of the last Emperor, Karl (r: 1916-1918), that the Crown Prince was killed either at the behest of Austrian security officials for his suspected pro-Hungarian sympathies or by French agents (he was close to Georges Clemenceau) because he refused to participate in the deposition of his pro-German father, Emperor Franz Josef. No evidence has been discovered to prove either of these theories, though an examination of the remains of Marie Vetsera (which had been stolen in the early 1990s and on rediscovery were checked to ensure they were the correct remains) contradicted the official reports that she had been shot; her skull showed no evidence of bullet wounds or shrapnel. Instead the evidence was that she had been beaten to death.
Half a century after the event, in 1946, the tomb of Marie Vetsera was desecrated by the occupying Soviet forces. Possibly looking for jewels, Soviet troops looted Marie Vetsera's remains. This profanity was not discovered until 1955 when the Red Army abandoned Austria. In 1959 specialists in funereal preservation, accompanied by a doctor and a member of the Vetsera family, examined the remains. They were all shocked to discover that the body of the young woman in the vault did not present any traces of death by firearm. What they did observe was a large trauma on the crown of the head. This fact supported the version which alleged that the mistress of the Austrian Crown Prince had not been killed by Rudolf, but had fallen foul to Rudolf's assassins. Yet in 1955, this macabre discovery was curiously ignored by all concerned.
Several historians believe that the key to unlock the events at Mayerling will most likely never be found. Many argue that the Austrian police's cover-up of the deaths of Rudolf and Marie Vetsera, his young and foolish lover, shrouded Mayerling in mystery. Furthermore, the tragic events at Mayerling continue to trouble many people who desperately want the mystery revealed. For example, just days before Christmas 1992 it was discovered that the mortal remains of Marie Vetsera had been mysteriously removed from the cemetery at Heiligenkreuz, where they had laid in deadly silence for more than a century. After initial consternation, the local police was able to track down the coffin and recover Vetsera's remains. To verify that the remains were those of young Marie, the police asked the Viennese Medical Institute to examine the remains and identify if indeed they were those of Mayerling victim. *
A resulting re-examination of files about the death of the Crown Prince revealed major discrepancies between the claimed manner of the deaths and the factual evidence, including that Rudolf had engaged in a violent struggle before his death, that the gun that caused his death was not his, and that six shots were fired from the gun. How someone who had reportedly died instantly from the first shot managed to fire the remaining five bullets remains a mystery.
Before the deaths, Rudolph and his father had argued over Rudolph's involvement with the Baroness. Also it must be kept in mind that Rudolph was married. Speculation falls into two main categories;
- The Baroness was killed after a struggle with Rudolph, during an argument of an unknown nature, and he then turned the gun on himself.
- The conspiracy to eliminate Rudolph due to political aspirations, and over his political sympathies.
While the official statement of how the deaths occurred and its central theory of a double suicide is now discredited, it remains unclear whether Rudolf in fact battered his mistress to death before killing himself. And if he did, how he managed to shoot six bullets when the first would have instantly caused his death. Also open to suggestion is that both were killed by a third party. No other source material is available to establish just what did happen. *
Empress Zita, who was the last surviving confidante of Emperor Franz Josef and may have been able to shed some light on the private opinions of the members of the Habsburg family and their advisors, died in 1989.
Like so many murder cases from history, the evidence is now mostly gone, all of those intimately involved in the events are now deceased, and the events are so clouded by so many different theories that it will likely never be discovered exactly what did happen, and why.
It is interesting to notice that in the German Wikipedia, there is no indication of an unsolved mystery: clearly, Rudolph shot his mistress and then killed himself. This clarity may be due to the research of eminent historian Brigitte Hamann who also was the scientific adviser for Robert Dornhelm's recent TV film "Crown Prince Rudolph".
Aftermath
Rudolf's death brought ruin to his parents' marriage, uncertainty over the imperial succession, and ultimately the end of the ancient house of Habsburg. If he had not met with an untimely demise, Europe's history would have been tremendously different. Mayerling not only meant the death of two love struck people, it also robbed the Habsburgs of the one person who seemed most capable of keeping the tattered multinational monarchy from its eventual disintegration and collapse.
Gallery
External links
In the media
The Mayerling affair has been dramatized in:
- the ballet Mayerling choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan
- the movie Mayerling (1936), directed by Anatole Litvak
- the movie De Mayerling à Sarajevo (1940), directed by Max Ophüls
- the movie Le Secret de Mayerling (1949), directed by Jean Delannoy
- Mayerling, a 1957 American television production (released theatrically in Europe) starring Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer.
- the movie Mayerling (1968), directed by Terence Young, starring Omar Sharif, Catherine Deneuve, James Mason, and Ava Gardner.
- the Japanese manga 'Ave Maria/Tenshi no Hitsugi' (2000), by HIGURI You.
Other references
In the novel Vampire Hunter D, volume 3: Demon Deathchase, the noble is named Mayerling. While the movie mistranslated the name into Meir Link.
Austria-Hungary | Buildings and structures in Austria | Conspiracy theories
Schloss Mayerling | Mayerling | Mayerling | Mayerling | Mayerling | Mayerlingdramat
"Mayerling"