Otto von Habsburg

Otto von Habsburg (20 November 1912 – 4 July 2011) was the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary from 1916 until its dissolution in November 1918. In 1922, he became the pretender to the former thrones, head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and sovereign of the (Austrian) Order of the Golden Fleece, upon the death of his father. He resigned as Sovereign of the Golden Fleece in 2000 and as head of the Imperial House in 2007.

The eldest son of Charles I and IV, the last emperor of Austria and king of Hungary, and his wife, Zita of Bourbon-Parma, Otto was born as Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xaver Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius von Habsburg, third in line to the thrones, as Archduke Otto of Austria, Royal Prince of Hungary, Bohemia, and Croatia. With his father's accession in 1916, he was likely to become emperor and king. As his father never abdicated, Otto was considered by himself, his family and Austro-Hungarian legitimists to be the rightful emperor-king from his father's death in 1922.

Otto was exiled in 1919 and grew up mostly in Spain. His devout Catholic mother raised him according to the old curriculum of Austria-Hungary, preparing him to become a Catholic monarch. During his life in exile, he lived in Austria, Belgium, France, Madeira (Portugal), Spain, Switzerland, the US, and from 1954 until his death, in Bavaria (Germany), in the residence Villa Austria. He had been stateless de jure and de facto, and possessed passports of the Order of Malta and Spain.

Otto was active on the European political stage from the 1930s, by promoting the cause of Habsburg restoration and as an early proponent of European integration. He was a fierce opponent of Nazism, nationalism, and communism. He has been described as one of the leaders of the Austrian resistance. After the 1938 Anschluss, he was sentenced to death by the Nazis and fled Europe to the US.