Karl Habsburg His Grandmother' s Secret

Vienna, November 1st, 1918, two o'clock in the morning. A man enters the treasury of the Vienna Hofburg, alone. He opens display case 13, packs 53 objects into two bags, some in cases, some wrapped only in newspaper, boards a train, and disappears into the night. What lay in those bags had survived centuries, wars, revolutions, the fall of entire dynasties, Sisi's diamond crown, the Florentine, the emerald clock of Marie Antoinette, all of it together in two handbags, smuggled out of Vienna in a single night. What happened next is a story of betrayal, flight, and a secret nobody knew for 100 years, and a crown nobody has found to this day. November, 1918, the Republic is proclaimed. Emperor Karl I understands. It's over. He gives one last order, not to his generals, not to his ministers, to his Lord Chamberlain, Count Leopold Berchtold, save the jewels. Berchtold is no ordinary courtier. He was foreign minister, the man who pressured Franz Joseph into declaring war on Serbia in 1914. Now, four years later, he stands in the treasury, wrapping newspaper around Sisi's crown. What he is packing is not just any jewelry. The Florentine, 137 carats, yellow, roughly the size of a walnut, once owned by the Medici in Florence, then passed to the Habsburgs through marriage. Franz Stephan of Lorraine, the husband of Maria Theresia, had it set into his imperial crown. Maria Theresia herself gave it its name, the Emerald Clock, a gift from Maria Theresia to her daughter Marie Antoinette, the woman who later died beneath the guillotine. The object outlived her by centuries. Sisi's diamond crown, gold, silver, diamonds, pearls, eight tines in the shape of lilies. A contemporary wrote, the diamond crown pressed down upon her head. Sisi hated it, and fifty more pieces besides. The documents list fourteen objects from Zita's private property, and thirty-nine from the Habsburg Lorraine. Family treasure, orders, crowns, pearls, diamonds, fifty-three pieces, two bags, one train. Into Switzerland that same night. Display case 13, empty. The state treasury remained. The family jewels were gone. Berchtold crosses the border, Zurich, Swiss National Bank. The bags arrive, safe, for now. The family lives in Switzerland, first Schloss Warteg on Lake Constance, then Villa Prangens on Lake Geneva. No income, no pension. The western powers had promised to pay the exiled emperor 20,000 British pounds a year. The promise was never kept. The jewels are the only thing they have. 1,921. Bern. The back room of a jeweler's shop on Schauplatz Gasse, within sight of the Federal Palace. Bruno Steiner de Valmont appears, former financial advisor to the assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. A man with connections, with discretion, now acting on Karl's behalf, turn the jewels into money. Karl approves sales, discreet, controlled. Certain pieces may go, others may not. The Florentine, absolutely not. It is stored separately, out of Steiner's reach. Steiner makes contact with a burn gem dealer, Alphonse de Sondheimer. Not a first-rank name in the trade, but discreet enough. The arrangement, Sondheimer buys only the stones themselves, so they are broken from their settings. Diadems, necklaces, crowns, taken apart stone by stone. Steiner collects a 10% commission on top, which Karl is never supposed to know about, and he keeps the precious metal from the settings for himself. Then, October 1921, Karl sets out with his family for his second restoration attempt in Hungary. He believes if he returns as king, he can reclaim the pledged pieces. He fails. The Allies banish him, as far away as possible. A British cruiser, Madeira, the family is gone. The safe deposit box in Bern, unattended. Steiner appears again, with an accomplice, the Parisian diamond dealer, Jacques Bienenfeld. Steiner claims he is authorized to redeem the remaining valuables. Sondheimer believes him. The sum is paid out. Steiner disappears in the direction of Wiesbaden. Late January 1922, Sita travels from Madeira to Switzerland, pregnant to collect the children. The safe deposit box, empty. What was in it remains only partially known to this day. Sisi's diamond crown, the rose necklace of Maria Theresia, gone. Sita maintained until her death. It was theft. The Bern jeweler saw it differently. The truth lies somewhere in between. In 1923, Steiner is arrested for embezzlement. Sita sues him in 1926. What he stole never comes back. Three months after Sita's return, April 1922, Karl dies on Madeira, 34 years old, of pneumonia, surrounded by his family, in a villa provided to them free of charge by a banking family, because they could no longer afford hotel rooms. Sita is 30, pregnant with her eighth child, no money, no country, and a secret she carries alone. She still has the Florentine, stored separately, untouched. 1940, the Nazis are pursuing the family. Otto, Sita's eldest son, is declared an enemy of the state. The Gestapo bombs their house in Belgium. Sita flees through Spain, Portugal, across the Atlantic. She takes a small brown leather suitcase with her. Inside, the Florentine, the emerald clock of Marie Antoinette, the brooch in Hungarian colors, Sisi's personal property. What Steiner could not reach, Quebec, a safe deposit box. She leaves an instruction. Only two sons are told, Robert, Rudolf. Silence for 100 years. Karl died in 1922, 100 years later, 2022. The silence would be over. Sita herself dies in 1989, aged 96. She takes the secret to her grave. The two sons keep their promise. Shortly before their own deaths, they pass it on to their sons, and the rest of the family knows nothing. For decades, Karl Habsburg, the grandson, son of Otto, today head of the family, is asked about the Florentine. Historians, journalists, the curious. He answers every time, honestly, I don't know, because it is the truth. Then, in 2024, the phone rings. Two cousins get in touch, Lorenz and Asimian of Habsburg-Lorraine, the sons of Robert and Rudolf. The promise has been fulfilled. The 100 years are over. They tell Karl what Sita had told their fathers. Karl Habsburg travels to Quebec, with his cousins, and with the Viennese jeweler Christoph Kirchert, whose family has worked for the Habsburgs. Since 1814, the safe deposit box is opened. Kirchert sees the Florentine. He says, it was a sublime moment, one you experience only once in a lifetime. The cut pattern matches historical records exactly. No doubt, Karl Habsburg makes a decision. The treasure stays in Canada, not in Austria, the country that expropriated the family, but in the country that gave Sita refuge. As a gesture of thanks, Austria files a claim. Vice-Chancellor Babler announces a review. The Republic's argument, the Habsburg Law of 1919, declares all family property state property, including what was taken abroad. The family's argument, the jewels were already in Switzerland when the law came into force. They were never on Austrian soil. They are private property, not state assets. A British historian consulted by the family confirms, purely private property. But the question is more complicated than that. The treasure was removed from the Vienna Habsburg on the night of November 1st, 1918, on the Emperor's orders before the Republic was proclaimed. Was that a lawful removal of family property, or the final act of a man who knew he was losing? The lawyers argue, the politicians review, the Florentine lies in Quebec, and waits. But Sisi's crown? Besides the diamond crown, numerous other pieces are still missing, including the rose necklace of Maria Theresia, possibly cut apart by Steiner and sold piece by piece, possibly hidden somewhere in another city, in another safe deposit box, in another suitcase. Nobody knows. Karl Habsburg says the search goes on. On the night of November 1st, 1918, a man packed 53 objects into two bags. Some came back, others disappeared forever, and some the family is still searching for today.