Archduke Otto Will Speak Here: Member of Hapsburg House To Lecture Friday

Archduke Otto Will Speak Here

Member Of Hapsburg House To Lecture Friday

Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan will entertain a crown prince next week. He is Archduke Otto of the House of Hapsburg, heir to the erstwhile throne of Austria-Hungary.

Archduke Otto is expected to arrive by motorcar next Wednesday, accompanied by his younger brother Archduke Rudolph, and their aid-de-camp, Count Degenfeld. Another brother, Felix, has appeared here in the past in the capacity of lecturer on European affairs, but this visit will be the first for Otto and Rudolph. Their mother, the former empress Zita, now is a war refugee in Quebec.

Spending several days in the city, as guest of the University, the crown prince will speak to a number of campus groups and will deliver a public lecture in the auditorium of the Rackham building at 4:15 Friday afternoon. At 8 o’clock Thursday evening he will lecture at the Michigan Union forum.

While in the city, Archduke Otto will be the house guest of former Regent and Mrs. Junius E. Beal on South Fifth Ave. Archduke Rudolph and Count Degenfeld will be entertained at the Barton Hills home of Prof, and Mrs. Harlow J. Heneman.

Hopes for Restoration

The pretender to the throne still hopes for a restoration of the House of Hapsburg. The annexation of Austria by the German Nazis in 1938 prevented the enthronement of Otto when an attempt at restoration appeared likely to succeed.

Otto is the oldest son of Charles, emperor of Austria and king of Hungary, who was forced to abdicate in 1918, at the close of the World war. Two attempts to regain the throne in 1921 were failures. Charles died of pneumonia while in exile on the island of Madeira. Later, the exiled family moved to Spain, remaining until the abdication of King Alfonso. When the present war broke out, the Hapsburgs were residing in Belgium, where Otto had attended the University of Louvain and obtained a doctor’s degree in political science. Flight was necessary when the Germans invaded Belgium in the spring of 1940, and Zita, with her sons, went to Bordeaux. The family came to America later in 1940 and sought sanctuary in Canada.

The lecture at the Rackham Building Friday afternoon will be free to the public. The subject will be “Central Europe and the War.’’