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| Archduke Leopold Ferdinand | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Leopold Ferdinand in the 1890s | |||||
| Born | (1868-12-02)2 December 1868 Salzburg,Duchy of Salzburg,Austria-Hungary | ||||
| Died | 4 July 1935(1935-07-04) (aged 66) Berlin,Germany | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue | One illegitimate daughter | ||||
| |||||
| House | Habsburg-Lorraine | ||||
| Father | Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany | ||||
| Mother | Alice of Bourbon-Parma | ||||
Archduke Leopold Ferdinand of Austria (2 December 1868 – 4 July 1935) was the eldest son ofFerdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany, andAlice of Bourbon-Parma.
Leopold Ferdinand was the only member of the Austrian ruling family to train (at his own request) at theImperial and Royal Naval Academy, entering it in 1883 and graduating at the top of his class in 1887. He later wrote that theEmperor Franz Joseph had given his consent reluctantly, seeing the naval officer corps as "a disgustingly democratic institution... largely composed of sons of thehaute bourgeoisie", and believing that the academy's students would be unfit companions for a Habsburg prince.[1]
While he was close to his father, he would later write of his mother, "who had never really loved me," that "Apparently her habit was to bear a child and then to see very little of it the next few years."
Both he and his sisterLuisa (who would also become a scandalous figure in the royal family) were atheists. In her memoirs, Luisa describes being sexually assaulted by a priest, who'd been sent by her mother, before being rescued by Leopold. Leopold mentions the incident in his own memoirs, adding "Although my mother was unaware of his real nature, I had actual proof that he was one of those dark creatures, who use the cloak of Religion to cover their dark designs." Hearing Luisa scream, he then attacked the priest and threw him down the stairs.[2]
Between 1885 and 1889, he was secretly engaged to InfantaElvira of Spain (1871–1929), his cousin and daughter of his aunt Meg,Princess Margherita of Bourbon-Parma. Elvira's older sisterPrincess Blanca of Bourbon had married his cousinArchduke Leopold Salvator of Austria in 1889. However, due to unknown reasons,Franz Joseph I forbade their union. After that, Leopold had a relationship with a 19-year-old girl named Leopoldina, who worked in a sweetmeat shop. According to his memoirs, Leopoldina gave birth to his illegitimate daughter who received 30.000 crowns from Leopold's father.[2]
In 1892 and 1893, Leopold accompaniedArchduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on a sea voyage through theSuez Canal and on toIndia andAustralia. The relationship between the two archdukes was extremely bad and their permanent attempts to outdo and humiliate the other one led the EmperorFranz Joseph to order Leopold Ferdinand to return to Austria immediately. He left the ship inSydney and went back to Europe.[3] He was dismissed from theAustro-Hungarian Navy and entered an infantry regiment atBrno. Eventually he was appointed colonel of the 81st Regiment FZM Baron von Waldstätten.[4]
Leopold fell in love with aprostitute, Wilhelmine Adamovicz, whom he met for the first time inAugarten – a park in Vienna (some other sources claim their first meeting took place inOlomouc). His parents offered him 100,000florins on condition that he leave his mistress. He refused to do so and instead decided the renounce the crown in order to be able to marry her. By order ofFranz Joseph, he was placed in an insane asylum inBendorf run byFriedrich Albrecht Erlenmeyer for three months, accompanied only by hisaide-de-camp Arthur von Toeply.
On 29 December 1902 it was announced that EmperorFranz Joseph I of Austria had agreed to a request by Leopold to renounce his rank as an archduke.[5] On 3 April 1903 the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of the Imperial and Royal House and the Exterior notified him that the Emperor complied with Leopold's wish to renounce his title and to adopt instead the name Leopold Wölfling.[6] His name was removed from the roll of theOrder of the Golden Fleece and from the army list. He took the nameLeopold Wölfling after a peak in theOre Mountains. He had used this pseudonym already in the 1890s when he had travelled incognito throughGermany.[6] On the day of his departure from Austria he was notified that he was forbidden from returning to Austrian lands. He became a Swiss citizen. He was given a gift of 200,000 florins as well as a further 30,000 florins as income from his parents.
After leaving Austria he fulfilled his earlier imperially denied wish and studied natural sciences and especially botanics at theSwiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, theFrederick William University of Berlin and the University of Munich (LMU Munich).[7] In summer 1915 he applied as a volunteer for theImperial German Army, but was rejected on the grounds of his Swiss citizenship.[8]
AfterWorld War I Wölfling's allowance from his meanwhile expropriated family stopped. In 1921 he returned to Austria, desperately searching for a livelihood.[8] Fluent inGerman,English,French,Italian,Hungarian,Spanish, andPortuguese; he worked for some time as a foreign language correspondence clerk.[8] After more jobs he later opened a delicatessen store inVienna where he sold salami and olive oil.[9] He also tried his hand as a tourist guide in theHofburg Palace in Vienna and was very well received by his audiences. The interest his person awoke in the Austrian capital proved to be too much for the ex-archduke and he fled the city again.
A telegram invited him to come to Berlin, Germany, to comment on the premiere of the German silent filmDas Schicksal derer von Habsburg (English:The Fate of the House of Habsburg), unable to pay the fare the film company advanced him the money.[10] So on 16 November 1928 Wölfling provided a live commentary to the film in the Primus-Palast cinema on Potsdamer Straße inTiergarten, Berlin, afterwards touring with the film through – among others –Karlsruhe,Nuremberg,Düsseldorf,Trier,Cologne andMontreux.[10]
After that he lived inBerlin. Here he worked few menial jobs: He acted in a cabaret and wrote his memoirs. In late 1932 he wrote a series of articles on his life at the Hofburg, published in theBerliner Morgenpost. However, for his first article he chose a subject of highest topicality in then Germany. It appeared on 2 October under the headline "Es gibt keine Rassen-Reinheit. Mitteleuropa der große Schmelztiegel" (English: There is no racial purity. Central Europe the great melting pot), he confronted the spreading racism and the garbled ideas on racial purity.[10] With such daring theses in the Nazi poisoned public atmosphere before their takeover Wölfling had reduced his opportunities to publish under their reign.[11]
His third marriage inNiederschöneweide with the Berlin-born Klara Hedwig Pawlowski (1894–1978) was announced in theBerliner Morgenpost on 11 April 1933.[12] His wife tried to defray their livelihood also selling his silverware to a jeweller, who, seeing the monogram, however, informed the police for suspect of theft, only to figure out that Wölfling had consented.[11]
Wölfling died impoverished on 4 July 1935 in his third-floor flat in the rear wing of Belle-Alliance-Straße 53 (now renamed and renumberedMehringdamm 119) in Berlin.[11][13] His and his widow's graves are preserved in theProtestantFriedhof III der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde (Cemetery No. III of the congregations ofJerusalem's Church andNew Church) inBerlin-Kreuzberg, south ofHallesches Tor.[citation needed] His last book appeared posthumously.
Wölfling married three times:
