OTTO VON HAPSBURG

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005642370
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: June 24, 2015
• Document Release Date: March 21, 2011
• Case Number: F-2011-00131
• Publication Date: December 23, 1943

KOH :D A M
12/23/43
Date:
Tot Mr. Edward J. Bnnie
Director, Allen. Safty Control Unit
Fromm J. Edgar Hoover - Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
:3ub ject t 0170 V011 FiAPSBURG
Further reference is made to your memorandum under the
above caption dated December 6, 1943,
For your additional information with respect to the
activities of Otto von Hapsburg, I am attachinn,~ hereto a photostatic
.-oopt of a confidential memornndua dated December 2, 1946, recently
received at this Bureau from the Foreign "at.pnalities ~iranch of
thol!,Office of :;trategie 3ervie v='
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7m osure Y
t-i r II 1" : ti ,
APPROVED FOR
RELEASEL DATE:
11-Mar-2011
 ?SS
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'FOREIGN NATIONALITY GROUPS IN THE UNITED STATES
;MEMORANDUM TO THE DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC SERVICES
FROM THE FOREIGN NATIONALITIES BRANCH
Number B-120 AP) 2 December 1943
Q1f'4 to ~'~d+ sp bur
ARCHDU K TTO OF HABSBURG I N CHICAGO
AND C ECI/OS-LOVAI( OPPOSITION
E dynasty as an i nst i tut i.on.
"- A
RECOR DI ; f I c.~
DEC ~3p 291943
14 31 -'V 11K
it ~U\ it - -
Speaking at Chico for the second. time in recent weeks,
Otto of Habsbur encountered Czechoslovak demonstrations
against h'imseif and his House. In his address to a
largely Catholic audience, Otto praised the Moscow Con-
ference and again emphasized his belief In the impor-
tance religion would have In Europe after the war.
AS NOTED in FN Number B-111 of 17 November, Archduke Otto of Habsburg
has been lecturing in the Middle West during recent weeks. On Sun-
day afternoon, 21 November. he made a second appearance in Chicago
(having been there previously 9 November) and spoke at the Morrison
Hotel under the auspices of the Charley roll Forum, a Catholic
organization. At the end of the meeting three men attempted to dis-
tribute an anti-Habsburg leaflet emanating from the Czechoslovak
National Council of America. Czechoslovak spokesmen have joined the
Chicago Stun in attacking Otto for his Chicago appearances.
Talking' privately with a prominent newspaperman in Chicago
after his lecture 21 November Otto denied that in his previous speech
in that city he had specifically applauded King Victor Emmanuel of
Italy, though he was widely reported in the press as having done so.
Otto said that he had limited himself to expressing his bellefljin the
 2 D CEt,BER 2943
NUMBER B-120
With regard to his attack on Count Sforza in the earlier speech,
Otto told the newspaperman that he had spoken as he had only after read-
ing'in the press a speech made by Sforza in Italy. in the course of
this speech Sforza had adopted what Otto described as the demagogic
course of claiming that Italy must continue to possess the Austrian
Tyrol, Otto felt he had to rejoin.
Attendance at the Charles Carroll lecture was reported at 2,000 or
more,, `about 98 per cent Catholic." -A number of priests and nuns were
present. The audience was enthusiastic.
Speaking on "Europe in Revolt" Otto predicted a resurgence in re-
1igious fervor among the peoples of Europe. He praised the wartime
record of Europe?s various churches and of the Pope in particular. The
stands taken, Otto maintained, had in many cases raised the prestige of
the churches to a new all--time high. He predicted the restoration of
labor unions on a par with religious bodies,
Announcing approval of the Mosc aN Conference, Otto lauded the
agreement on unconditional surrender. He opined that the Conference had
solved one of the greatest worries, namely the fear that Russia would
make a separate peace with Germany and allow Germany?s army with, its
Prussian militarism to remain in power. The fear (he recalled) had some
valid foundations because of Stalin?s recent dealings with those German
militarists whom Stalin had fouhd among his prisoners of war and had
brought together in his Free Germany Committee,
Otto asserted a belief that the Reich?s unconditional surrender was
the only way "to insure a-lasting peace after this war." He warned his
audience that Germany's rulers; aware of their ultimate defeat, were
OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES
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 NIINBER 13 2O
07already preparing a tremendous peace offensive to get around uncondi-
tional surrender, in order to keep German might intact in defeat."
Berlin?s offers of peace might be tempting to many people,
Asked during the discussion period after his talk whether he felt
that borders in Europe ought to revert to their pre-war status, the
Archduke replied (at the risk, it might be noted, of appearing anti>
Polish) in the negative. He held that border disputes were among the
main reasons fo-r the present war; many of the pre-war boundary lines
were ?': imply stupid," -
A member of the audience has reported;
I spoke to the Archduke after the lecture about civil
liberties and rights of minorities in a post-war Austria if
he were to rule that country. His answer dealt mainly with
the proof of the Habsburg rule in the past: the freedom of
minorities and the other liberties under the old Empi rep He
also remarked that many in Europe today would be only too
glad to exchange their lot with that of the people in the
earlier Austria'. He declared that under his rule all
minorities would naturally be protected, and that freedom
of the press and other civil liberties would exist. D asked
him specifically about the danger of clerical ism in such a
government. He said that of course he was not discussing
such matters at this time. it would only produce dissension.
But he was most cordial as he said this to me.
At the close of Otto?s lecture. three men attempted to distribute
a leaflet published by the) choslovak National Council of America under
the title No More Habsburgs.?" There was a minor distur aircz-as-a--re-.
presentative of Otto?s sponsors -- the Charles Carroll Forum -p- ordered
the distributors. to desist and urged the departing audience not to
FOREIGN NATIONALITIES BRANCH
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HUMBER B-t2b
accept the leaflets. Thereupon one of the three men distributing the
leaflets made this statement to a newspaperwoman from the Chicago Sun
who was present at the lecture.- We have nothing against Archduke Otto
personally or the talk he gave today. We are just against the re-estab-
lishment of the Habsburg throne." The Sun printed this statement the
next morning.
The Chicago Sun,has lately taken pointed notice of Otto by attacking
his talks in Chicago and his general activities in this country, On
15 November the Sun ran an editorial coupling Otto`s name with that of
ex-King Carol of Rumania,, and declaring, "Their missions are the same:
Seizure of power over their hapless homes with the help of any backing
they can pick up from reactionary or confused Americans," A few days
later the Sun published several readers' letters in praise of this
editorial. One.of the letters was from the Reverend Ivan Ladizinsky in
the name of the United American Slavs of-Gary, Indiana; another, from the
commander and the adjutant of the Masaryk Post of Czechoslovak Legion-
naires in Chicago. Yet another letter was over the signature of Joseph
Martinek,, executive secretary of the Czechoslovak National Council of
America,
Criticizing Otto for his recent remarks in Chicago, Martinek wrote:
Otto certainly showed his hand in these remarks, While
his other relative, Albrecht, plays ball with the Fascist
crowd in Hungary, his imperial highness Otto pretends to be a
good democrat _a at least while he stays in America. Yet his
democratic conviction is of a very recent date. During the
time of the civil war in his own Austria he sided definitely
with the native Austrian Fascists, supported by Mussolini,
in Czechoslovakia he opposed Benes, the democrat. in Spain
he supports Franco, the Fascist. In Italy he is for King
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Emanuel and against 11ber-a6s. To some obsevvers he may seem
to be moonsintent Ia his democratic fepthp out real iy, there
is no inconsistency in his attitude, because the main and the
bniy goal of his $mpsrial Democratic Party is to put Otto on
the th?or':e,. help him to.sade and petrify the last remnants of
feedalism in Central Europe and mice him a true and trVed ally
of oil Franvos and Victor Emmanuels in Europe. There is only
one drawback in this magnificent plan. The peoples of Cen-
tral Europe do not want Habsburgs,
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