Warning about Putin from the late Otto von Habsburg, son of the last Emperor

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The Emperor's son warned against Vladimir Putin - out of a deep understanding of historical context.

Karl, Franz Josef 

Georg, Otto

When Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, his greatest (Western) critic, Otto von Habsburg, had already been buried in Vienna's Capuchin crypt for ten years.  In fact, as countless hastily dug out newspaper interviews and video recordings now show, the Emperor's son scarcely missed an opportunity to warn the world of revisionist "national-Bolshevism" and the danger of renewed Russian "colonial wars" in Europe.  "We have a big problem with our powerful neighbour Russia," said Otto von Habsburg back in 2003 during a lecture in Bregenz.  To the astonishment of the audience, he did not hesitate to compare Putin to Hitler.

According to the then 91-year-old, the Russian Federation was on the way to totalitarianism, like the German Reich in the 1930s, that is, to a dictatorship with conformity and persecution: "We have to remember that we don't live in a peaceful world today, but one where there are dangers, and where, as the evidence of the Nineteenth Century has shown us, correct and timely preparation can readily save peace, but if one goes on dreaming, one will experience the same thing that was experienced in my time." It is these words that seem highly topical today, almost 20 years later.  But how could the ex-EU parliamentarian, who died in 2011, foresee that?  And how could the peace, in his eyes, be saved?

From the value of the Realm

Well, in order to be able to understand these prophetic forebodings, it is worth taking a look at the political intellectual world of Otto von Habsburgs.  Basically, one has to acknowledge that the books, writings and speeches of the former Crown Prince are mostly characterized by a very critical attitude towards Russia.

The feeling of superiority over the Eastern peoples, which is stereotypical for many Western politicians, played no role, nor did Soviet communism explicitly.  Rather, it was Otto von Habsburg’s deep understanding of historical contexts that made him warn of the "red danger" - even in the years after reunification, when people in Europe felt safer than ever on the eve of the eastward expansion of the EU and NATO.

When Otto von Habsburg referred to the "evidence of the 19th century" and the salvation of the peace, he usually referred to the political concept of the so-called "Idea of the Realm".  What is meant by this is a supranational rule that stands above all nations and ethnic groups, as it existed for a millennium in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and was continued with the founding of the German Confederation on 8 June 1815.  This federation was supported by Austria and Prussia and 37 other states, including the Netherlands and Denmark.  The princes agreed at the time that the resolution of the "Constitution of the German Confederation" would not only ensure the "security and independence of Germany", but also restore the balance of Europe.

For Otto von Habsburg, the old Empire, as it had existed until its self-dissolution in 1806 (and continued to have an effect in the German Confederation until 1866), was a Christian-style constitutional state that ensured balance and security in Europe for centuries.  The idea of ​​the realm also serves the goal, wrote Otto von Habsburg, "of creating larger areas and unifying sub-areas, but not through submission and domination, but with the help of a broad legal system that lies above the communities, the implementation and fair administration of which is the responsibility of the Realm".

The idea of ​​the empire does not seek supremacy, but harmony, and it also represents the principle of equality among peoples, postulated the former Crown Prince.  "A constitutional state recognizes itself by respecting the interests of the most insignificant and unpopular minorities.  There is no art in serving the majority."

And this is where Russia comes in.  In Otto von Habsburg's mind, the Russian state was anything but an "empire".  He compared the empires of the Tsars and Soviets as well as the "Russian Federation" of Yeltsin and Putin to a political conception that he called "universal monarchy".  This did not mean the "Monarchia Universalis" of Charles V, but rather a community based on arbitrariness and the striving for power, which has the vocation "to dominate the surrounding structures of the same kind".  Whether in Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic States, the Caucasus or the countries of Siberia and Central Asia - they were all more or less violently united at the time and incorporated into the universal monarchy.

Otto von Habsburg stood here in the tradition of the French thinker and author Alexis de Tocqueville, who characterized the Russian people as early as 1838 with the words: "The American fights against the obstacles that nature offers him; the Russian is in a fight with the people.  That wrestles with desert and barbarism; this with civilization fully armed: therefore the American conquers with the plough, the Russian with the soldier's sword."

Otto von Habsburg saw one reason why the United States, unlike Russia, never became a universal monarchy in certain "ideas of the realm" in US policy, even if it was not free from imperialist tendencies: "Significantly, the imperialist elements in their policies led to the greatest setbacks in the USA, whereas those from the realm of the United States were points of light and guarantors of America's rise."

1866 was followed by 1945

Otto von Habsburg considered the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to be the point of light for the idea of the realm in the recent history of Europe because, in contrast to Versailles in 1919 and Yalta in 1945, it guaranteed genuine peace.  Not only was the German Confederation brought into being here, but defeated France was included as an equal partner and made jointly responsible for  working for peace from the outset.  Otto von Habsburg emphasized that the co-operation between Metternich and Talleyrand resulted in the idea of ​​a "European Europe" being applied here for the first time - and without Russia and England, both of which "probably had a share in Europe but did not see themselves entirely as European".

This observation by Otto von Habsburg, written down in an essay in 1971, is highly topical.  If you follow this interpretation, the leaders of Europe already knew 200 years ago that, as Brexit and the Ukraine war show, you can't make a "realm" with the British and Russians.  The fact that the European balance created in 1815 faltered and this resulted in two world wars was not due to England or Russia, but to Prussia.

When the North Germans, blinded by the prevailing nationalism, prepared to create their own German Reich, this led to a conflict with Austria in 1866 and subsequently to the destruction of the German Confederation - and with it the idea of the European realm.

According to Otto von Habsburg, the results of the Battle of Königgrätz were two "malfunctions": While Prussia was absorbed into the German Empire in 1871 and mutated into a brutal universal monarchy itself - at the latest with the rise of Hitler - Austria sought salvation in the Austro-Hungarian dualism, which still contained a remnant of the embodied the idea of ​​the realm, but ultimately proved unable to survive.

And thus after 1918 came about what the Czech politician and historian, František Palacký had warned about in 1848: namely, that with the dissolution of the German Confederation, the peoples of the Danube region - robbed of their rich support in Europe - would become victims of the Russian universal monarchy .

"Palacký understood," Otto von Habsburg noted, "that Austria represents the state of many small peoples, each of which is too weak to protect themselves against the big ones, but together strong enough to preserve their freedom.  For him, therefore, Austria alone was capable of providing security for its compatriots, as well as for the whole of Europe, against Russian imperialism."

Palacky was to be proved right. Less than 30 years after the collapse of 1918, Eastern Europe was occupied by Soviet troops and Communist Party regimes loyal to Moscow ruled in the capitals.

For Otto von Habsburg, this development was inevitable. With the destruction of the Imperial idea and because no imperial peace was possible with Stalin's universal monarchy, Europe was divided in Yalta in 1945. If the Emperor's son had his way, only a united, realm of Europe could offer liberation to the subjugated countries in the east and - together with a rich America - the continent security. The grace of a long life allowed him to live to see the achievement of that goal, the eastern enlargement of the EU in 2004.

No appeasement

Thus, Otto von Habsburg had no illusions about one thing: that the Russian universal monarchy would have changed with the end of the Soviet Union. As evidence, he cited not only the "colonial wars" against Chechens (1998) and Georgians (2008), but also the transformation of the political system towards a dictatorship. "If you follow Russian politics in recent times, and especially if you have the privilege of being 93 years old and have therefore lived through Hitler's rise to power and his role in European politics, you will come to that all of this is repeated today," said Otto von Habsburg in Wolfurt in 2005. "It's exactly the same things that are happening again."

Alone, the world and especially Europe did not want to hear the cries of Cassandra. What is certain is that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would have caused concern to Otto von Habsburg, but not taken him by surprise. He would have welcomed the fact that the EU had now offered the attacked country accession status, but at the same time accused the West of waiting too long and pursuing a policy of appeasement - long before Crimea was occupied in 2014.

In a speech on the situation in Ukraine, Otto von Habsburg explained that Europe's task was "to do everything possible to curb this Russian imperialism and to ensure Ukraine the independence that is necessary and to which it is entitled." He gave the speech on 29 November 1995, more than 26 years before Putin's invasion order.