The Otto von Habsburg Foundation (from now on referred to as HOAL) was established under Act XCIX of 2016 to preserve, promote and provide access to the legacy, heritage and memory of Otto von Habsburg (1912-2011), especially his outstanding achievements for Hungary and the Hungarian cause. The purpose and aim of the Foundation are to process the intangible and tangible relics of Otto von Habsburg's public life. To process, conserve and cultivate his legacy, organise the historically significant part of his heritage into a unified collection, and enable its research.
In March 2016, the Government of Hungary and Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen, the eldest son of Otto von Habsburg, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to transfer his father's legacy to Hungary. The Archduke, expressing the intention of the Habsburg family, has proposed to the Government of Hungary the establishment of an archive to maintain the legacy of the last Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne, Otto von Habsburg. The Government of Hungary welcomed the Archduke's request, particularly in regard to the fact that the memory of Otto von Habsburg is enshrined in the heart of the Hungarian nation.
The bequests of Otto von Habsburg were partly in the hands of various members of the Habsburg family, most notably Archduke Karl's, and partly in possession of the joint family. The owners were represented by the Archduke, while Dr Zsolt Semjén, Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary, was acting on behalf of the government.
On 3 August 2017, the Otto von Habsburg Foundation was registered and was established for a period of 99 years in accordance with the founders' intentions and a separate agreement between the parties set out the amount of the grant. The residence of the Otto von Habsburg Foundation has been chosen to be at the Buda Castle (1014 Budapest, 1st district, Palota way 6452/1. tln.), befitting the memory of Otto von Habsburg.
The arrangements for transporting Otto von Habsburg's legacy to Hungary were handled by the OvH (Otto von Habsburg) Archiv Stiftung in Liechtenstein. On 20 September 2017, the OvH Archiv Stiftung provided the location of the bequest and the carrier details to Zsuzsanna Chaillet, a former board member, who was involved in the coordination and administrative tasks related to the transfer.
The agreement of Otto von Habsburg's heirs contained a general description of the estate, which consisted of the following elements:
Otto von Habsburg
- political articles and published books in various languages,
- his library,
- Studies and reports based on his conversations with presidents and leading politicians (1960-2010),
- Documents relating to his 20 years of work in the European Parliament,
- newspaper clippings from the period of his return to Austria (1966),
- correspondence (from the 1950s)
- A few personal items,
- Honorary citizenship certificates awarded by Hungarian municipalities,
- cinematographic, audio and photographic archives,
- as well as other documents and relics that the Archduke wished to add to the endowment.
In February 2018, the collection arrived in Hungary in 270 boxes of various sizes and materials, which were placed in three exhibition rooms on the third floor of the "C" building of the Museum of Fine Arts - Hungarian National Gallery in the Buda Castle.
The legacy was gathered by the OvH Archiv Stiftung from four different countries in Europe and brought to Hungary from the following locations:
1. Salzburg (Austria), [50 boxes],
2. Türnitz (Austria), [books in 130 smaller boxes],
3. Lucerne (Switzerland), [4 pallets],
4. Benidorm (Spain), [25 wooden boxes, 8 m³].
National Archives of Hungary to facilitate the appropriate and professional disposition of his father's documents, the late Otto von Habsburg. In early 2018, the Archduke and Dr Csaba Szabó, Director General of the National Archives of Hungary, visited the bequest in the Hungarian National Gallery. In addition to the records stored in the two exhibition rooms, a separate area housed the former library of Otto von Habsburg. On 18 February 2018, the Director General of the National Archives of Hungary gave an expert assessment on the storage of the legacy, in which he indicated that considering archival aspects, it would be advisable to keep and preserve the papers and books separately.
On 24 July 2018, the staff of the Hungarian National Gallery informed Dr Csaba Latorcai, State Secretary for Public Administration, that mould had been discovered on some of the objects and books of the Habsburg legacy in the Gallery, which could also endanger the artworks of the Gallery. The Secretary of State contacted István Nagy, Chairman of the Board, and Georg von Habsburg, Member of the Board. On behalf of the Foundation, Georg von Habsburg and Tamás Sávoly, the Foundation's Deputy Director at the time, took immediate action to remedy the mildew with the assistance of the Hungarian National Gallery and Museum of Fine Arts. In August 2018, the Foundation's employees, under the direction of Archduke Georg von Habsburg, assessed the quantity and scope of the heritage, then divided the documents into collection units (library, museum, archives), followed by the compilation of a box index. The entire estate was retained in 618 storage containers. The damaged legacy materials were then separated, and, to evaluate the extent of the issue, Deputy Director Tamás Sávoly prepared a report on the circumstances of the contamination and the measures taken to deal with the mould. An inventory of the blemished and destroyed collection material was also made, including a box list. To prevent the further spread of the infestation, the collection was transferred between 14 and 22 August 2018 to the ground floor guard's quarters and guard's locker of the "D" building of the Buda Castle.
On 23 August 2018, a report was made following the inspection of the heritage after the relocation, and the issue of the mould contamination of the legacy was put on the agenda of the Board meeting on 3 September 2018.
In November 2018, the Foundation's Board decided that, under the agreement between the OvH Archiv Stiftung and the Otto von Habsburg Foundation, the Otto von Habsburg Foundation would provide assistance with document classification - or "annexation" in contemporary parlance.
In December 2018, the Foundation's employees, with the help of Georg von Habsburg, Chairman of the Access Committee, began the enumeration of the legacy. During the classification process, they categorised the searchable documents as Annex1 and the restricted ones as Annex2 and defined the sections of the estate that can be disclosed and those that can only be studied with a separate authorisation following the Access Committee's approval.
On 19 December 2018, a lease agreement was concluded to regulate the delivery and inventory of the estate in a way which gave the OvH Archiv Stiftung the duty and obligation to survey and catalogue the inheritance in close cooperation with the Foundation. This assignment involved the OvH preparing and submitting for approval by the Foundation the parts of the bequest that could be made public (Annex 1) and those that were subject to the permission of the Access Committee (Annex 2) within six months of the signing of the deed. In accordance with the lease agreement, the OvH Archiv Stiftung has drawn up an archival and a museological box list of the collection, which was presented to the Foundation for acceptance on 1 April 2019.
At the meeting of the Board held on 25 April 2019, the Foundation did not accede to the material presented by the OvH Archiv Stiftung, which was amended by setting a 30-day grace period. On 16 May 2019, the inventoried and appraised material was again offered for acceptance, with the classification of certain elements of the estate already modified. During the meeting of the Board on 3 June 2019, the Board Members received the archival and museum box list of the collection, and by accepting the surveyed and inventoried list, the Foundation has taken over the lease of the estate under the Lease Agreement; therefore, the obligation to pay the rent has begun.
On 20 December 2018, the Otto Habsburg Foundation and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary signed a lease agreement for the temporary reception of Otto von Habsburg's estate.
On 1 January 2019, the leadership of the Foundation was taken over by Gergely Prőhle, Lay President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary. Meanwhile, it became clear that the technical condition of the Buda Castle was not suitable for the long-term storage of the documents, so on 14 March 2019, on the terms of the lease agreement concluded with the management of the Evangelical Church, all the material of the Otto von Habsburg bequest was transferred to the storage rooms on the ground floor of the building in the 8th district of Budapest, at 1085, Szentkirályi street 51, where the contents were placed on shelves in storage units labelled with pencil.
At last, in May 2019, the Otto von Habsburg Foundation received permission from the archive's owner, the OvH Archiv Stiftung, to organise the legacy of Otto von Habsburg, prepare it for digitisation and ensure its researchability.
Otto von Habsburg Collection
HOAL I–2–b
Correspondence with individuals and organisations
1950–2011
Of all the documents held in the collection of the Otto von Habsburg Foundation, the most extensive is the collection entitled "Otto von Habsburg's correspondence with individuals and organisations". It contains letters written to him between 1950 and 2011 and answered by him or his secretaries in German, French, English, Italian, Spanish and Hungarian.
Thanks to his political and public activities, Otto von Habsburg received countless letters from all over the world, to which he paid particular attention. On average, he had several hundred correspondents a year, with whom he exchanged several thousand pages of correspondence. The documents are uncatalogued and there is no reference book. The filing was done in chronological order from 1950 to 1957 and alphabetically from 1958.
The correspondence includes official, semi-official and private correspondence, with the latter being the most numerous. However, they cannot necessarily be separated, since the information contained in each correspondence depends on the nature of the personal relationship. The content of the correspondence is very varied: it contains information on Otto Habsburg and his family, as well as information on his correspondents. In keeping with the general characteristic of personal legacies, the documents are an excellent resource for researchers of political, life, economic or social history.
The annexes to the letters addressed to Otto von Habsburg are extremely varied. They include photographs, greetings cards, newspaper articles, printed press material, literary works, invitations, works of his own creation, autobiographies, studies and sometimes even small gifts.
Copies of the reply letters sent by Otto von Habsburg are preserved on very thin typewriter paper, usually with an orange coloured overprint. These were inserted into the correspondence after the original reply letter had been sent. There are also many instances in the correspondence of Otto von Habsburg's instructions, which give us a more complex picture of his thoughts and the day-to-day running of the secretariat.
The increased use of fax paper in the 1990s is also reflected in this section. Unfortunately, many of the letters written on such fax paper are difficult or almost impossible to read. By transcribing and digitising the documents, we have managed to preserve most of this disappearing information.
More than once, the letters refer to documents and annexes that are missing. It is therefore difficult to estimate the number of letters that have been lost, misplaced or destroyed.
The archives can be researched on a correspondent-by-correspondent basis in accordance with the Rules of Research. Below is the index of names of the correspondence processed so far, which is constantly being updated.
SEARCH
Otto von Habsburg Collection
HOAL I–2–c
Hungarian-related correspondence of Otto von Habsburg
1988–2011
Among the documents held in the collection of the Foundation, the Hungarian-language correspondence of Otto von Habsburg stands out in terms of content and quantity. The archive includes letters addressed to and answered by him between 1988 and 2011 in Hungarian and to persons of Hungarian origin.
Through his political and public activities, Otto von Habsburg received countless messages from all over the world, which he took great care to answer. After 1956, the number of Hungarian-language letters and correspondents of Hungarian origin increased significantly, and the vast majority were emigrants. Until the second half of the 1980s, their letters were kept together with all other correspondence sorted chronologically and alphabetically.
The number of letters from Hungary increased noticeably from the mid-1980s. The documentary "Isten akaratából" (By the Will of God), produced by Péter Bokor in collaboration with Gábor Hanák, was shown on the Hungarian Television in 1988 and brought the last heir to the Hungarian throne back to the public eye.
In 1989, due to the increasing volume of missives in Hungarian, the native Hungarian-speaking assistants in the secretariat were given the task of receiving and answering them. They received mail from Hungary, Hungarians living abroad, and Hungarian emigrants. They were also responsible for preparing and organising Otto von Habsburg's audiences, tours and programmes in Hungary and liaising with the diaspora beyond the borders. The documents were kept under the name Ungarische Korrespondenz (Hungarian Correspondence), according to the box inscriptions of the time, and were kept as a separate unit from the rest of the secretariat papers.
The vast majority of the letters were written in Hungarian, but because of the people living in emigration, there are also English, German and French documents.
The content of the Hungarian letters to Otto von Habsburg was determined by the connection between the addressee and the author. These exchanges could be official, semi-official or private. However, these cannot necessarily be separated, as the correspondence very often contains both private and official information, depending on the nature of the personal relationship.
The attachments to the letters addressed to Otto von Habsburg are remarkably varied. Among them are photographs, greetings cards, newspaper articles, printed press material, literary pieces, invitations, children's drawings, autobiographies, studies, and occasionally small gifts.
The letters of reply sent by Otto von Habsburg were preserved as copies on thin tissue paper-like typewriter paper, usually on orange-coloured manifolds. These were inserted into the postal records after sending the original response letter. There are also many instructives from Otto von Habsburg in the correspondence, primarily written on notepaper or on a slip of paper, which gives us a more complex picture of Otto von Habsburg's thoughts and the day-to-day running of the secretariat.
The increasing use of fax paper in the 1990s is well reflected in this section. Unfortunately, many letters on fax paper are difficult to read, if not almost illegible. In most cases, digitising the documents has succeeded in preserving the disappearing information.
However, this part of the material cannot be considered complete, as the letters contain references to missing documents and annexes. Thus, we are unable to determine the number of letters lost, missing or destroyed.
The list of Hungarian-related correspondence in alphabetical order in Hungarian.
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Otto von Habsburg Collection
HOAL I-7
Reports on Foreign Policy Affairs in the collection of the Otto von Habsburg Foundation
Among the typewritten manuscript material of Otto von Habsburg, there are several linear metres of political status reports, regularly produced over many years (1952-2007), containing information or analysis on issues from all over the world, initially in English, later in German and occasionally in French.
The correspondence relating to the reports in the early years shows that Otto von Habsburg initially sent several articles a month to the subscription-only, closed-distribution Intelligence Digest and The Weekly Review published in Britain and the USA, which were then revised and released without his name. These were intended to combat the advance of communism; the reports often covered countries east of the Iron Curtain and the communist machinations in the Third World, while the world's leading countries and political-economic hotspots were also regularly covered.
Subsequently, in December 1968, the Overland News Agency (presumably Otto von Habsburg's press association) used the same approach, sending analysis and reports based on information it received to a small circle of subscribers.
In parallel with the English-language dispatches, German versions were also produced from 1970. The collection comprises articles written for Dokumentation der Woche from 1955 to 1960, Weltpolitische Analyse from 1970 to 2005 and Fakten und Analysen zur Weltpolitik from 2008 to 2009. It contains the Anstalt für Zeitgeschichte und Wirtschaftsforschung Vaduz's header.
Global Politics replaced the Overland News Agency in November 2005 in German and English. The two versions mostly carried the same content, whereas previously, this was not necessarily the case. Global Politics last reached its subscribers in December 2007.
The material that has been available so far has some minor gaps here and there, but there are also large lacunae covering whole years. Currently, only 1 or 2 volumes of the published journals (DDW and Intelligence Digest) have been found.
The detailed processing of the material is still ongoing; so far, the basic list has been completed.
