In the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, with the support of the Honorary Consul of Hungary, Jean-Pierre Prudhon, and Professor Yves Petit, Director of the renowned European University Centre (Centre Européen Universitaire), established in 1950, our Foundation’s Deputy Scientific Director delivered his lecture in the Art Nouveau dining room of the Université de Lorraine. Among the guests were the Deputy Mayor of the city, several university professors, as well as prominent representatives of the local cultural scene and a great number of university students.
After the presentation, Georg von Habsburg, Trustee of our Foundation, opened our roll-up exhibition, “Life and Heritage”, about his late father in the main hall of the Hôtel des Missions Royales, another of the city’s landmark buildings from the early 18th century. The property has been the headquarters of the Franco-German campus of the Paris-based SciencesPo School of Political Science in Nancy since 2000. The series of photographs depicting the life of Otto von Habsburg were symbolically placed next to decorations commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall. Here, Deputy Mayor Nicole Creusot and Director François Laval welcomed the audience. Mme Creusot recalled that the last time she had met Otto von Habsburg was in Luneville, near Nancy, during the “re-establishment” of the Ducal Palace of Lorraine, which had burned down in 2003 and the reconstruction work had begun in the presence of the former heir to the throne. Otto von Habsburg also had a small bottle of Tokaj wine placed next to the foundation stone to commemorate that the Dukes of Lorraine used to order wine from Tokaj every year.
Photo by Jean Scherbeck
Among those present at the exhibition opening was Jean-Pierre Puton, whose grandfather, Jean Scherbeck, a photographer, painter and graphic artist from Lorraine, was one of the official photographers at the wedding of Otto von Habsburg. Mr Puton has pledged to make a digital copy available of the images relating to the former heir to the throne to our Foundation from the extensive photographic archive in his family’s possession. The event was attended by Professor Károly Kosztolányi, born in 1926, a distant relative of Hungarian writer Dezső Kosztolányi. He arrived in Lorraine in 1957 and, as a ‘local Hungarian’, greeted Otto von Habsburg on several occasions during his visits to Nancy.
On 14 October, Pierre-Yves Michel, Bishop of Nancy, celebrated a traditional mass in the Church of the Cordeliers. It was also attended by the Mayor of the city, Mathieu Klein, and the President of the Lorraine Historical Society (Société Histoire de la Lorraine), founded in 1848, Prince Charles d’Arenberg, and its Secretary General, Etienne Martin. After the ceremony, Georg von Habsburg and Gergely Fejérdy signed the memorial book of the church. We had the opportunity to descend into the crypt that is the resting place of the Dukes of Lorraine—the burial chamber under the altar of the church is only opened if a descendant of a Duke of Lorraine is present.
At the reception following the Mass, Helène Barbey Say, director of the Departmental Archives of Meurthe-et-Moselle, indicated that the institution she heads holds numerous documents relating to Otto von Habsburg. Also present was Dominique Flon, former President of the Lorraine Historical Society, who had become the curator of the crypt of the Church of the Cordeliers at the request of Otto von Habsburg. Mr Flon told countless anecdotes about the former heir to the throne, whom he had met in person on each of his trips to Nancy.
The management of the Lorraine Historical Society has raised the possibility of displaying our Life and Heritage exhibition in other venues in Lorraine. The Honorary Consul of Hungary in Nancy has agreed to help us to realise this plan.
The success of these events and the fact that almost everyone in Nancy has a story to tell about Otto von Habsburg proves that the namesake of our Foundation has faithfully obeyed his father’s wishes. As, allegedly, Charles, at the end of the First World War, told his son: “You can give up everything, but never Lorraine.”
Gergely Fejérdy
