In addition to political figures, our namesake was closely associated with several American conservative thinkers and public actors.
A remarkably close partnership developed between the Archduke and the founder of the National Review, the popular publicist William F. Buckley, and the Mecosta-based philosopher Russell Kirk. His decades-long friendship and professional relationship with the latter is a particularly significant and intriguing reference point for conservative transatlantic dialogue.
The correspondence between the American philosopher, passionate about European ideas and values, and Otto von Habsburg, who benefited from his overseas experience over the long term but remained European to the bone – much of which is preserved in our Foundation’s archives – provides an insight into an exceptional relationship. Dr Kirk’s letters, written in erudite literary language and intellectual acuity, and the responses of the former heir to the throne, formulated with profound insight, bear witness not to a philosophical musing on social and political problems but rather to a search for real answers to the current challenges, which also reveal that the representation of conservative values is not at all compatible with any kind of radicalism or neophyte political zeal.
For this reason, in our series of events to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the birth of our namesake, we invited Russell Kirk’s daughter Cecilia Kirk Nelson, the Publications Manager of the institution that cares for her father’s legacy, and her husband Jeffrey O. Nelson, the organisation’s Executive Director to one of the leading programs, the Conservative Minds conference on 19 November 2022. The title of the well-attended event refers to one of Dr Kirk’s major works that explored transatlantic intellectual and political connections and interactions. A more detailed summary of the occasion is available on our website, while the lecture of Jeffrey Nelson will be featured in our forthcoming 2022 Annual Report.
We also greatly relished the report on the Russell Kirk Center’s renewed website, which not only provides an engaging summary of the cooperation between the two institutions but also highlights the rich intellectual heritage that our namesakes have bequeathed to posterity and which we are pleased to recommend to our website readers.
During their time in Budapest, our American guests also visited the archives of our Foundation, where Cecilia Kirk Nelson was able to view the correspondence between her father and Otto von Habsburg. To conclude their trip to Hungary, our visitors participated in a panel discussion on John Lukacs at the University of Public Service.
Our Foundation and the Russell Kirk Center are committed to strengthening the ties established last fall between the two institutions and exploring future collaborations and research opportunities, providing new impetus for cultivating a shared conservative heritage and further reflecting on transatlantic intellectual and political relations.
