The smiling couple photographed in front of a Japan Air Lines plane are Otto von Habsburg and his wife, Regina. On 3 September 1966, they set off from Paris for Tokyo, where Otto had already been a returning guest, as the Imperial Court and other institutions had welcomed his advice, international experience, and political acumen since 1962. We decided on this picture for the cover of our fifth Annual Report because, for the first time since the beginning of the Foundation’s activities in 2019, we had the opportunity to showcase a Japanese version of our “Otto von Habsburg – Life and Heritage” exhibition outside of our continent and to hold a conference on our namesake’s extensive international network and the relationship between Japan and Europe. Against this background, the lasting influence of Otto von Habsburg on his acquaintances and how his ideas influenced the formation of the foreign relations of modern Japan became more evident.
The visit to Tokyo, supported by the local Hungarian Embassy and Cultural Institute, was part of a series of events we organised to mark Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union. Our encounters in the Far East proved in practice what Otto von Habsburg had so often articulated: in a global context, Central Europe, and Hungary in it, can only make their voices heard and assert their interests as members of a larger community, the European Union.
Within the framework of our programmes for the Hungarian EU Presidency, we also hosted, in cooperation with the National Archives of Hungary, the leaders of the national and foreign ministry archives of the EU Member States. These meetings were a fitting reinforcement of our efforts to make our activities – the archival work in particular – increasingly part of the international academic circles. The intercontinental attention towards the legacy of Otto von Habsburg has been further enhanced by the continuing progress in processing and digitisation, providing easier access to our Collection, and thus facilitating the development of our institutional connections.
We are thrilled that, in light of our ongoing endeavours, more members of the Habsburg family are gradually placing their trust in us by donating smaller or larger quantities of documents and objects to the Foundation. In 2024, the most substantial addition to our Collection was the arrival of the Heinrich Degenfeld bequest. The tutor and later secretary of Otto von Habsburg was the family’s most trusted confidant for more than fifty years, and his heritage contains a wealth of remarkable archival material and artefacts. One of the most intriguing among these is the travelling altar of Emperor Joseph II, which – as a tribute to our outstanding partnership over the years – we have bestowed on the Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma. By this gesture to the monastic order, we have made a symbolic restitution of the former dissolution imposed by the “King with a hat”.
We are grateful for the support of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Bethlen Gábor Fund, as well as for the goodwill and dedication of our colleagues and friends who contribute to our work with their advice, speeches and essays. Among them, Professor János Martonyi, former Foreign Affairs Minister of Hungary, whose writings we published in French on the occasion of the jubilee of his birthday, entitled La Continuité de l’Histoire, to express our hope that, like Professor Martonyi’s volume, the work of the Otto von Habsburg Foundation is bringing us closer to understanding the growing complexity of international relations in our time.
We appreciate your interest in our activities and look forward to welcoming you to our future events.
We wish you a pleasant reading of our Annual Report 2024!
