Sunday July 17th, 2011

So yesterday they buried Otto von Hapsburg in Vienna. Well, part of him. Like Joe Hill, the last heir of the Austro-Hungarian empire is being buried "everywhere". His heart is being sent off to a monastery in some other part of the former empire, but most of him was interred yesterday in the Imperial Crypt in downtown Wien.

On Friday, as I read the signs in the U-Bahn announcing various system shutdowns for the funeral I realized that this was going to be a (somewhat) Big Deal. So I asked an Austrian native with whom I work with whether the shops would be shut. She was pretty confident that this wouldn't be the case.

She did think there could be large crowds though - depending on the weather. "Austrians..." she explained "..are fair-weather monarchists."

So Saturday dawned clear and hot - and the crowds were pretty big.

As a fairly anti-monarchist type myself I was in two minds whether to go and rubberneck at what was clearly going to be an interesting spectacle. In the end, I bought an ice-cream cornet at Zanoni & Zanoni's and wandered over to Stephansplatz to the sound of tolling bells, just as the requiem mass for Otto was "letting out".

I ended up walking alongside the cortege for a couple of hours (did I mention it was a gorgeous afternoon?) and reflecting on what it all meant.

At one point I tried to soak in what it must have felt like 100 years ago to watch the funeral of Emperor Franz-Josef I, or the imperial couple who were killed at Sarajevo (thereby sparking the First World War apparently, though I've never quite nailed down the causality on that one).

I realized though that the spectacle I was witnessing was nothing like those of a century or so ago. Those were all about conveying power. Yesterday was Ruritanian kitsch. Apart from a few minor European princes, counts and other parasites, the parade was mainly composed of people in what was quite obviously fancy dress. Carrying swords, muskets, halbards and a multiplicity of flags (all with mutant two-headed eagles on them) these bewhiskered old gents marched along enjoying the sunshine, but the sense of awe which must have been conveyed to the watching hoi-polloi of a century ago was largely absent.

Anyhow, here are some photographs of the events of the day....

If you look closely, more or less dead centre (so to speak) of this picture is the actual coffin of poor old Otto v. It's draped in a black and yellow flag. You can just see it under the fold of that big yellow and black flag being carried by the guy in red with the ostrich feathers. Can't see it? That's 'cos you're looking at the guy in the blue checked shirt on the right of the picture, aren't you? Why is he giving me the stink-eye? I've no idea....

This is a picture I took earlier in the day. I was on my way back from swimming when I first began to notice that there were more men than usual wearing cutlasses in Starbucks. Back out on the street it was apparent that something was afoot...

I took this picture just by my apartment. The guy bringing up the rear had just posed for a picture with two young American tourists. They took turns photographing each other with him. They were dressed for hot weather, and giggled a lot as they pressed up against him so as to fit within the confines of the viewfinder. He seemed very happy.

This is a view of the procession as it passed through Heldenplatz. The balcony in the middle of the picture is the one from which Hitler made his speech to a couple of hundred thousand Viennese after the Anschluss in March 1938.

The route was lined with giant TV screen so we could keep an eye on the action, which it's difficult to do if you're a part of it (albeit in an immeasurably minor way).

I've no idea why I took this picture. Maybe I snapped just a moment too late to catch a fast-moving halbardier who'd disappeared around that corner. Or maybe I was trying to make some kind of point. If I was, I can't remember what it was. Anyone got any suggestions?

This was one of the best bits of the procession, as it processed through the Hofburg palace.

After Heldenplatz, the cortege turned left onto the Ring. As that's tree lined, it was a little cooler there, and the light was a little less brutal...the costumes didn't get any less kitschy though.

There were costumes from every part of the empire that Otto v. didn't rule at the time of his death. These blue ones were my particular favourite. I think the guys are hussars. Would that be right? Hussars?

Anyway, that's all. 

Today the Austrian papers have seized on the funeral as marking some kind of point of historical significance in Austrian history. One column in the Kurier takes the occasion as an opportunity to bemoan the lack of a "big idea" to form the basis of the future of the Republic. Maybe, though, if things are going as well as they appear to be in Austria (at least to my eyes) - high standard of living, little crime, a generally polite and prosperous people - a big idea is the last thing you need. Haven't big ideas historically ended in tears (see my earlier point re: balcony in Heldenplatz...)?