So it is with some relief that I announce Otto (von?) Habsburg had his big funeral today. I put "von" in parenthesis because noble families lost the right to use "von" at the end of WW I, when the Austrians abolished their monarchy and Austria lost 90% of its territory overnight. Some people still use the "von" when referring to Otto, some don't, but by rights it's just Otto Habsburg.
He was the son of the last Austrian emporer, and would have been emporer himself had not history kicked him in the nuts. But, fuck it---history gave his family luck way back when, and they milked it for all it was worth. So, tough shit, Otto. You had to live your life not as a royal, but merely as a really, really rich guy who knew all the "right" people. My sympathies.
It was strange watching archival footage of this guy as a small boy in 1916 at the funeral of his grand-uncle, Franz Joseph. He looked like a little girl, as was the custom in those days when small boys had long curly hair and wore what looked like dresses. And my disgust for royalty aside, any guy who started life in the early 20th Century and lived into the early 21st Century saw a lot of strange changes in his 98 years on this bizarre planet.
B and I drove into town, found a place several blocks from where the funeral procession was to march by, and headed over there. They'd already had a very lengthy and elaborate mass at St. Stephen's Cathedral, then they put the casket on a small wagon and marched him to his burial place.
There won't be another funeral like this in Austria again. Many thousands of people lined the procession route, and there were literally thousands of people in the procession itself. Every kind of group was represented, many of which B could identify by costume and / or banner. The king and queen of Sweden were there, flanked by a shitload of security. Everyone marched a couple of kilometers to the burial place.
Below, pics. Not all are captioned because I don't know what or who the hell I was looking at.
Click any pic to enlarge.
Laurel and Hardy made a special guest appearance from beyond the grave.
"Another fine mess you've gotten me into, Stanley!"
A Black Flag ain't just a kind of roach spray.
It's also something you fly when a Habsburg dies.
After the funeral procession, when we were on our way back to the Danube Canal to get some fish and chips at a canal-side restaurant, B asked: "So. What do you think of all this pomp and ceremony?"
I said, "Meh. You can see this sort of thing most weeks in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA."
Except, you know....you can't.
We got our fish and chips and each drank an Ottakringer, a great local beer.
I drank a little silent toast to Otto. "98 trips around the sun, dude. Respect."
