Why Emperor Karl I of Austria met 20 young ladies in a garden in Lindencham

Exactly one hundred years ago, an imperial couple came to the canton of Zug: Karl I of Austria-Hungary and his wife Zita were in exile in Switzerland and visited the Kloster Heiligkreuz in Cham.

An emperor and an empress in Cham! What a sensation. This once-in-a-century event took place exactly one hundred years ago, on September 11, 1920. But the Zug newspapers preferred to write about the foot-and-mouth disease, the increases in the price of meat, the split within the Social Democratic Party and the fact that Pia Mattmann had been elected as the new Superior General of the Kloster Heiligkreuz (Monastery of the Holy Cross) in Cham.

The brief confirmation that Karl I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary and Croatia, "accompanied by an ex-court marshal and a senior forester" had visited the "Lindenhof" in Cham only appeared some days later, among the "reports from the readers”. And that’s all the coverage there was about the blue-blooded visit.

Emperor Karl had been in Switzerland for a year and a half, and was therefore perhaps no longer a huge sensation. He had come to Switzerland with Empress Zita after the end of the First World War, and they had been living in exile since 24 March 1919. The last Habsburg emperor had been forced to leave his empire. And this after 650 years of the rule of the House of Habsburg in Austria! The emperor and the empress did not formally abdicate, because, according to their deep conviction, an emperor was appointed by God and could not abdicate at all. That is why the two still call themselves Emperor and Empress, even if they no longer had an empire and had no powers of government.

After fleeing from Austria, Emperor Karl I and Empress Zita, formerly the Duchess of Bourbon-Parma, first moved to Wartegg Castle on the Rorschacherberg, which belonged to their relatives. Because they found too little space there for themselves and their court, they then moved to Prangins on Lake Geneva. The imperial couple finally found time for togetherness here, after the turmoil of the Great War. Two children were born in Switzerland, Rudolf on 5 September 1919, and Charlotte on 1 March 1921.

The trip to the Rigi
The family visited popular destinations throughout Switzerland, travelling, among other things, to their original family seat, the Habsburg Castel in Aargau, to Fribourg, to Spiez, and also to Disentis. Or to the Rigi. There, the journalist of the "Basler Tagblatt" reported from the Rigi Railway: "I found myself in the car facing a gentleman in blue. Blue eyes, blue tie, blue suit, blue hat. All of this with a layer of harmless kindness. He seemed familiar to me; but I wasn't sure if my guess was wrong. (...) I now knew who I had in front of me: the head of the House of Habsburg, Karl I. He gave the impression of a young man for whom the problems of life are not the objects of struggle, and who knows how to come to terms with fate as a ‘bonhomme’”.

Photo 1: He liked to present himself as a military general: Emperor Karl I, who lost the First World War.
Photo 2: Crowned during the First World War: Emperor Karl with Empress Zita and son Otto in 1916.
Photo 3: An idyll on Lake Lucerne: Emperor KarlI with his wife Zita at the Schlosshotel Hertenstein in Weggis.
Photo 4: On the road with an open top: Emperor Karl I (back left)
Photo 5: The original picture In the courtyard of the Kloater Heiligkreuz from 1920: Emperor Karl I (with walking stick) in the midst of the Austrian ladies.

The "Impression of a young man" and "Bonhomme" – there was probably a lot of projection in play, if the reporter could look at Karl I and draw these character conclusions from it. But one doesn’t meet an emperor every day! Such chance encounters with the emperor diminish rapidly in the summer of 1920. Where Karl I was previously seen on the tram in Geneva like any ordinary person, he soon had to put an end to unguarded and carefree excursions. The Geneva police had uncovered a plot by anarchists who wanted to kill the emperor.

The detour to Cham
That is why the trip to the canton of Zug on 11 September 1920 is all the more remarkable. The imperial couple travelled to Lindencham in their own "automobile" with their destination being the Kloster Heiligkreuz. Also present are a "Oberforstmeister (Senior forester)" and Karl's constant companion, aide-de-camp Paul Maria Josef Esterhazy de Galantha (1874-1942). The noble visit "brought some of the inhabitants of the cloister out of balance!", stated the cloister’s "Institute Greetings" in a refreshingly honest manner. The emperor visited the daughter institute (Tochterinstitut) Heiligkreuz of the women's cloister of the same name, which, at that time, ran various subsidiary establishments in the cantons of Schaffhausen, Graubünden, Valais and Ticino. Karl I spent a good two hours this Saturday afternoon in the Institute Garden, where he meets 20 young Austrian women, who are the real reason for his visit. After the end of the First World War, these young women came to Cham "for strengthening and resting". This was quite a common practice at the time to enable people affected by the war to recover in neutral countries.

The emperor exchanged thoughts with the young Austrians, let himself be photographed with them, and Karl I was "honoured by an enthusiastic vivat and the national anthem". In addition, the emperor thanked the monastery in exuberant words for the welcome and hospitality shown towards his compatriots. The nuns then took a closer look at the famous man: "We had the opportunity to memorize his physiognomy and admire his friendly condescension and levity." The handwritten monastery chronicle has the following to say about the visit of the Emperor: "What a unique visit! His Majesty Emperor Karl of Austria honoured our dear Heiligkreuz with his visit, in order to convince himself of the welfare of his 20 children who are here for recuperation, and to thank them for it. His Majesty spent a few hours in the monastery garden with his dear fellow Austrians. How must this truly pious, noble monarch be tired of living far from his country and people in exile and knowing it in need and misery.”

The photograph that was taken in the cloister garden shows twelve of the young women and, in the front in the middle, in a bright suit and supported on a walking stick, the emperor, who was then 33 years old. His aide-de-camp sits next to him with his hands placed on top of each other: he was 46 years old at the time. The admiring expression of the woman's face on the far right is particularly beautiful: she seems to be really drooling over the emperor.

But this benevolent "Bonhomme" Karl I was also politically active while in exile in Switzerland, which he was actually not allowed to do. The ex-emperor corresponded with the Pope and, in particular, with monarchs and ministers throughout Europe. He thereby made efforts to ensure that Austria would not be completely fragmented., and constantly explored ways to bring himself back into play as king and emperor. He finally launched two coup attempts from exile in Switzerland, but both failed miserably.

This was not an issue during the visit to Lindencham. The Austrians ladies were as touched and honoured as the nuns, and it is said that they even enthusiastically threw flowers at the emperor's car at the farewell.

Note:
The Zug author and historian Dr. Michael van Orsouw wrote the book " Blaues Blut. Royale Geschichten aus der Schweiz» (Blue Blood. Royal stories from Switzerland.) For this series in the "Zuger Zeitung" he has drawn up stories with references to Zug that do not appear in the book, or only in the margins. The next episode will be published in mid-December and is about the Dutch Queen Wilhelmine, who was regarded as a model for the Zug youth.

Bibliography: Bischofberger, Hermann: An imperial visit to the College of St. Anthony of Appenzell, in: Innerrhoder History Friend, Volume 37 (1995-1996), pp. 80-86; Brook-Sheherd, Gordon: Zita. The last Empress. Augsburg 1996; Chronicle of the Holy Cross Monastery. Kindly provided by Sr. Simone Buchs; Cordfunke, E.: Zita, Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary. Vienna 1986; Feigl, Erich: Empress Zita. Legend and truth. Vienna 1977/1982; Institute Greetings, 17th year, No. 4, October 1920. Courtesy of Sr. Simone Buchs; Lorenz, Reinhold: Emperor Charles and the fall of the Danube monarchy. Graz/Vienna/Cologne 1959; Various newspapers.