Archduke Johann Salvator of Austria

Last updated

Archduke Johann Salvator
Johann Salvator Austria Toscana young.jpg
Born(1852-11-25)25 November 1852
Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Spouse
Ludmilla ("Milli") Stubel
(m. 18891890)
Names
Italian: Giovanni Nepomuceno Maria Annunziata Giuseppe Giovanni Batista Ferdinando Baldassare Luigi Gonzaga Pietro Alessandrino Zanobi Antonino
House Habsburg-Lorraine
Father Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Mother Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies
Disappearedc. 12 July 1890(1890-07-12) (aged 37)
Cape Horn (presumed)
Status Declared dead in absentia on 2 February 1911

Archduke Johann Salvator of Austria (German : Johann Salvator, Italian : Giovanni Salvatore; 25 November 1852 - presumed dead, July 1890; declared dead in absentia 2 February 1911) was a member of the Tuscan branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. He was Archduke and Prince of Austria, Prince of Hungary, Bohemia and Tuscany. After renouncing those titles, he was known as Johann (John) Orth. He disappeared while sailing with his wife in July 1890 and is believed to have died when his ship encountered a storm near Cape Horn. Archduke Salvator was declared dead in absentia in February 1911.

Contents

Early life

Archduke Johann Salvator was born in Florence, the youngest son of Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany and his second wife, Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies. He was baptized in Florence's Battistero di San Giovanni as Giovanni Nepomuceno Maria Annunziata Giuseppe Giovanni Batista Ferdinando Baldassare Luigi Gonzaga Pietro Alessandrino Zanobi Antonino. [1] He pursued a career in the Austrian Army and was a good friend of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, with both sharing liberal opinions. [2]

After Bulgaria was granted autonomy by the Ottoman Empire, Johann Salvator was an unsuccessful candidate for the throne. [3] Prince Alexander of Battenberg would be elected Prince of Bulgaria in 1879. During the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Ottoman Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, he was put in command of a division of the occupying army and won numerous honours. [4] [5]

On 16 October 1889, he resigned his army commission and renounced his title and the privileges he enjoyed as a member of the Austrian imperial family. [6] After renouncing his titles he assumed the name "Johann (or John) Orth", the surname Orth derived from the name of a castle he had owned, Schloss Orth.

Disappearance

In 1889, Johann Salvator married Ludmilla ("Milli") Stubel, an opera dancer in London. [7] Shortly after his marriage, he purchased a ship named the Santa Margareta, on which he and his wife sailed for South America. In February 1890 he set off from Montevideo, Uruguay, heading for Valparaíso in Chile. [8] He was last seen on 12 July in Cape Tres Puntas, Argentina. It is believed that his ship was lost during a storm off the coast of Cape Horn. [9] He was officially declared dead on 2 February 1911 in Vienna. [10] [11] His possessions were disposed of in 1912. [12]

In the years following Salvator's disappearance, numerous sightings of him were reported. Rumors persisted that he and his wife sailed to South America and assumed new identities. [2] Several men also came forward claiming to be the "missing Duke". One of the more publicised claims came in May 1945 when a German born lithographer living in Kristiansand, Norway, named Alexander Hugo Køhler made a deathbed confession claiming that he was Johann Salvator. Køhler claimed that, as Johann Orth, he "bought" the identity of Alexander Hugo Køhler and assumed his life. Køhler claimed that the real Alexander Hugo Køhler posed as Salvator and it was he who died at sea. [13]

Films about the Johann Orth mystery

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany</span> Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1824 to 1859

Leopold II was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1824 to 1859. He married twice; first to Maria Anna of Saxony, and after her death in 1832, to Maria Antonia of the Two-Sicilies. By the latter, he begat his eventual successor, Ferdinand. Leopold was recognised contemporarily as a liberal monarch, authorising the Tuscan Constitution of 1848, and allowing a degree of press freedom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Order of the Golden Fleece</span> Catholic order of chivalry

The Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece is a Catholic order of chivalry founded in 1430 in Bruges by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, to celebrate his marriage to Isabella of Portugal. Today, two branches of the order exist, namely the Spanish Fleece and the Austrian Fleece; the current grand masters are King Felipe VI of Spain and Karl von Habsburg, head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, respectively. The Grand Chaplain of the Austrian branch is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Lorraine</span> Royal house of Europe

The House of Lorraine originated as a cadet branch of the House of Metz. It inherited the Duchy of Lorraine in 1473 after the death without a male heir of Nicholas I, Duke of Lorraine. By the marriage of Francis of Lorraine to Maria Theresa of Austria in 1736, and with the success in the ensuing War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), the House of Lorraine was joined to the House of Habsburg and became known as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Francis, his sons Joseph II and Leopold II, and his grandson Francis II were the last four Holy Roman emperors from 1745 until the dissolution of the empire in 1806. The House of Habsburg-Lorraine inherited the Habsburg Empire, ruling the Austrian Empire and then Austria-Hungary until the dissolution of the monarchy in 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schloss Ort</span>

Schloss Ort is an Austrian castle situated in the Traunsee lake, in Gmunden, 19 kilometres (12 mi) from Vöcklabruck, the gate to Salzkammergut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archduke Leopold of Austria, Prince of Tuscany</span> Mr Leopold Lorraine

Archduke Leopold Maria of Austria, Prince of Tuscany was the second son of Archduke Leopold Salvator, Prince of Tuscany and Infanta Blanca of Spain. At the fall of Habsburg monarchy he remained in Austria and recognized the new republic in order to marry Dagmar, Baroness von Nicolics-Podrinska. The couple had one daughter. After divorcing his wife in 1931, Leopold eventually emigrated to the United States where he became a naturalized American citizen under the name Leopold Lorraine, and where he remarried. He died in 1958 in Connecticut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria</span> Austrian archduke (1833–1896)

Archduke Karl Ludwig Josef Maria of Austria was the younger brother of both Franz Joseph I of Austria and Maximilian I of Mexico, and the father of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (1863–1914), whose assassination ignited World War I. His grandson was the last emperor of Austria, Charles I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria</span> Count of Neuendorf

Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria was an Austrian archduke of the House of Habsburg. He became known as a champion for Mallorca's wildlife, in an era when the term "conservation" was not highly regarded. The Balearic Islands commemorated the centenary of the death of Archduke Ludwig Salvator during 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Habsburg-Lorraine</span> Austrian imperial dynasty

The House of Habsburg-Lorraine originated from the marriage in 1736 of Francis III, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, and Maria Theresa of Austria, later successively Queen of Bohemia, Queen of Hungary, Queen of Croatia and Archduchess of Austria. Its members form the legitimate surviving line of both the House of Habsburg and the House of Lorraine, and they inherited their patrimonial possessions from the female line of the House of Habsburg and from the male line of the House of Lorraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archduke Karl Pius of Austria, Prince of Tuscany</span> Carlist-Carloctavismo claimant to the Spanish throne

Archduke Karl Pius of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, Prince of Tuscany, known as Carlos Pío de Habsburgo-Lorena y de Borbón in Spanish, was a member of the Tuscan branch of the Imperial House of Habsburg and a Carlist claimant to the throne of Spain under the assumed name of "Carlos VIII". He was the tenth and youngest child of Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria, Prince of Tuscany and Infanta Blanca of Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Order of Saint Stephen</span> Tuscan dynastic military order

The Order of Saint Stephen is a Roman Catholic Tuscan dynastic military order founded in 1561. The order was created by Cosimo I de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany. The last member of the Medici dynasty to be a leader of the order was Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The order was permanently abolished in 1859 by the annexation of Tuscany to the Kingdom of Sardinia. The former Kingdom of Italy and the current Italian Republic also did not recognize the order as a legal entity but tolerates it as a private body.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archduke Karl Salvator of Austria</span> Archduke of Austria and gun inventor (1839–1892)

Archduke Karl Salvator of Austria, was a member of the Tuscan branch of the House of Habsburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archduke Franz Salvator of Austria</span> Austrian archduke (1866–1939)

Archduke Franz Salvator of Austria was the son of Archduke Karl Salvator of Austria and Princess Maria Immacolata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. He married Archduchess Marie Valerie in 1890, though, due to Marie Valerie's death in 1924, remarried in 1934 to Baroness Melanie von Riesenfels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria</span>

Archduke Leopold Salvator, Prince of Tuscany, was the son of Archduke Karl Salvator of Austria and Princess Maria Immaculata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Infanta Blanca of Spain</span> Archduchess Leopold Salvator of Austria

Infanta Blanca of Spain was the eldest child of Infante Carlos, Duke of Madrid, Carlist claimant to the throne of Spain and his wife Princess Margherita of Bourbon-Parma. Blanca was a member of the House of Bourbon and - according to the Carlists - an Infanta of Spain by birth. In 1889 she married Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria, Prince of Tuscany. The couple had ten children. The family left Austria after the end of the Monarchy and finally settled in Barcelona. When the male line of Blanca's family died out at the death of her uncle, Alfonso Carlos, Duke of San Jaime, some of the Carlists recognized her as the legitimate heiress to the Spanish throne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archduke Hubert Salvator of Austria</span> Austro-Tuscan royal (1894–1971)

Archduke Hubert Salvator of Austria, Prince of Tuscany was a member of the Tuscan line of the House of Habsburg and Archduke of Austria, Prince of Tuscany by birth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princess Rosemary of Salm-Salm</span> German princess

Princess Rosemary of Salm-Salm was a member of the princely House of Salm-Salm. Through her marriage to Archduke Hubert Salvator of Austria, Rosemary was a member of the Tuscan line of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies</span> Grand Duchess of Tuscany from 1833 to 1859

Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies, was a princess of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by birth and Grand Duchess of Tuscany from 1833 to 1859 as the consort of Leopold II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oñate treaty</span> Treaty between Austrian and Spanish branches of the House of Habsburg

The Oñate treaty of 6 June 1617 was a secret treaty between the Austrian and Spanish branches of the House of Habsburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archduke Rainer of Austria (1895–1930)</span>

Archduke Rainer of Austria was a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, a member of the Tuscan branch of the Imperial House of Habsburg, an Archduke of Austria and Prince of Tuscany by birth. He was the eldest son Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria, Prince of Tuscany. He served as officer in the Austrian army during World War I. At the fall of the Habsburg dynasty, he remained in Vienna and worked for a time as taxi driver. He died unmarried at the age of 34 from blood-poisoning.

<i>The Red Prince</i> (film) 1954 film

The Red Prince is a 1954 Austrian-West German historical drama film directed by Hans Schott-Schöbinger and Franz Antel and starring Inge Egger, Peter Pasetti and Richard Häussler. It is based on the story of Archduke Johann Salvator of Austria.

References

  1. "Photography of baptismal register on 1852, 26th November" . Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  2. 1 2 Fanthorpe, Lionel; Patricia Fanthorpe (2004). Unsolved Mysteries of the Sea. Dundurn Press Ltd. pp. 161–162. ISBN   978-1-55002-498-2.
  3. Barkeley, Richard (1959). The Road to Mayerling: Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria. Macmillan. p. 158.
  4. "Europe's Latest Treaty". New York Times. 24 July 1878. p. 1.
  5. "Orth Officially Dead". New York Times. 28 May 1911. p. 1.
  6. Almanach de Gotha. Justus Perthes. 1891. p. 12.
  7. "Johann Orth: Habsburg (ret'd)". habsburger.net. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  8. "The Missing Archduke". New York Times. 26 December 1890. p. 1.
  9. "Will Be Declared Dead". The Milwaukee Sentinel. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 26 February 1911. p. 1. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  10. "John Orth Declared Dead". The Gazette Times. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 2 February 1911. p. 1. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  11. Gies McGuigan, Dorothy (1966). The Habsburgs . Doubleday. p.  381.
  12. "JOHANN ORTH". Sunday Times . No. 1387. New South Wales, Australia. 18 August 1912. p. 23. Retrieved 2 December 2022 via National Library of Australia.
  13. "Alexander Hugo Köhler - German lithographer or Italian Archduke?" (in Norwegian). da2.uib.no. April 2008. Archived from the original on 3 January 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2015.