Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria (May 15, 1842 – January 18, 1919)

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Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria (Ludwig Viktor Joseph Anton; 15 May 1842 – 18 January 1919) from the House of Habsburg was the youngest son born to Archduke Franz Karl of Austria and Princess Sophie of Bavaria and younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Despite his mother's attempts to arrange a marriage for him with Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria, youngest sister of Empress Elisabeth, he remained a bachelor all his life. As a result of his very public homosexuality and transvestitism, culminating in a brawl at the Central Bathhouse Vienna, his brother Emperor Franz Joseph finally forbade him to stay in Vienna. The same emperor joked that he should be given a ballerina as adjutant to keep him out of trouble. (P: Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria, nicknamed "Luziwuzi" youngest brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Photo made around 1870)

He was born in Vienna shortly after his sister Archduchess Maria Anna had died at four years of age, followed by a stillborn brother. His elder siblings included Emperor Franz Joseph, Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico and Archduke Karl Ludwig.

During the Revolutions of 1848 and the Vienna Uprising, pampered "Luziwuzi" with his royal family had to flee the Austrian capital, at first to Innsbruck, later to Olomouc. Ludwig Viktor pursued the usual military career and was appointed General of the Infantry, but had no intentions to interfere in politics. He rejected his brother Maximilian's ambitions in the Second Mexican Empire and especially plans to marry him to Princess Imperial Isabel, daughter of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil. Instead he concentrated on building up his own art collection and had a city palace erected on Schwarzenbergplatz in Vienna according to plans designed by Heinrich von Ferstel, where he hosted homophile soirées.

Ludwig Viktor retired to Klessheim Palace near Salzburg where he became known as a philanthropist and patron of the arts. He died in 1919, at the age of 76, and is buried at the Siezenheim cemetery.


@Ludwig Angerer (1827–1879). Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia and Hungary with his brothers: From L to R: Archduke Karl Ludwig, Emperor Franz Joseph (sitting), Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian (later Emperor of Mexico), Archduke Ludwig Viktor, 1863

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Ludwig_Viktor_of_Austria

Further Readings:

The Kaiser and his Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany by John C. G. Röhl
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (July 13, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0521565049
ISBN-13: 978-0521565042
Amazon: The Kaiser and his Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany

Within a couple of decades Kaiser Wilhelm II had led the German Reich into World War and collapse. How did the Kaiser come to have so much power? Using new archival sources, this book analyzes the Kaiser and the nature of his rule. After an original character sketch of the Kaiser, the book then examines the Kaiser's friends and favorites, the neo-absolutist culture of the court and of Berlin society, and the nature of his relationship with the court and with the administrative corps in Prussia and the Reich. A final chapter reveals for the first time the extent of the exiled Kaiser's anti-Semitism.

More LGBT History at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Gay Classics