She was the romantic idol of her age, the extraordinarily beautiful and mysterious Empress Elisabeth of Austria whose exploits made her a legend in nineteenth-century Europe and beyond. This biography by Brigitte Hamann reveals the truth of a complex and touching, curiously modern personality, her refusals to conform, escaping to a life of her own, filled with literature, ideas and the new political passions of the age. This edition is a translation into English from the original German by Ruth Hein.
Winifred Wagner's life is a remarkable tale of transformation and influence. Born Winifred Williams in 1897, she was an English orphan adopted by relatives in a utopian settlement near Berlin. In 1915, she married Siegfried Wagner, securing the Wagner legacy and taking charge of the Bayreuth festival after Cosima, the composer's widow. Winifred had four children with Siegfried, who was thirty years her senior and a confirmed bachelor before their marriage.
Her connection to Adolf Hitler began in 1923, when he visited Wagner's grave in Bayreuth, leading to a lifelong friendship between Winifred and the Führer. She became a founding member of the Nazi party, and during festival time, Bayreuth became a focal point of German political life. Winifred enjoyed a glamorous lifestyle and significant favor during the Nazi regime, but faced hardships during the war, including bombing and deprivation. After the war, she was tried for her support of Nazi war crimes. Despite these challenges, her loyalty to Hitler remained unwavering, earning her the title of "the last Nazi in Germany." Winifred continued to honor the memory of Hitler until her death in 1980.
Hitler's Vienna delves into the formative years of Adolf Hitler in Vienna, where he lived from 1906 to 1913 before moving to Munich at age twenty-four. This work presents a cultural and political portrait of the city, contrasting it with the modern, artistic image often associated with figures like Freud and Mahler. Instead, it reveals a city rife with fear and ethnic tension, where many rejected modernity as overly international and Jewish. This environment fostered racist political ideologies, exemplified by a parliament member's chilling remark about Jews. Brigitte Hamann captures the disturbing ideologies that permeated the Hapsburg capital, providing context for Hitler's development. She portrays him as a moody, curious, and painfully shy young man from the provinces, drawing on previously untapped sources, including personal accounts and records from homeless shelters where he spent nights. This comprehensive account illuminates how his experiences in Vienna shaped his future actions and beliefs. Hamann's work represents a significant contribution to the scholarship surrounding Hitler, offering insights into the influences that molded one of history's most notorious figures.
Crown Prince Rudolf, the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth, owes his world-wide fame mainly to the mystery at Mayerling, where he sought death with this seventeen-year-old mistress Mary Vetsera. Yet his ignominious death was preceded by a very eventful life spent against the courtly splendour of the imperial city and, conversely, among the intellectuals and supposedly revolutionary minds of late nineteenth-century Vienna. This contradiction may explain why his fascinating personality continues to hold our attention one hundred years after the catastrophe. Rudolf's life, which covered a mere thirty years, is here documented through contemporary illustrations, photos, paintings and records from various family archives. As might be expected, the events centring on Mayerling have received particular emphasis in this representation.
