On December 22nd at 10:35 p.m. on ORF 2; then: “Elisabeth – Empress on the Run”
Vienna (OTS) – Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary ruled the Habsburg Monarchy for 68 years. But the end of this long phase of governance is tragic. Two years before his death, he himself had dealt the final blow to his rule over the Danube Monarchy – with his signature on the declaration of war that sealed the First World War. And Franz Joseph is also confronted with a number of losses in his private life. Nevertheless, in retrospect, the positive often outweighs the negatives. The woman at his side probably played a major role in this: Sisi, whose story remains shrouded in myths in the memory even 125 years after her death. The new “Universum History” documentary “The Eternal Emperor – The True Story of Franz Joseph” by Martin Koddenberg – to be seen on Friday, December 22nd, 2023, at 10:35 p.m. on ORF 2 – is a cinematic approach to the private Franz Joseph, who was prepared for his major role as regent from an early age – but ultimately had to fail. The film is an Austrian-German co-production between ORF, pre tv, ZDF and ARTE, which sheds a completely new light on the well-known emperor – an emperor whose childhood traumas would overshadow his entire life. In the “Universum History” docudrama “Elisabeth – Empress on the Run” (11:20 p.m.) by Stefan Ludwig, Sunnyi Melles then shows an Elisabeth that we hardly know: an aging, contradictory and at the same time fascinating, modern woman, beyond all Sisi romance.
Franz Joseph was born in Schönbrunn in 1830. His mother Sophie encourages neatness, discipline and hard work. What’s more: Franz Joseph is trained through hard drills to be a well-adjusted fulfiller of his duties. The highest maxims are Catholicism and military training. During the revolution of 1848 – Franz Joseph was 18 years old at the time – his mother pushed forward the replacement of the leadership in the Habsburg house. She persuades both her brother-in-law to abdicate and her husband to renounce the imperial crown. Franz Joseph is proclaimed emperor. It is also mother Sophie who encourages her son to marry one of his two Bavarian cousins. But after the wedding it becomes clear that “Sisi” completely rejects the role intended for her as empress. The relationship between her and Franz Joseph will be an unhappy one – for long stretches – throughout her life.
Politically, things are simmering in his empire. Revolutionaries from different nations are demanding more and more autonomy, and the existence of Franz Joseph’s monarchy is threatened. The emperor always responds with military severity: the preservation of the old becomes the decisive leitmotif of his life. But in the end he can no longer stop the flow of time.
“The film’s examination of the biography of Emperor Franz Joseph makes it clear that the ‘ideal world’ of the imperial family is a myth,” says director Martin Koddenberg. With his documentary he wanted to explore the question of the core of Franz Joseph’s nature. Franz Joseph was probably a ruler for long periods who ruled stoically and with an iron hand. An emperor who, guided by his mother, wanted to preserve the empire at the head of the state and hardly allow his subjects any independence. “One inevitably comes across the long shadow of Franz Joseph’s mother Sophie, who shaped his obsessive personality. “Franz Joseph gets in his own way and misses out on opportunities – both politically and privately,” said Koddenberg.