Franzi & Soph - Love and Hate Until Death at Castle Eckartsau

This is the story of a forbidden love in the House of Habsburg, which managed to prevail against all odds, but also gave rise to an unbridled hatred towards all adversaries.

In all openness, it is told how the sickly, dissatisfied, and weak Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este became a healthy and strong-willed heir to the throne with new perspectives for the monarchy through his love for the Bohemian Countess Sophie Chotek of Chotkowa.

A man who did not want to give up either his love or the crown and was able to assert himself against the marriage laws of the Habsburg court and the rigid mindset of the monarch, Emperor Franz Joseph.

A woman who was willing to see herself and her children excluded from court life through a morganatic marriage and was treated with indignity for this love.

This love had a great advocate in Emperor Franz Joseph: Archduchess Marie Therese, the esteemed stepmother of Franz Ferdinand. She was the only confidante to witness the beginning of this relationship, the tragic end of this marriage, and the upbringing of the three orphaned children.

"When one of us loves someone, there is always some little detail in the family tree that prohibits the marriage, and so it happens that man and woman are always related to each other twenty times over. The result is that half of the children are fools and epileptics."
(Franz Ferdinand on the marriage laws of the House of Habsburg)

Following this, a small hunting snack is served. The hunting horn players from Eckartsau will perform.