1947: The Austro-Egyptian chance for the Holy Land

Cairo, February 1947: Many deposed European royals from Italy, Bulgaria and Albania enjoyed the hospitality of Princess Shivakiar. Another illustrous guest arrived in Cairo on a travel passport of the Principality of Monaco to join the royal circle: Otto Habsburg-Lothringen, the former Crown Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The royals had a good time in the palace. Enjoying good talks, good food and drinks in an enchanting ‘‘One Thousand and One Nights‘‘ ambience. At the same time, the conflict between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land was more and more escalating. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which was responsible for the region since the end of World War I, as it had the Mandate by the United Nations (and its forerunner, the League of Nations) to administer the Holy Land, was not inclined to sacrifice any longer the lives of British soldiers, which were targeted both by Arab and Jewish extremists. So it was clear that the British would soon leave the Holy Land and that this would lead to even more bloodshed. Princess Shivakiar, who was an important advisor to the young Egyptian King Farouk, developed a bold proposal for the Holy Land: Reestablishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

And the King of Jerusalem was there, present in Cairo: Otto Habsburg-Lothringen. His claim to the Crown of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the crown of that crusader state which was established in 1099 and after 1291 remained as titular claim, was the most solid one as it was the oldest one. (Interestingly, the first Head of State of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Godfrey of Bouillon, from the County of Flanders, had refused to call himself King of Jerusalem and instead preferred the titles of Princeps and Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri, because he was convinced that only one person had the right to be called King of Jerusalem: Jesus Christ.) Sure, the Spanish Bourbons also claimed and still claim the Crown of Jerusalem. And indeed even Felipe, the incumbent King of Spain, today still claims the Crown of Jerusalem, just like his father Juan Carlos, the abdicated King of Spain, also does. But the claim of the Spanish Bourbons to Jerusalem was somehow ‘‘stolen‘‘ from the Habsburg Dynasty. Because when the Bourbons defeated the Habsburgs in the Spanish War of Succession, the Spanish Bourbons simply added the Habsburg titles to the list of their own titles. But in 1947, there was no King of Spain.

Spain was ruled by the far-right dictator Francisco Franco, who had become ruler of Spain after a bloody civil war from 1936 to 1939 with the massive support by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. And although Franco himself favoured the return to Monarchy after his death, that scenario was not yet the general consensus in his regime. FET y de las JONS (Falange), the sole legal party of Franco’s Regime, was not 100% in favour of restoring the monarchy. Indeed there were also strong anti-capitalist, republican, national-syndicalist and even national-anarchist tendencies in the Falange. Besides that, it was unclear and very much disputed at that time, which Bourbon Prince would have the (theoretical) right to the Spanish Crown – and thus also to the (titular) Crown of Jerusalem. So the claim of Otto Habsburg-Lothringen to the Crown of Jerusalem was the most solid one. Princess Shivakiar’s idea was simple and charming: Otto Habsburg-Lothringen should marry an Egyptian Princess. Then Mandatory Palestine should be transformed into the independent, sovereign nation Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Muslim population would accept it due to a Muslim Queen and the support of Egypt, the Jewish and Christian population would accept it because of Otto. Indeed many Jewish inhabitants of Mandatory Palestine were originally from Austria-Hungary. And the Jews had been the most loyal Citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, because Austria-Hungary had a supranational character.

Unlike e.g. the German Empire or the Russian Empire, where the rulers never made a secret out of their antisemitism, both Emperor-King Franz Joseph I and Emperor-King Charles I (Otto's father) had never been adherents of antisemitism. The pan-european, supranational identity of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy had been the very opposite to the poison of ethnic nationalism, racism and antisemitism. Thus many Jews very sad about the end of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918 as they felt that this would mark the beginning of their exclusion and persecution. Which indeed was the case. In 1920, less than two years after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the first antisemite law was introduced in Hungary. That was the beginning of a development that spread and escalated more and more... So there was a chance that Otto would be welcomed warmly by many former Jewish Subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The British might also have supported the plan as Otto Habsburg was seen positively by the British due to his friendship with Sir Winston Churchill.

In 1945, Churchill even wanted to established some kind of renewed decentralized version of Austria-Hungary after World War II. That project was called the Danube Federation. The Danube Federation would have been a federation between Austria, Hungary, Carpathian Ukraine, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and maybe also South Tyrol, with an option for other countries in the region to join later. So that Danube Federation would have been rather some kind of an early regional Central and East European version of the European Union, than a restauration of the Habsburg Empire. Otto Habsburg-Lothringen was supposed to become the Head of the Danube Federation. (No matter if his title would have been that of a President, Emperor or King.) The Danube Federation was supposed to function as a neutral buffer state against the Soviet Union and would have had the status of an Allied Power. However, the Soviet Union had rejected that plan and the Americans did not take it serious and thought that Churchill was completely drunk while making the proposal. Well, maybe Churchill was drunk, as he was often drunk. But the proposal of the Danube Federation indeed was meant 100% serious.

So now, in 1947, there was the second chance within less than two years for Otto to become a Head of State. Unfortunately, in 1947 Sir Winston Churchill was not the incumbent British Prime Minister. Churchill’s Conservative and Unionist Party had lost the 1945 United Kingdom general election and Clemet Attlee, the leader of the Labour Party, was Prime Minister. Churchill again became Prime Minister in 1951, but then it was already too late to do anything fundamentally about the situation the Holy Land and the Egyptian Monarchy at that time had already become unstable, as a conspiration of pan-arab, nationalist and socialists officers, the Free Officers Movement, was already preparing for the revolution, which happened one year later in 1952 and lead to the disenthronement of the (ethnic Albanian) Muhammad Ali Dynasty and the declaration of the Republic in 1953.

Let’s imagine for a moment that Princess Shivakiar’s proposal in 1947 would have been actively supported by the British and would have been really implemented. There would have been no military invasion by the Arab nations. But for sure there would have been an insurgency. Both radical Muslims and radical Jews would have fought against the Kingdom of Jerusalem, as they had fought against the British presence before.

But at that time, mainstream Islam was much more tolerant, relaxed and moderate than today. The rapid rise of modern Salafi Jihadism is rather a development of the last decades. So with the support of Egypt and its Arab neighbours, at threat for the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the Muslim side would not have been such a serious issue. Rather it would have been the radical Jewish nationalist, who would not have accepted a multi-religious, multi-ethnic state with a Christian King and a Muslim Queen. Otto could have solved that issue by appointing a Jewish Prime Minister. Back then, the strongest political force along the Jewish people in the Holy Land was, unlike today, not far-right, religious ethno-nationalism, but rather a secular, left-wing Labour Zionism. So with a left-wing Jewish Prime Minister maybe – and only maybe – such a renewed Kingdom of Jerusalem could have had a serious chance to bring peace and stability to the Holy Land. However, with no active support from the British and with escalating violence in the Holy Land, this bold proposal for a Kingdom of Jerusalem soon vanished like a Fata Morgana in the Egyptian desert, almost becoming itself a fairy tale from ‘‘One Thousand and One Nights‘‘.