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Austria-Hungary's history during Franz Ferdinand's lifetime was perhaps its most momentous. Tremendous change was afoot, culminating in the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy in 1918, followed by its dismemberment in 1919. The elegance of the Biedermeier period gave way, almost imperceptively, to the fin-de-siècle 'glamour' that many (including this humble webauthor!) indelibly associate with the waning years of the Habsburg dynasty and its empire, which in turn gave way to the solemnity of broken Austria's interwar years of struggling to find an identity before being absorbed by one of her lesser sons into his Third Reich and forcibly given one. Interesting personalities abounded during that time: Franz Josef, his beautiful consort 'Sissi,' Kronprinz Rudolf, his lover Maria Vetsera, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie Chotek, Leopold Graf Berchtold, Franz Baron Conrad von Hötzendorff, Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss and his brothers, Gustav Mahler, Béla Bartók, Franz Lehár, Zoltán Kodály, Arnold Schönberg, Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch, Robert Musil, Hugo von Hoffmansthal, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Adolf Loos, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, János Vaszary, Károly Ferenczy, Karl Kraus, Sigmund Freud, Peter Altenberg, Arthur Schnitzler, Viktor Adler, Karl Lueger, even a young Adolf Hitler, and a plethora of others – the list of relevant publications would be far too numerous to mention.
Besides, this was only a web-essay – and merely one among a great many that can nowadays be found dotted throughout the Internet, as a simple Google-search of "Franz Ferdinand" or "Sophie Chotek" will demonstrate. So, in keeping with one of the finest of Web adages, KISS, one shall, indeed, keep it simple, stupid!
- Wladimir Aichelburg, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand und Artstetten (Verlag Orac, Vienna 1986, 3rd edition 1991) – an informative little booklet issued on behalf of the Franz Ferdinand Museum, Schloß Artstetten, and this web-essay's main source
- Gordon Brook-Shepherd, The Austrians, a Thousand-Year Odyssey (Harper Collins 1996) – Brook-Shepherd is perhaps the foremost English-language authority on Austria and Austrian history
- Tudor Edwards, The Blue Danube, The Vienna of Franz Josef and its Aftermath (Robery Hale &Co., London 1973) – an eminently-readable and most enjoyable account of Vienna during Franz Josef's time!
- Richard C. Hall, The Balkan Wars 1912-1913, Prelude to the First World War (Warfare and History series, Routledge, London 2000) – very good and concise account of the Balkan Wars
- John Lukacs, Budapest 1900 (Grove Press, NewYork 1988) – an historical portrait of the city and its culture, 1896–1906; "Lukacs's Budapest, like Hemingway's Paris, is a moveable feast." – Chilton Williamson, Jr.
- Claudio Magris, Danube (Garzanti editore, Milano 1986; English paperback edition: Collins Harvill, London 2001) – an almost mesmerizing account of the author's journey through the historic Danubian lands; at times perhaps terse, but definitely informative!
- Frederic Morton, Thunder At Twilight, Vienna 1913/1914 (Collier Books/Macmillan Publishing, NewYork 1989) – an outstanding and highly-interesting account of both Franz Ferdinand and Vienna in that last fateful year before the Great War. Have drawn heavily from this work, ref:- Das Attentat.
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Regret must be expressed of the inability to avail oneself of the following two studies, both of which may have helped make this web-essay more cogent:
- Gordon Brook-Shepherd, Archduke of Sarajevo, The Romance and Tragedy of Franz Ferdinand of Austria (Little, Brown & Co. Boston/Toronto 1984)
- C.A. Macartney, The Habsburg Empire (London 1968) – rated by Brook-Shepherd as "the best study in English of the 1790–1918 period."
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