EMPRESS SISSI
I was a very little child when the movie series about Sissi were presented in the cinemas of my hometown.
Sissi was impersonated by the lovely actress Romy Schneider, and each minute was of sheer enchantment.
Elizabeth, or Sissi, was like a breath of fresh air in the austere court. The expurgated story of Sissi and Franz Joseph was one of the gorgeous things I remember from my childhood.
Recently I looked for the films in videoshops and watched all over again, with the same wonder.
Here is Sissi’s history, which was so very different from the fairy tale …
(Bellatryx)
Empress Sissi
Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie, Duchess in Bavaria and Princess of Bavaria (December 24, 1837 – September 10, 1898), of the House of Wittelsbach, was the Empress consort of Austria and Queen consort of Hungary due to her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph. Her father was Maximilian, Duke in Bavaria, and her mother was Ludovika, Royal Princess of Bavaria; her family home was Castle Possenhofen. From an early age, she was called Sisi (or Sissi in films and novels) by family and friends.
Her life
She was born in Munich, Bavaria. In the summer of 1853, Elisabeth, aged 15, accompanied her mother and her older sister, Helene, on a trip to the resort of Bad Ischl, Upper Austria [1], where they hoped Helene would attract the attention of their cousin, 23-year-old Franz Joseph, then Emperor of Austria. Instead, Franz Joseph chose Elisabeth, and the couple were married in Vienna on the 24th of April 1854.
Rightly called “the Diana of her day,” Elisabeth had difficulty adapting to the strict etiquette practiced at the Habsburg court. Nevertheless she bore the Emperor three children in quick succession: Archduchess Sophie of Austria (1855–1857), Archduchess Gisela of Austria (1856–1932), and the hoped-for crown prince, Rudolf (1858–1889). A decade later, Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria (1868–1924) followed. Elisabeth was denied any major influence on her own children’s upbringing, however — they were raised by her mother-in-law Sophie, and soon after Rudolf’s birth the marriage started to deteriorate, undone by Franz Josef’s infidelities and Elisabeth’s increasingly erratic behavior (her family, the Wittelsbachs, had a history of mental instability).
She embarked on a life of travel, seeing very little of her offspring, visiting places such as Madeira, Hungary, England, and Corfu, where she commissioned the building of a castle which she called Achilleion — after her death the building was sold to the German Emperor Wilhelm II). She also became famed for her influential fashion sense and her beauty, diet, and exercise regimens, which reduced her to near-emaciation; her feverish passion for sports, particularly riding, and a series of reputed lovers, including George “Bay” Middleton, a dashing Anglo–Scot who was probably the father of Clementine Ogilvy Hozier (Mrs. Winston Churchill).
Kaiserin Elisabeth, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter
National unrest within the Habsburg monarchy caused by the rebellious Hungarians led, in 1867, to the foundation of the Austro–Hungarian double monarchy, making Elisabeth Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. Elisabeth had always sympathized with the Hungarian cause and, reconciled and reunited with her alienated husband, she joined Franz Joseph in Budapest, where their coronation took place. In due course, their fourth child, Archduchess Marie Valerie was born (1868–1924). Afterwards, however, she again took up her former life of restlessly travelling through Europe, decades of what basically became a walking trance.
In 1889, Elisabeth’s life was shattered by the death of her only son: 31 year-old Crown Prince Rudolf and his young lover Baroness Mary Vetsera were found dead, apparently suicide. The scandal is known by the name Mayerling, after the name Rudolf’s hunting lodge in Lower Austria.
On September 10, 1898, in Geneva, Switzerland, Elisabeth, aged 60, was stabbed to death with a file in a pointless act. Reportedly, her assassin, a young man called Luigi Lucheni, had hoped to kill a prince from the House of Orléans and, failing to find him, turned on Elisabeth instead as she was walking along the promenade of Lake Geneva about to board a steamship for Montreux. As Lucheni afterward said, “I wanted to kill a royalty. It did not matter which one.” Bleeding to death from a puncture wound to the heart, Elisabeth’s last words were “What happened to me?”
The empress was buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna’s city centre which for centuries served as the imperial burial place.
The myth
While Elisabeth’s role and influence on Austro-Hungarian politics should not be overestimated (she is only marginally mentioned in scholarly books on Austrian history), she has undoubtedly become a 20th century icon, often compared to Diana, Princess of Wales. A free yet tragic spirit who abhorred conventional court protocol, she has inspired filmmakers and theatre people alike.
In the 1980s, Brigitte Hamann, a historian renowned for her book on Hitler’s early years in Vienna (see bibliography), wrote a biography of Elisabeth, again fuelling interest in Franz Joseph’s consort.
Tourism has profited enormously from the renewed interest in Elisabeth and vice versa, both in Austria and abroad. Apart from the usual souvenirs such as T-shirts and coffee mugs, visitors are eager to see the various residences frequented by Elisabeth at different points in her life. These include her apartments in Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the imperial villa in Ischl, the Achilleon in Corfu, Greece, and her summer residence in Gödöllő, Hungary.
In film
In the German-speaking world, her name will forever be associated with a trilogy of romantic films about her life directed by Ernst Marischka starring a young and still unknown Romy Schneider in the title role:
Sissi (1955)
Sissi — die junge Kaiserin (1956) (Sissi — The Young Empress)
Sissi — Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin (1957) (Sissi — Fateful Years of an Empress)
The three films, now newly restored, are shown every few years on Austrian and German TV and have done much to create the myth surrounding Elisabeth. It may be assumed that for the average Austrian these films are the only source of knowledge as far as Elisabeth’s life is concerned. A condensed version dubbed in English was published under the title Forever My Love.
There is also a 1991 movie entitled Sisi/Last Minute.
In music
main article: see Elisabeth (Musical)
In 1992, the musical Elisabeth premièred at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. Written by Michael Kunze (libretto, lyrics) and Sylvester Levay (music) it has also been produced successfuly in other parts of Europe.
Literature
Brigitte Hamann: The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Knopf: 1986) (ISBN 0394537173) (410pp.).
Brigitte Hamann: Sissi, Elisabeth, Empress of Austria (Taschen America: 1997) (ISBN 3822878650) (short, illustrated).
Barry Denenburg: The Royal Diaries Elisabeth, The Princess Bride
Matt Pavelich: Our Savage (Shoemaker & Hoard: 2004) (ISBN 159376023X) (270pp.).
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Empress Elisabeth
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Empress Elisabeth
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Empress Elisabeth
http://www.kaiserin-elisabeth.net/english/
Sissi movies at IMDb:
1932 animation movie
Sissi, 1955 movie
Sissi - Die junge Kaiserin, 1956 movie
Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin, 1957 movie
“Princess Sissi”, 1997 animation TV series
Sissi, l’impératrice rebelle, 2004 TV film
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