Katharina Schratt, the emperor’s lover | I Woman

Gbefore passing away in the spring of 1940, Katharina Schratt was something of an icon: the living memory of an era, that of the glorious imperial monarchy of the Habsburgs. For more than thirty years this girl from Baden had been the “fiancée of the emperor”, “the uncrowned empress”.

The kings, the powerful have many women. Franz Joseph was certainly no exception. Of course he was the husband of Sissi, one of the most loved and most romanticized princesses, on paper and on the screen. Very beautiful woman, Sissi, and of great temperament. But this certainly didn’t stop her royal husband from having other affairs.

In the special case of Schratt, historians still argue about the true nature of their relationshipif she had been for the kaiser “just” a very trusted friend or lover. They had met at the Industrialists’ Ball in Vienna, when she, a successful actress, was 32 years old, and he was 55. During the decades of their relationship, the very busy sovereign who tried to hold together his mammoth empire in disintegration often found the time of write with an open heart to her «dear and good friend».

Katharina Schratt and Sissi’s approval

With Katharina, Franz was very close. Maybe also because his wife Sissi liked the popular actress very much. The empress had even favored and encouraged that relationship. By now she was detached enough to understand that placing a trustworthy woman at her husband’s side would relieve her of many tasks. A good lover would have allowed her to exempt herself from marital dutiesfree to dedicate herself to her travels and cultural interests.

Never mind if Katharina didn’t meet her rigid aesthetic standards one hundred percent: Sissi cared so much about thinness that next to her the actress seemed too plump, but it was lively, full of energy and refreshingly simple. «I met Mrs. Katharina Schratt» Sissi will write. «I am really happy to have met her, because natural and uncomplicated creatures are rarely found in the world». The beautiful book by tells us about it Joachim von Kürenberg The Empress, Life and Secrets of Katharina Schratt behind the scenes at SchönbrunnMgs Press, translated by Teresa Tricella. The author, born in 1892, who was an officer of the imperial guard and military attachéis well documented and vividly reconstructs the relationship between the Austrian actress, her emperor and above all her grateful empress, who, far from considering her a rival, considers her a dear friend.

The dream of an old age together

Franz is very sad, in a bad mood. His world is collapsing and he is tragically aware of it. He needs someone to warm his heart again and Katharina can do it. Unlike Sissi, who nibbles very listlessly at the table, the actress honors the culinary art and loves champagne. Maybe she won’t be a great performer, yet when she goes on stage this positive energy of hers is communicated to the spectators, who applaud her and come back to see her.

After the Mayerling tragedy of 1889, with the double suicide of Rodolfo and Maria Vetsera, the situation worsens: the pain of her son’s death makes Sissi even more impatient and Franz more gloomy. More and more alone, she needs a “common friend”. He has breakfast every morning at six o’clock in her house, next to the Schönbrunn botanical gardens. The emperor speaks little, but Schratt entertains him: “A pleasant, lively, pleasant conversation” that gives him the point of view of ordinary people. He is never bored like at court, “the entertainment is always witty and lively, the company is varied and excellent”, writes a Prussian diplomat. Big names in economics and finance hang out there, actors, painters, writers, scientists, even Jews, in a time of growing anti-Semitism.

She has good relationships with many famous people, including the world-famous waltz king Johann Strausswho «has in common with Mrs. Schratt, in addition to a passion for gaming, also a passion for delicacies and good wine». Franz wants his Frau Schratt by his side wherever he goes, he gives her generous gifts. She has an expensive lifestyle and a green table habit, money is never enough. But the emperor will take care of it.

Frau Schratt’s job in short is no longer that of a full-time actress: must dedicate himself to Franz. And also to Sissi, who wants her as a readerwhen he’s not traveling around the world. After Rudolph’s death, she is no longer the empress. «In our house the blows of misfortune follow each other inexorably» he sighs, perhaps already foreseeing his imminent end. “You can’t believe how grateful I am to you, Frau Schratt, I see the Emperor laughing as he did in the early days of our marriage.”

On 9 September 1898 Sissi met her destiny in Geneva, where she travels incognito, murdered by an Italian anarchist. Franz is destroyed. “I’m spared absolutely nothing,” he will say, desperately. Now Schratt is her only remaining friend. He is 68 years old, she is 45, in the meantime “she has become very corpulent” and “can only afford to play a few parts”. She will take the stage one last time in the role of Empress Maria Theresa, arousing a hornet’s nest of indignation among the court’s detractors who found it in very poor taste, but enjoying great success with the public: a farewell to the primadonna scenes. «Guests go, guests come» at the gate of Villa Schratt, because «they know the importance of being received in the home of Franz Joseph’s friend».

Perhaps they hope to grow old peacefully next to each other, Franz and Frau Schatt: when in the spring of 1911 Franz fell ill with bronchitis at the age of 80, she covered him with affectionate, somewhat old-fashioned gifts: a cape to keep on his shoulders, comfortable slippers, a red felt screen to avoid drafts from the window.

Always faithful to the vow of silence

But the heir to the Habsburg throne was killed in Sarajevo in the summer of 1914 and it’s immediately war, the first world war. On August 18, 1916, when he celebrated his 86th birthday, Franz understood that he would not be the one to win. Frau Schratt watches helplessly as it decays. «The emperor can no longer grasp the complex problems of politics; he exchanges events and people, confuses the theaters of war, victories and defeats.”

He died on November 21, 1916 of pulmonary complications. For the court, it is as if Frau Schratt also died with him. She is not mentioned in any way in his will. She sells the villa where she had been happy with Franz and rejects mind-boggling offers to give interviews or write her memoirs. She had married young to Nikolaus von Kiss, a slightly too bon vivant Hungarian gentleman from whom she had never divorced and who had given her a son, Anton: so she got closer to him, who assisted her in her old age . When in 1940 she feels that her time is approaching, faithful to his vow of silence he throws handwritten letters from Franz and Sissi into the fire. «Now I’ll find them again» she sighs happily, closing her blue eyes forever. She rests in the Hitzing cemetery, near Schönbrunn, the sumptuous palace that Franz abandoned every day to find her smile next to her.

Many books for a dynasty

For almost 40 years Mgs Press of Trieste proposes the stories of Venezia Giulia, Sissi and the Habsburg Lorraine
Mgs Press, a publishing house founded in Trieste 37 years ago, immediately dealt exclusively with topics related to the history of Trieste and Venezia Giulia (one for all: Trieste and science, by Davide Ludovisi and Federica Sgorbissa, which with 70 biographies of scientists tells the origins of scientific Trieste). It has had and still has a leading role series dedicated to the Habsburg-Lorraineinaugurated by the volume
Just as I wasn’t empressOf Stephanie of Belgium, wife of Rudolf, the heir to the throne who died in Mayerling in circumstances that have never been clarified. These are the last two titles published this year: Maria Enrichetta. From Vienna to Brussels a Habsburg queen of the Belgians, by Daniela Lasagnini; And The only one. Sissi’s most loved daughter. News and curiosities”, by Patrick Poini.

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