The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria

Product Information

Hamann, Brigitte (2010). The reluctant empress: a biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0571271306.

The Museum Ludwig owns 18 of the empress's photo albums, consisting of about 2,000 photographs. The exhibition in Cologne shows a sample of them, including images of Sisi with her dogs or scenes from her family life. She also collected pictures of female artists and actresses who had a bad reputation in royal society at the time. There are several statues of Empress Elisabeth in Slovakia: a bronze statue by Gyula Donáth from 1903 at the Bardejov spa in Bardejov and busts in Poltár and in Prešov. The Elisabeth Bridge connecting the towns Komárno in Slovakia and Komárom in Hungary (which used to be one town at the time when it was built in 1892), is named after the Empress. [54] Now, Sisi even has her own trending hashtag:#thatgirl.Under this hashtag, beautiful, young, healthy, athletic women post videos on social media, presenting their morning, fitness, eating or sleeping routines. The message of #thatgirl:You only need to followthese routines to be as beautiful, young, healthy, athletic and happy as these women... The unhappy empress Ava Gardner played Empress Elisabeth in the 1968 film Mayerling, in which Omar Sharif starred as Crown Prince Rudolf.In 1889, Elisabeth's life was shattered by the death of her only son Rudolf, who was found dead together with his young lover Baroness Mary Vetsera, in what was suspected to be a murder–suicide on Rudolf's part. The scandal was known as the "Mayerling incident" after the location of Rudolf's hunting lodge in Lower Austria, where they were found. Journalist Jennifer Bowers Bahney wrote the non-fiction narrative of the theft of the Koechert diamond and pearl jewel titled Stealing Sisi's Star: How a Master Thief Nearly Got Away with Austria's Most Famous Jewel, [70] published by McFarland & Co., June 2015. Sisi In England also reveals the extraordinary ‘Grand Tour’ that her son Crown Prince Rudolf made to Britain and Ireland as part of his education to be a future emperor. The liberally-minded prince spent a month visiting factories, a workhouse, courts, theatres and museums. Crown Prince Rudolf was shown the linen mills of Belfast and then stayed in Dublin where he attended a state ball at Dublin Castle and inspected the Guinness brewery, the Bank of Ireland and Trinity College. In a sense, Empress Elisabeth can be considered a pioneer when it comes to collecting early photographs. The medium was fairy new, after all, having been officially introduced in 1839 by the French painter Louis Daguerre.

The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 created the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Andrássy was made the first Hungarian prime minister and in return, he saw that Franz Joseph and Elisabeth were officially crowned King and Queen of Hungary in June. [17] Safronova, Valeriya (7 October 2022). "An Empress Ahead of Her Time is Having a Pop Culture Moment". The New York Times. It was during her time abroad that she started her photo collection, which is now on display at Museum Ludwig in Cologne. Among the pictures shown are three so-called "beauty albums," bound in fine leather. In them, Sisi collected pictures of women to study their appearances. "I am creating a beauty album, and am now collecting photographs for it, only of women," she wrote to her brother-in-law, Archduke Ludwig Viktor, in the 1860s. "Any pretty faces you can muster at Angerer's or other photographers, I ask you to send me."The princess, who was seen as conventionally beautiful, was fascinated by the interplay of seeing and being seen. The Cologne exhibition features a number of photos collected by Sisi at a time when photography was a new medium. Image: Oliver Berg/dpa/picture alliance An early collector A companion novel to the six-episode Netflix series The Empress, also titled The Empress, and written by Gigi Griffis, was published in 2022.Pataki, Allison (17 February 2015). The Accidental Empress: A Novel. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781476790220. Stefan Haderer: Under the Spell of a Myth: Empress Sisi in Greece (KDP Publishing: 2022) ( ISBN 979-8844219504) The birth of a male heir, Rudolf, improved her standing at court considerably, but her health suffered under the strain, and she would often visit Hungary for its more relaxed environment. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary, and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867. Bearman, Joshuah Art of the Steal: On the Trail of World's Most Ingenious Thief, "Wired" Magazine, 22 March 2010 Haderer, Stefan, Empress Elisabeth's Final Odyssey, European Royal History Journal, Issue 64, Vol. 11.4, Aug 2008