This is how tragically Empress Sisi died
December 13, 2021 – 8:28 am Clock
“The blood stain on her clothes seemed to get bigger and bigger”
The breaths that Empress Elisabeth of Austria, called Sisi, took – they are precisely documented last. Fanny Meyer, wife of the then owner of the Hotel Beau Rivage, wrote down the events of September 10, 1898: “Lying on an improvised stretcher made of six oar blades, padded with canvas and pillows, the Empress was brought to the hotel. There was general panic at its height. I followed the sad procession in the Empress’s room. The doctor who had been summoned could no longer save her. The blood stain on her clothing seemed to grow inexorably. After 20 minutes she took her last breath. “
Sisi was almost photographed again the evening before her death
Sisi has been speaking incognito at Lake Geneva for a few days, and on September 9th she came to Geneva, where she resided in the Hotel Beau Rivage under the name of Countess von Hohenems. However, word of her true identity had already got around. And that meant danger to the empress. In the 1890s, attacks with an anarchist background on heads of state and regents increased, and Switzerland was considered a stronghold of the anarchist movement. For this reason, the Swiss police warned the Empress and offered her personal protection. However, she transmitted it, allegedly with the words: What happens, happens.
Sisi spent the evening before her death, accompanied by her lady-in-waiting, Irma Sztaray, in the villa of Baroness Julie Rothschild, whom she had invited to dinner. Her great-great-great-grandson Eduard von Habsburg reported that a picture of the Empress, who had not had her photographed after the age of 30, was almost taken again. But after long hesitation, she gave up. You have to stay true to a principle, she is supposed to have told her lady-in-waiting, even if it only serves vanity. But it’s a shame.
What happened on Lake Geneva that day?
Another story about Sisi’s last evening goes back to her lady-in-waiting. Sisi is said to have said when looking at the Baroness’ orchid cultivation: “I wish my soul could slip away into heaven through a very small opening in my heart.” After the assassination, Countess Sztaray interpreted this sentence as a premonition of Sisi’s fate, because it was supposed to be a very small wound that ultimately brought the empress’s death.
For September 10th, Elisabeth had planned to take the paddle steamer “Geneve” across Lake Geneva to Caux, accompanied by her lady-in-waiting. At about 1.30 p.m., she left the Hotel Beau Rivage, located directly on the lake shore. Fanny Meyer described the dramatic things that then happened on the lakeside promenade Quai Mont Blanc as follows: “A stranger approached the ladies and rushed towards the Empress. He hit her with a clenched fist and then took flight. Elisabeth fell Ground. People ran over when the Countess began to scream. A coachman helped her up. “It’s nothing,” she said. “We have to hurry or we will lose the boat.” On the way to the landing stage the Empress wanted her lady-in-waiting: ‘What on earth did this man want, did he want to steal my watch?’ “
But “this man” didn’t want her watch, he wanted to kill her. In his clenched fist he had a sharp file that he thrust into her heart. A small weapon that left such a small wound that no one, not even the Empress, noticed it. As if nothing had happened, she went on and boarded the ship that was to take her across Lake Geneva. But a few minutes after casting off, she collapsed. The ship returned to the dock and Sisi was brought back to the hotel, where, according to the death certificate, she died at 2:40 p.m.
Why did Sisi have to die?
While the empress was receiving the sacraments, the police had already caught the assassin. His name: Luigi Lucheni, an Italian unskilled worker. Lucheni was a staunch anarchist and had wanted to attract attention for a long time with a special assassination attempt. Originally he wanted to kill the Italian King Umberto I, but could not afford the trip to Italy, then field his choice of the French nobleman Henri Philippe Marie d’Orléans. However, he canceled his trip to Geneva at short notice.
Finally, Lucheni led the Empress of Austria to be in the city and set her sights on her. Immediately after the crime, he was overwhelmed by passers-by and handed over to the police. When he heard of Sisi’s death, he was proud and, according to the interrogation protocol, shouted: “Long live the anarchy! Long live the anarchists!” Lucheni was sentenced to life imprisonment and committed suicide on October 19, 1898.
After the autopsy, the body of Empress Elisabeth was transferred to Vienna and buried there on September 17, 1898 in the Capuchin Crypt. Elisabeth’s sarcophagus now stands next to those of her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph I, and her son, Crown Prince Rudolf. Sisi’s last wish to be buried by the sea did not come true. All her life she had defied the conventions of the imperial court, in death she had to submit to them. (Tel.)
Streaming tip: From 12.12.2021 YOU can watch the new Sisi event series on RTL + and from December 28th, 2021 on RTL on TV.