Hedwig Tusar-Taxis
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Hedwig Tusar-Taxis | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 23 April 1891 Rapotín, Moravia, Austria-Hungary |
| Occupation | Spouse of Vlastimil Tusar |
Hedwig Tusar-Taxis (born Hedwig Welzel, also Hedvika Tusarová or Baroness Hedda Taxis-Tusar; 23 April 1891 – unknown)[1] was initially the wife of Vlastimil Tusar, second Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia. Later she was also called Baroness Hedda Taxis-Tusar through her marriage to Maria Emil Freiherr Taxis von Bordogna und Valnigra.[2][3]
Life
[edit]Hedwig Tusar-Taxis was the daughter of Josef Welzel and his wife Adelheid.[4] Little is known about her childhood and youth.
In 1917, Hedwig Welzel married Vlastimil Tusar.[5] This marriage gave her access to upper classes, especially in Prague, Berlin and Vienna.[6] The Czech historian Petr Zídek describes her as a representative wife and frivolous party lover.[7] Hedvika Tusarová was very present in society. In the embassy building in Berlin she had, among others, the star violinist Váša Příhoda perform.[8] At the Hotel Adlon she was a co-organizer of charity events.[9]
Vlastimil Tusar died in March 1924 in his wife's arms Před 100 lety druhý československý premier Tusar.[10] According to his will, Hedvika Tusarová became the sole heir, the daughters from Vlastimil's first marriage to Štěpánka Tusarová were only given a statutory share, and Hedvika, as stepmother, even received custody of the daughters.[11]
As a widow, Hedwig commuted between Vienna, Berlin, Prague and her Hellerhof Castle in the Lower Austrian Paudorf near Krems, which she had leased in 1924.[12] On one of her trips to Vienna on 11 May 1924, she reported to Franz Kafka's biographer, Max Brod, how unhappy she was about Vlastimil's death.[13] But in July 1924, four months after Tusar's death, she married Baron Emil Taxis von Bordogna. A few months after this marriage, the first rumors of divorce began to circulate.[14] Baron Emil was a bon vivant and financially bankrupt.[15] Before the divorce actually took place in 1926 after only two years of marriage, an attempted murder of Baron Emil Taxis by Hedwig's father and brother at Hellerhof Castle at Christmas 1925 made international headlines, and Hedwig herself is said to have been involved in the attack.[16][17] Hedwig's fortune was then used up. She lived penniless and socially and politically withdrawn in Vienna, until September 1973 she was registered in Vienna-Alsergrund.[18] Nothing further is known about her third marriage to the advertising entrepreneur Robert Endlicher. Her date of death is also unknown.
References
[edit]- ^ Hedvika, born Wenzel Tusarová. Entry in Critical Online Edition of Eugenio Pacelli's Nunciature Reports from 1917 to 1929, Biography No. 271. As of 23 February 2017.
- ^ Viennese society gossip. Baroness Hedda Taxis-Tusar - Countess Anny Zedtwitz - Conversations at Demel. In: Die Bühne, magazine no. 9/1925, p. 75 (Online bei ANNO)
- ^ Emil Taxis Valnigra on Ancestry. Retrieved on 5 January 2025.
- ^ Baptism register Rapotín for the year 1891, April 23rd
- ^ "Tusar, Vlastimil" (in German). Austrian Parliament. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
- ^ Mr. and Mrs. Tusar have the honor... reception evening at the Czecho-Slovak ambassador's in Berlin. In: Neues Wiener Journal, 7 March 1922, p. 3 (Online at ANNO)
- ^ Petr Zídek: Po boku - Třiatřicet manželek našich premiérů (1918–2012), p. 90, ISBN 978-80-242-3694-0
- ^ A new violinist. Article in Vorwärts (Deutschland), Wednesday, May 30, 1923. Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek. Retrieved on January 6, 2025.
- ^ A festival for the benefit of needy Berlin children. Article in Kölnische Zeitung, 10 December 1923. German Digital Library. Retrieved January 6, 2025.
- ^ Tusar, the second Czechoslovak Prime Minister, died 100 years ago after a serious heart attack. Article by Alan Hejma in Mladá fronta Dnes, 23 March 2024. Czech. Retrieved on 6 January 2025.
- ^ Petr Zídek: Po boku - Třiatřicet manželek našich premiérů (1918–2012), p. 41, ISBN 978-80-242-3694-0.
- ^ Udo Fischer: Hellerhof, The long journey from the sunken Dietmannsdorf to the centre of the parish of Paudorf-Göttweig, page 78. (1992)
- ^ Max Brod: Franz Kafka - a biography. S. Fischer Verlag, 1954, page 253.
- ^ Small news from Czechoslovakia. Mrs. Tusar gets a divorce. In: Neuigkeits-Welt-Blatt, 28 December 1924, p. 9 (Online at ANNO)
- ^ Emil Taxis disappeared from Vienna. Article in Die Stunde, 11 September 1926, archive of the Austrian National Library.
- ^ Attempted murder 99 years ago. Bloody Christmas in the Hellerhof Paudorf. Article in the NÖN, 21 December 2024.
- ^ Wife Orders Ambush For Former Husband; Austrian Baron Is Set Upon, Knocked Down and Robbed. Article in The New York Times, 29 December 1925.
- ^ Historical Registration Office of the City of Vienna, as of 2025.
Further reading
[edit]- Max Brod: Franz Kafka, a biography, S. Fischer Verlag, 1954
- Erhard Riedel: On the history of the barons and counts of Taxis-Bordogna-Valnigra and their hereditary post offices in Bozen, Trento and on the Etsch, Universitätsverlag Wagner, Innsbruck 1955.
- Christa Rothmeier: The disenchanted idyll – 160 years of Vienna in the Czech literature, Publisher of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna (2004) ISBN 3-7001-3261-1. (Information about Hedwig Tusar-Taxis on page 375 ff). Online
External links
[edit]- Dvě ženy Vlastimila Tusara? Nevěra a láska s gigolem. (de: Two women of Vlastimil Tusar? Infidelity and love with a gigolo.) Article by Petr Zídek, Lidové noviny, 8 September 2011.