Walburga Habsburg Douglas
Walburga Habsburg Douglas | |
|---|---|
 Archduchess Walburga at the European People's Party, Bonn | |
| Born | 5 October 1958 Berg am Starnberger See, Germany |
| Title | Countess Douglas |
| Spouse(s) | Count Archibald Douglas
(m. 1992) |
| Children | 1 son |
| Parents |
|
Countess Walburga Douglas (born 5 October 1958), née Walburga Habsburg-Lothringen, is a German-born Swedish lawyer and politician, who served as a member of the Riksdag of Sweden for the Moderate Party from 2006 to 2014. She is the vice-president of the Paneuropean Union and a board member of the Institute for Information on the Crimes of Communism.
Early life[]
Born in 1958 in Berg am Starnberger See, Germany, she is the fifth daughter of Otto von Habsburg, last crown prince of Austria-Hungary, and of Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen.[1] She was baptized under the given names Walburga Maria Franziska Helene Elisabeth.[1]
At the time of her birth, her father was stateless, domiciled in Germany on a Spanish diplomatic passport. Walburga was banished from the Republic of Austria from birth and well into adult life, along with her siblings, by the Habsburg Law that had been in effect since 1938, having been (re)imposed by the Nazis. The Austrian Republic was forced to repeal the banishment of Walburga and her family, which was found to violate their human rights, as a precondition for admission to the European Union.[citation needed]
She is a granddaughter of the last Austrian emperor, Charles I, and a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.[1] Her ancestral titles (by now abolished[2]) are Archduchess Walburga of Austria, Archduchess of Austria, Princess of Hungary and Bohemia, with the style of Her Imperial and Royal Highness (HI&RH). Her family used the traditional titles as titles of pretense during their exile in Germany when she was a child.[citation needed] She does not currently use her ancestral titles actively in her daily life[3][unreliable source?]; however by law she holds the title Countess Douglas in the Kingdom of Sweden, her current country of residence and citizenship.
Career[]
Professional career[]
| hideAustrian Royalty |
| House of Habsburg-Lorraine |
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| Francis I (Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor) |
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| Ferdinand I |
| Franz Joseph I |
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| Charles I |
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After her Abitur graduation in 1977 in Tutzing, Bavaria, she studied canonical law to the doctoral level in Salzburg. From 1979 to 1992 she worked as an assistant at the European Parliament. In 1983 she studied at the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C., and worked at the office of Reader's Digest in the same city. She worked for the Ministry of Information of the Sultanate of Oman from 1985–1992, and in 2004 she became a member of the board of the Arab International Media Forum in London.[citation needed]
Political career[]
In 1973 she co-founded Paneuropa-Jugend Deutschland, and was its chairperson in Bavaria, and vice chairperson on the national level. In 1977 she founded Brüsewitz-Zentrum (Christlich-Paneuropäisches Studienwerk). From 1980 to 1988 she was assistant international Secretary General of the international Paneuropean Union, 1988 to 2004 she was its Secretary General and she is its executive vice chairperson since 2004.[citation needed]
She was one of the organisers of the Paneuropa-Picknick at the Iron Curtain on the 19 August 1989, on the border between Hungary and Austria. At this occasion, the fence was opened for the first time, letting more than 660 Germans from the GDR escape from the east. This was the largest number of escapees since the Berlin Wall was built and is seen by many as one of the main symbols of the fall of Eastern European Communism.[citation needed]
Since 2003 she is the chairperson of the local branch of the Swedish Moderate Party in Flen and on the board of the regional organisation of the party in Södermanland. She is a member of the board of the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation since 2005, a foundation closely linked to the Moderate Party.[citation needed]
In 1999 and 2004 she ran for the European Parliament for the Moderate Party, in 2002 and 2006 she ran for the national parliament (riksdagen). She was elected, 17 September 2006 to the Swedish Parliament, in an election which showed the greatest support for the Moderate Party since 1928. Chair of the Swedish Parliamentary delegation to the OSCE since 2006. She was re-elected to the Swedish Parliament in 2010.[citation needed]
She is a board member of the Institute for Information on the Crimes of Communism.[citation needed]
Personal life[]
Walburga married the Swedish Count Carl Axel Archibald Douglas (born 27 November 1949 in Stockholm), son of Count Archibald Douglas and Baroness Margareta Lagerfelt, on 5 December 1992 in Budapest, Hungary.[1] Her husband's family is a prominent noble family in Sweden, descended from the Scots Robert Douglas, Count of Skenninge, member of the Scottish Clan Douglas and founder of the Swedish branch of this noble house. The family's comital title, conferred by Queen Christina of Sweden in 1654, is legally recognized in the country.[citation needed]. Her husband is a first cousin of Princess Elisabeth, Duchess in Bavaria, and her siblings Rosita Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, and Count Gustaf Douglas, and first cousin once removed of Sophie, Hereditary Princess of Liechtenstein.[citation needed]
They have a son, Count Mauritz Otto Wenzel[4] Douglas (born 30 March 1994 in Stockholm).[citation needed] They live at Ekensholm Castle in Sweden.
Honours[]
House of Habsburg: Dame of the Imperial and Royal Order of the Starry Cross, 1st Class
: Knight of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
References and notes[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser XVI. "Haus Österreich". C.A. Starke Verlag, 2001, pp. 90-92. ISBN 978-3-7980-0824-3.
- ^ "Law of April 3, 1919, on the referral from the state and the takeover of the assets of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine". Rechtsinformationssystems des Bundes. Archived from the original on 30 September 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
- ^ Daniel Pereira interviews HRH Walburga Habsburg
- ^ "Riksdagens enda prinsessa".
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Walburga Habsburg Douglas. |
- Douglas Family Website
- Walburga Habsburg Douglas - Riksdag website
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- 1958 births
- Living people
- Austrian princesses
- House of Habsburg-Lorraine
- Members of the Riksdag
- Austrian Roman Catholics
- Swedish people of Austrian descent
- Swedish people of Croatian descent
- Swedish people of German descent
- Swedish people of Hungarian descent
- Swedish countesses
- House of Douglas and Angus