HISTORIOGRAPHY BETWEEN MYTHS AND LEGENDS - EPISODE 7

YOUTUBE PREMIERE FROM KREISKY'S LIVING ROOM

Rudolf Scholten and wolfgang Maderthaner

HISTORICAL WRITING BETWEEN MYTHS AND LEGENDS - Episode 7

Frederick the Fair, Albrecht the Lame and Rudolf the Founder

In this - seventh - instalment of their discussions on myths and legends in Austrian history, Rudolf Scholten and Wolfgang Maderthaner focus on the Habsburg Frederick (1289-1330), who was later given the nickname „the Fair“. Unlike his father Albrecht I and his grandfather Rudolf I (the first Habsburg ruler of Austria), Frederick was not a man of power. When he was elected Roman-German king, his cousin, the Wittelsbach Ludwig of Bavaria, competed with him; the electors were divided - and ultimately elected both as king. 1322 sees the decisive battle of Mühldorf (the last great knightly battle without firearms). Bavarian Ludwig is victorious and Frederick is imprisoned for three years. Afterwards, the two agree on dual rule - a unique power structure in the Middle Ages. However, Frederick remained the weaker one, preferring to devote himself to spiritual matters, while Louis had himself crowned emperor by the Pope in 1328. Frederick died two years later; he was buried in the Carthusian monastery he had founded in Mauerbach. He is succeeded as ruler of Austria by his brother Albrecht II (1298-1358), who was plagued by polyarthritis and known as the Lame, but also - in view of his mediation skills - the Wise. His son and successor Rudolf IV, known as the Founder, expanded Vienna as the Habsburg capital.

In Kreisky's living room, Rudolf Scholten and Wolfgang Maderthaner talk about machinations in the election of German kings, about the role of the Pope in the European power structure of the time, about sibling rivalries in the House of Habsburg, about arrangements with other ruling houses, about defining events of the time - from fire disasters and uprisings to the plague - and how a forged document secured the Habsburgs' position in the Roman Empire.

Wolfgang Maderthaner, historian, president of the Association for the History of the Labour Movement

Rudolf Scholten, President of the Bruno Kreisky Forum