The Familien-Fideikommissbibliothek

The Familien-Fideikommissbibliothek (Family and Fideicommiss Library) of Habsburg- Lorraine is one of the largest and most important collections of a ruling family, arising in the 19th century and containing not only printed books but also manuscripts, maps and an extraordinarily large collection of portraits. It emerged from the private library of the Habsburg Emperor Francis II (I), who, shortly before his death in 1835, declared his book collection to be a fideicommissum: i.e., an indivisible property of the ruling dynasty that could not be sold. The private library of Emperor Francis, which was built between 1784 and 1835, was covered in detail in a book published in 2015. The present publication is dedicated to the period from 1835 to 1918. During the first phase of this period up to around 1870 the collection stagnated; the main task was to comply with the legal requirements of the fideicommissum and to sift through and catalog the existing holdings. After Emperor Franz Joseph inherited the fideicommissum upon the death of his father Archduke Franz Karl in 1878, i.e., took over the supervision of the collection, he combined it with his own library and that of his uncle Emperor Ferdinand. He also saw to the recruitment of qualified and highly motivated library directors. The first to act as such was Alois Moritz von Becker and after his death Joseph von Zhishman, both of whom were former teachers of Crown Prince Rudolf. This marked the beginning of a phase of progressive and innovative development for the collection. It was gradually opened to the general public for research, exhibitions and scientific inquiries, among other things. In addition, works related to the Danube Monarchy and its ruling house as well as writings and drawings owned or created by Habsburgs in their private book holdings increasingly ended up in the Fideikommissbibliothek (including the private library of Crown Prince Rudolf). Franz Joseph`s school books and children`s drawings were also part of the Fideikommissbibliothek. In this way it acquired the character of a Habsburg collection. Consequently, at the turn of the century the idea arose to build a Habsburg museum with holdings from the Fideikommissbibliothek, a kind of memory space for the dynasty. However, this plan was never realized and was forgotten with the end of the monarchy. After the founding of the First Republic, the Fideikommissbibliothek was nationalized on the basis of the so-called Habsburg Law and finally incorporated into the National Library. Nevertheless, their holdings remained largely intact in those rooms in the Corps de Logis of the Neue Burg to which they came in 1908. The present publication attempts to trace the complex development of this collection in all its cultural, social and political facets.

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