Ex-Bulgaria Media Investor Heads Habsburg Dynasty

The coffin of Otto von Habsburg is covered with a flag of the family in St Ulrich church in Poecking, Germany 05 July 2011. The oldest son of the last emperor of Austria and Hungary died on 04 July at his house in Poecking. EPA/BGNES

Media investor Karl Habsburg-Lothringen headed the dynasty of the Habsburgs after the demise of his father Otto Habsburg-Lothringen, a direct heir to the last emperor of Austro-Hungary Karl Franz Joseph.

Otto Habsburg died in P?cking on the Starnberger Lake in Bavaria, and his funeral is scheduled for July 16 in Vienna.

Karl Habsburg is his oldest son. In Bulgaria he is most known for being a major shareholder in the WAZ media group, which until recently held wide-circulation dailies Trud and 24 Chasa.

Otto Habsburg was born November 20, 1912 in Wartholz Castle, Lower Austria. He did not succeed his father Karl I as the Emperor of Austro-Hungary, as the empire fell apart at the end of World War I in 1919.

Initially he lived in exile with his father and family, but then returned to his home country in 1966.

In 1978 he received German citizenship and became a member and activist of the conservative Christian-Social Union (CSU).

An ardent adherent to the European idea, he was a MEP from 1979 to 1999, in the end becoming the most senior member of the European Parliament.

Back in 1989 Otto Habsburg initiated the so-called "European Picknic" on the border between Hungary and Austria, which allowed some 600 Germans from Eastern Germany to go west.

After 1989 he ardently supported the integration of the countries from Eastern Europe into the EU.

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