Beiträge zur Rechtsgeschichte Österreichs 14. Jahrgang Heft 1/2024, pp. 72-109, 2024/06/03
On November 1, immediately after the founding of the state of German‐Austria, the former Emperor Charles I had a considerable portion of the crown jewels removed from the treasury in the Vienna Hofburg in order to have them transported to Switzerland. This article describes the legal situation at the time the jewels were exported and then after the State Treaty of St. Germain and the Habsburg Law of 1919. It discusses the Republicʹs plan to recover these parts of the crown jewels by means of a lawsuit to be brought by the ʺLawyer of the Republicʺ. It also examines the lawsuits brought by the people involved in the sale against each other and against them by the (new) Habsburg head of family, drawing on the at times lively reporting in the absence of relevant archival sources and literature.
Keywords: crown juwels – Habsburg Law – Treaty of St. Germain