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Hedwig Tusar-Taxis

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Hedwig Tusar-Taxis
Born(1891-04-23)23 April 1891
Rapotín, Moravia, Austria-Hungary
Occupation(s)Spouse of the prime minister of Czechoslovakia, Vlastimil Tusar

Hedwig Tusar-Taxis (born Hedwig Welzel, also known as Hedvika Tusarová, Frau Heda Tusar and Baroness Hedda Taxis-Tusar; 23 April 1891 – unknown)[1] was, through her first marriage, the wife of Vlastimil Tusar, second Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia. Through her second marriage to Maria Emil Freiherr Taxis von Bordogna und Valnigra [de], she received the title Baroness.[2][3]

Life

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Tusar-Taxis was the daughter of Josef Welzel and his wife Adelheid.[4] She is described as having a humble background,[5] and was a teacher in Vienna before her marriage.[6]

In spring 1917, in Vienna, she met Vlastimil Tusar, then a member of the Austrian Reichsrat, who had been divorced from his first wife for five years. They married within a few months.[7][8] The Czech historian Petr Zídek [de] describes her as a "representative wife" and "party lover", who devoted her time to representing her husband.[9] She supported her husband in hosting political colleagues, diplomatic guests and local nobility, including in Prague, Berlin and Vienna.[10][5] Austrian writer Leo Heller [de] said of her "how few ministers' wives ... know how to move more pleasantly among the visitors than the blonde Mrs. Heda Tusar, the native Viennese with the friendliness of her lovely Viennese eyes and her straightforward Viennese language." Die Bühne [de] wrote of her in 1925, "the clever, graceful woman was the best attaché and the most skilful representative of the Czechoslovak embassy. She supported her husband's conciliatory attitude with her clever, charming nature."[2] Tusarová was very active in society, and skilled at organising events.[8] In the embassy building in Berlin she had the star violinist Váša Příhoda perform, among others.[11] At the Hotel Adlon she was a co-organizer of charity events.[12] A historian from the Prague National Museum has described how Tusarova and her husband were frequently photographed, even during private holidays, and considers that Tusarova stood out among political wives due to her choice of fashionable, modern clothes and hats that were "uniquely elegant and simple", inspired by Viennese fashions.[8]

However, the marriage between Hedwig and Vlastimil Tusar was questioned by the Vatican.[13] In a letter to Eugenio Pacelli, the later Pope Pius XII, the Vatican Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri, citing Clemente Micara, claims that Tusar was merely claiming that Hedwig was his wife.

Vlastimil Tusar died in March 1924 in his wife's arms.[14] According to his will, Hedvika Tusarová became the sole heir, the daughters from Vlastimil's first marriage to Štěpánka Tusarová were only given a statutory share, and Hedvika was granted custody of her step-daughters.[15]

As a widow, she commuted between Vienna, Berlin, Prague and her Hellerhof Castle [de] in the Lower Austrian Paudorf near Krems an der Donau, which she had leased in 1924.[16] On one of her trips to Vienna on 11 May 1924, she reported to Franz Kafka's biographer, Max Brod, how unhappy she was about Vlastimil's death.[17] But in July 1924, four months after Tusar's death, she married Baron Emil Taxis von Bordogna [de], a former Hussar, flying officer and horse-trainer, eight years younger than she, whom she had met at Karlsbad.[5][6] A few months after this marriage, they separated,[6] and rumors of divorce began to circulate.[18] After her separation, her name was linked with Dr Gustav Stresemann, the foreign minister of Germany.[2] Before her divorce took place in 1926, an attack on Baron Emil Taxis at Hellerhof Castle at Christmas 1925 made international headlines. Baron Taxis alleged that his attackers were Tusar-Taxis's father and brother, and that he had heard her voice inciting them.[19][20][21]

Tusar-Taxis also came under fire from the Nazi press. In 1926, she was accused of having fraudulently obtained a million-dollar inheritance from Tusar - 18 million Czech crowns - and of being the mastermind of the assassination attempt on her second husband.[22] She was accused of having stolen jewels from Konopiště Castle during a trip together with Alice Masaryková, president of the Czechoslovak Red Cross, and of being a Jew.[23] When Vlastimil Tusar's first wife died in 1928, Tusar-Taxis was described as having "attracted unpleasant attention through her affairs",[24] and it was reported that her place of residence was unknown.[25] Her date of death is also unknown.

References

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  1. ^ Hedvika, born Wenzel Tusarová. Entry in Critical Online Edition of Eugenio Pacelli's Nunciature Reports from 1917 to 1929, Biography No. 271. As of 23 February 2017.
  2. ^ a b c "Viennese society gossip. Baroness Hedda Taxis-Tusar - Countess Anny Zedtwitz - Conversations at Demel". Die Bühne (in German). No. 9. Online at ANNO. 1925. p. 75. Retrieved 22 February 2025.
  3. ^ Emil Taxis Valnigra on Ancestry. Retrieved on 5 January 2025.
  4. ^ Baptism register Rapotín for the year 1891, April 23rd
  5. ^ a b c "Die Liebesrache der Frau Taxis-Tusar". Die Stunde (in German). ANNO. 29 Dec 1925. pp. 5–6. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
  6. ^ a b c "Die zweite Ehe der Witwe der Gesandten Tusar". Neue Freie Presse. ANNO. 29 December 1925. p. 6. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
  7. ^ "Tusar, Vlastimil" (in German). Austrian Parliament. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
  8. ^ a b c Vandrovcova, Miroslava (2010). "Společnost a elegance dvacátých let hradního fotoarchivu (Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae). Series A, Historia" (PDF). Sborník Národního Muzea v Praze (in Czech). 64 (3–4): 77–108. Retrieved 28 February 2025.
  9. ^ Petr Zídek: Po boku - Třiatřicet manželek našich premiérů (1918–2012), p. 90, ISBN 978-80-242-3694-0
  10. ^ Mr. and Mrs. Tusar have the honor... reception evening at the Czecho-Slovak ambassador's in Berlin. In: Neues Wiener Journal, 7 March 1922, p. 3 (Online at ANNO)Template:ANNO/Maintenance/nwj
  11. ^ A new violinist. Article in Vorwärts (Deutschland), Wednesday, May 30, 1923. Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek. Retrieved on January 6, 2025.
  12. ^ A festival for the benefit of needy Berlin children. Article in Kölnische Zeitung, 10 December 1923. German Digital Library. Retrieved January 6, 2025.
  13. ^ Gasparri, Pietro to Pacelli, Eugenio. Vatikan, 10. January 1921. Entry in the Critical Online Edition of Eugenio Pacelli's Nunciature Reports from 1917 to 1929, Document No. 9903. As of May 14, 2013.
  14. ^ Tusar, the second Czechoslovak Prime Minister, died 100 years ago after a serious heart attack. Article by Alan Hejma in Mladá fronta Dnes, 23 March 2024. Czech. Retrieved on 6 January 2025.
  15. ^ Petr Zídek: Po boku - Třiatřicet manželek našich premiérů (1918–2012), p. 41, ISBN 978-80-242-3694-0.
  16. ^ Udo Fischer: Hellerhof, The long journey from the sunken Dietmannsdorf to the centre of the parish of Paudorf-Göttweig, page 78. (1992)
  17. ^ Max Brod: Franz Kafka - a biography. S. Fischer Verlag, 1954, page 253.
  18. ^ Small news from Czechoslovakia. Mrs. Tusar gets a divorce. In: Neuigkeits-Welt-Blatt, 28 December 1924, p. 9 (Online at ANNO)Template:ANNO/Maintenance/nwb
  19. ^ Attempted murder 99 years ago. Bloody Christmas in the Hellerhof Paudorf. Article in the NÖN, 21 December 2024.
  20. ^ Wife Orders Ambush For Former Husband; Austrian Baron Is Set Upon, Knocked Down and Robbed. Article in The New York Times, 29 December 1925.
  21. ^ "HUSBAND TROUNCED. Lured by Wife To Scene of Attack. OUTRAGE IN PARK". Daily Standard. Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. 30 December 1925. p. 5. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
  22. ^ Aus Tschechoslowakiens Rumpelkammer. (en: From Czechoslovakia's junk room.) Article in Deutsche Arbeiter-Zeitung, 20 May 1926, p. 2. Online-Archive of Austrian National Library.
  23. ^ Masaryks politisches Vermächtnis. (en: Masaryk's political legacy.) Article on Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Hedwig Tusar (Frau Tusar). Deutsche Arbeiter-Presse, 8 May 1926, p. 2. Online-Archive of Austrian National Library.
  24. ^ "Ein Roman aus den Leben". Steirische Alpenpost (in German). Online at ANNO. 13 January 1928. p. 1. Retrieved 28 February 2025.
  25. ^ "Die interessante Frau". Österreichische Illustrierte Zeitung (in German). Online at ANNO. 15 January 1928. p. 6. Retrieved 28 February 2025.

Further reading

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  • Max Brod: Franz Kafka, a biography, S. Fischer Verlag, 1954
  • Erhard Riedel: On the history of the barons and counts of Taxis-Bordogna-Valnigra and their hereditary post offices in Bozen, Trento and on the Etsch, Universitätsverlag Wagner, Innsbruck 1955.
  • Christa Rothmeier: The disenchanted idyll – 160 years of Vienna in the Czech literature, Publisher of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna (2004) ISBN 3-7001-3261-1. (Information about Hedwig Tusar-Taxis on page 375 ff). Online
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