Otto von Habsburg (20. 11. 1912 - 4. 7. 2011) - eldest son of the last Austrian Emperor Charles I. and the crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. He was a journalist, columnist, writer, worked among others as a longtime MEP for the German CSU party. He was a promoter of European integration.

Otto von Habsburg was born in a villa Wartholz at Reichenau in Lower Austria. His parents were the future emperor Charles I. and Archduchess Zita Burbunsko-Parma. After the fall of the monarchy in 1919, the family emigrated first to Switzerland and then on the Portuguese island of Madeira, where Charles I. died. Otto later lived with his mother and siblings in Spain. Ever since childhood, was prepared on the future role of the monarch, this corresponded to an intensive study to be supervised by the mother. Managed by the world's major languages ??and learned the language well Nations monarchy. (During one of his visits to the Czech Republic admitted that the Czech increasingly understood, although they would be able to speak). Between the wars in Spain and educated in Belgium, where the Catholic University of Louvain graduated in Political and Social Sciences (1935).

Otto von Habsburg openly opposed Nazism and logically disagreed with the annexation of Austria to the Reich. During World War II he spent in exile in the United States, since the Nazis issued an arrest warrant for him and confiscated the property of the Habsburgs. After the war he advocated the unification of European nations, moreover, since 1936, he was a member of the Pan-European Union Movement, which sought to unite Europe on Christian principles.

To his native Austria was able to return until 1961, when it officially renounced claims to the throne. The country has already existed before the war efforts of some political groups on the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, whose head had become the successor. At home he could only use the civil name Otto Habsburg - Lothringen.

In the years 1979-1999 he performed at the European Parliament for the conservative Bavarian CSU party (he became a member in 1982). After the fall of the Iron Curtain sought to integrate Eastern European countries into the EU, International urged to reject the Benes decrees and dialogue with the Sudeten Germans. Some of his actions were perceived by the public as the Czech controversial.

Otto von Habsburg was a devout Catholic and Europeans, he worked in a number of European institutions, advocated for religious tolerance, he spent a lot of time traveling and lecturing. He was also extremely literary active. He and his wife Regina had seven children. His body was placed after his death in the tomb of the Habsburgs in the Capuchin Crypt in Vienna.