Crown Prince Rudolph was a political liberal who hated Kaiser Wilhelm II, admired France and Britain, defended Jews against the rising pan-German anti-Semitic movement, and believed the Austro-Hungarian Empire needed radical reform — but his father gave him nothing to do, leaving him a frustrated, useless figure.
Dominic Sandbrook describes Rudolph's progressive politics, his hatred of the German Kaiser, his Jewish friendships, and his frustration at being denied any real role by his conservative, controlling father. ✦ AI generated
Dominic Sandbrook · The Rest Is History · 2026-07-23 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 52:00
Rudolph clearly feels completely, he feels useless. He feels there's no point to his life. Actually, he has very strong political views. He would love to see Austria become more modern. He was very interested in electricity. We mentioned the electric shocks in the Praa Park. He still believes very much in the empire and the Hapsburg ideal. He's very keen on the army. He wrote to his friend who was a liberal newspaper editor called Morris Seps and he said the army is the single central thread which in this chaos still stands for the empire. He thought that the empire needed radical change. So he writes anonymously saying that we should change into a kind of United States of Europe, a kind of federation. He is always writing to this guy seps his friend and saying, you know, we're suffering from a sickness. We should have a purge and a cleaner, better Europe will emerge from this. Interestingly, I mean, this sounds like very kind of, you know, radical late 19th century, early 20th century rhetoric, but one big contrast, as I've already said, he's very keen on um the Jews of the empire cuz he's got a lot of very close Jewish friends. And actually, this newspaper editor, Seps, is Jewish. And that makes Rudolph a hate figure for Sherner and the PGermans. They say he's a puppet of Jewish capitalism and all this.
verbatim transcript · starts at 52:00
51:47God particularly in his letters and in his sort of jottings which we'll come to. So before the break we got to his birthday which was the 21st of August 1888 and he celebrated that that's when he turns 30 at his castle which is called Laxenburgg in the Vienna woods and Stephanie was there his wife and their daughter Elizabeth who was only I think she was four or so but his parents
52:09didn't go they just sent telegrams and that tells you you know about their very sort of chilly formal relationship and Rudolph I mean this is where Callum our producer may object to the um comparison Rudolph had shaved his beard. Callum still has his beard. >> Exactly. That's the point. That's the lesson that Callum has to learn. And also, he has to learn not to get to gonorrhea, which I think is a valuable
52:29lesson for any young producer. >> Yeah. Uh Rudolph was very haggarded. He seems to constantly exhausted, which is actually a symptom of gonorrhea. He has this cough that he can't get rid of, and he's necking morphine to deal with the cough. And he feels in private, in public, he gives nothing away, but in private, Rudolph clearly feels completely, he feels useless. He feels there's no point to his life. Actually,
52:52he has very strong political views. He would love to see Austria become more modern. He was very interested in electricity. We mentioned the electric shocks in the Praa Park. He still believes very much in the empire and the Hapsburg ideal. He's very keen on the army. He wrote to his friend who was a liberal newspaper editor called Morris Seps and he said the army is the single
53:13central thread which in this chaos still stands for the empire. He thought that the empire needed radical change. So he writes anonymously saying that we should change into a kind of United States of Europe, a kind of federation. He is always writing to this guy seps his friend and saying, you know, we're suffering from a sickness. We should have a purge and a cleaner, better Europe will emerge from this.
53:37Interestingly, I mean, this sounds like very kind of, you know, radical late 19th century, early 20th century rhetoric, but one big contrast, as I've already said, he's very keen on um the Jews of the empire cuz he's got a lot of very close Jewish friends. And actually, this newspaper editor, Seps, is Jewish. And that makes Rudolph a hate figure for Sherner and the PGermans. They say he's
54:02a puppet of Jewish capitalism and all this. So aside from the whole killing his mistress and shooting himself angle, he might actually have made quite a good fist of being an emperor and the fate of Middle Europe might have been slightly well, we'll discuss this, I guess. I think if you're brooding all the time in a very slightly weird insult. I mean, he's the opposite of an insult actually,
54:22but he's a man who would spend a lot of time on on on YouTube watching dark web material. >> Yes, but because he's not an emperor. Because he's not an emperor. But if he was an emperor, perhaps he would have um I don't know. I'm clutching his draws here. I'll tell you what would have completely recast the map of Europe if he'd been emperor. He was not a fan of