The Uebeltal Ferner glacier
and �ind peace of mind and avoid the then Press attention [ sound familiar ]. On 10th September 1898 , in poor health aged 60 , she was on her way with her con�idant Countess Katharina Sztaray and her reader young Friedrich Baker , to board a Lake Geneva pleasure boat cruise when she was stabbed and murdered by 25 year old Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni , his intended target was the Duke of Orleans but could not �ind him . He had learnt that Sisi was in Geneva and chose her as an alternative target for no apparent reason other than to murder the �irst aristocrat to cross his path . In death having had such a lonely life , �inal greetings came from France , Switzerland , Greece , Italy and Egypt . The women of Cairo sending many Roses of Jericho .
So what happened next ? At the time her death aged 60 , Kaiser Franz Josef was 67 , broken by the earlier death of his son Rudolf and now his wife most of his Royal duties had passed to his nephew Archduke Franz Ferdinand . Fourteen years later Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Countess Sophie were shot dead by Gavrilo Princip , a member of Black Hand Nationalist Group in Sarajevo on the 28 June 1914 , while on a state visit to Bosnia that led to the start of the First World War . Franz Josef now 81 was by then a sad �igure of a monarch with most Royal duties being undertaken by his nephew Karl . Two years later in 1916 with the war in full swing , with names of the Somme and Passchendaele , Franz Josef at 83 was dead .
Wall plaque
By late 1918 the war ended , by mid 1919 at the treaty of St Germain in Paris , the Sud Tyrol was annexed to Italy , the Deutscher und Oestereichisher Alpenverein disbanded along with all their huts being con�iscated . The Habsburg Austrian Hungarian Empire was broken up and disintegrated with most of the Austrian Royalty having �led into exile . Archduke Karl who tried to broker a deal for peace was exiled �irst to Switzerland , then later after he tried to return to Austria was exiled a second time to Madeira where in Funchal at the Reids Hotel in 1922 he would die of pneumonia aged just 34 . Austria , now landlocked became a republic .
Meanwhile the Kaiserin Eliabeth Haus , was renamed Rifugio Regina Elena after the Italian
of
Sisi ,
Queen Elena for a short time before reverting back to Becher Haus , that became the norm or in Italian as the Rifugio Bicchiere .
In more recent times should you be privileged to stay at Becher Haus , spend a few minutes in the hut ’ s Maria Chapel dedicated to Sisi , and while sitting on the huts terrace enjoying the scenery and a beer consider the plight of the US Airforce B24 Liberator bomber that crashed on the Uebeltal Ferner glacier during the Second World War killing all the 12 crew after the plane took a direct hit to the fuselage bomb bay while on a bombing mission of railway yards between Sterzing and Munich on 8 April 1945 . One month later the war was over . How sad . While most of the wreckage was removed a lot sank into the ice because the �ire , now
80 years on should you go to the nearby Teplitzer Hut you will be able to see some of the planes relics of that fateful day collected by Haller Davis the Huettenwirt at the hut including a battered 50 calibre machine gun .
As for the Crown Prinz Rudolf , what happened to him ?
Inheriting his mothers good looks he was a wow with the ladies at Court , becoming distant from his wife Princess Stephanie of Belgium because of his many lovers , he took solace with one of her ladies in waiting the teenage Baroness Mary Vetsera , when they hatched a joint suicide
Empress of Austria pact , shooting each other at the Mayerling hunting lodge on the outskirts of the Vienna woods in 1889 . There was a �ilm about that just called Mayerling . In his lifetime Rudolf was honoured by the DuOeAV Alpenverein with the construction of the Rudolf ’ s Hut [ 1874 ] in the Granats Group of mountains above Zell am See but this hut would be lost and drowned in 1958 during the construction of the Weissee hyro-electric dam reservoir being replaced with the very grand Rudolf ’ s Hut Berg Hotel .
Quite strange what you can �ind out when you start writing guidebooks !
I do however have one last question , who stole the Becher Haus ’ s huts original Kaiserin Elisabeth Haus hut sign , my guess is that it was one of the Alpini that took it when they vacated ? www . allanhartley . co . uk
16 outdoor focus / summer 2023