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1-The Habsburgs Rise to Power
We follow
the Habsburgs' rise to power and discover how Vienna marked Europe's front line
in the struggle to defend both Christendom from the Ottomans and the Catholic
Church from the Protestant revolutionaries that plotted to destroy it.
2-Vienna Triumphant
After the
Ottoman threat receded at the end of the 17th century. The city was rebuilt. No
longer an outpost defending the West from Islamic invaders, the Habsburgs vowed
their empire and imperial capital would become the most glittering in the
world. The Habsburg emperors transformed the city from a fortress into a great
cultural capital. Vienna became a city that would define the arts; a magnet for
musicians including Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.
3-Habsburg Extinction
From his
struggles with Napoleon III and Bismarck and the suicide of his son Rudolf, to
the assassination of his beautiful wife Sisi, Emperor Franz Josef's empire and
his family proved impossible to control. But while the Habsburgs headed for
extinction, Vienna blossomed. As the theories of Freud and the sensuality of
the secession artists like Klimt and Schiele ushered in the modern age, Hitler
and Stalin stalked her streets. It was here that World War I was sparked; it
was here World War II was dreamed.
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Vienna:
Empire, Dynasty and Dream
E1 of 3
The
Habsburgs
Series 1 -
Episode 1
The
Habsburgs
by Gill
Crawford
After
learned peregrinations through Rome and Istanbul, panama-behatted historian
Simon Sebag Montefiore turns his attention to that other great imperial city,
Vienna, for what he describes as a story of “rollicking heroes and extreme bloodletting”.
There’s no shortage of the latter in this first episode, as he describes the
slaughter – of family rivals, opposing kings, Ottomans and Jews – that
accompanied the early centuries of the Habsburg dynasty as they accumulated
power and influence. But they were also good at marriage, and it wasn’t long
before they controlled huge swathes of continental Europe as Holy Roman
Emperors.
In case the
parade of names threatens to dull the attention, Montefiore relishes the more
gruesome aspects of the time, notably the savagery of the Thirty Years War, all
the while wandering through elegant streets and ornate palaces. It sums up the
schizophrenic nature of the period neatly.
SUMMARY
Historian
Simon Sebag Montefiore describes how the Habsburgs transformed Vienna into a
multi-national city of music, culture, art and ideas. Simon explores the
Habsburgs' rise to power and discovers more about how Vienna marked Europe's
front line in the struggle to defend both Christendom and the Catholic Church
from revolutionaries who plotted to destroy them.
CAST &
CREW
Presenter
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Director
Dominic Ozanne
Executive
Producer Mike Smith
Producer
Dominic Ozanne
Series
Producer Richard Downes
|
Telegraph Culture
TV
Vienna:
Empire, Dynasty and Dream: a mischievous look at the horror of the Habsburgs:
review
Simon Sebag
Montefiore in Vienna
Ben
Lawrence
8 DECEMBER
2016 • 10:00PM
Vienna:
Empire, Dynasty and Dream (BBC Four) is one of those bombastic titles which
fretful TV executives thrust upon programmes they fear may be too brainy for
mere mortals. Simon Sebag Montefiore’s documentary (the first of three) did not
start promisingly – he gurned his way through a concision of the programme’s
themes (essentially how the Austrian capital has consistently been the locus of
power politics, religion and culture) and drummed up some pointless
alliteration that would make Kelvin MacKenzie squirm (“from Peru to Poland,
from Netherlands to Naples” – which, if you think about it, makes no sense when
trying to convey the scale of the Habsburg Empire).
However,
Sebag Montefiore has a mischievous eye for blood and gore. Flagellation,
decapitation and that schoolboy favourite, defenestration, featured heavily.
Albert I of Germany, who had a gaping hole where an eye should have been, was
murdered by an enraged nephew and his children sought revenge, beheading 63 of
his relatives. “As blood spurted out of them,” said Sebag Montefiore with more
than a little theatrical flourish, “Albert’s daughter cried out in ecstasy:
‘This is like being bathed in May dew.’”
Yet even
Sebag Montefiore’s vivid descriptions couldn’t disguise the meagre budget or
the lack of imagery to accompany his storytelling. Lucy Worsley would have dressed
up in a hooped skirt and pantables to fill in the gaps. Here, there were a lot
of shots of the lofty Sebag Montefiore walking through cobbled streets and over
ancient bridges, swooping on historical nuggets like a sort of erudite stork.
Indeed, he
is a smart interpreter of historical fact and was able to convey the whims and
wheeler-dealings of a deeply divided Habsburg dynasty and set it within a
context of general pan-European uncertainty, constantly under threat from the
Ottoman Empire which lurked in the shadows.
“What do you make of a Holy Roman Emperor who
wants to see himself as a fruit salad?” pondered Sebag Montefiore as he
examined a hideous portrait of Rudolf II done up as Vertumnus, the Roman god of
the seasons. Some answers will forever be consigned to history.
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