Crown Prince Rudolf....Truth or Myth?

Yesterday I watched the musical "Rudolf" with my friend Julia. The musical is about the Austrian crown prince Rudolf, who killed himself  with a girl named Mary Vetsera in a castle named Mayerling. It is not so much about their love to each other, but more about the failing system of the monarchy and the problems between this regime and Rudolf's more liberal attitude. Moreover, it is about the gap between the generation of his conservative father and Rudolf's own gerneration, who called for more freedom and justice.

Although the musical doesn't show the reality, but only the myth, it is more than beautiful. Wonderful songs, nice scenery and absolutely brilliant singers - especially Drew Sarich, who is playing Rudolf.

 Drew Sarich is an American, who moved to Austria and has already had all of the "big" roles, like Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables", Rocky in "Rocky- The Musical", Death in "Elisabeth", Judas and Jesus in "Jesus
Christ Superstar" and the Phantom of the Opera in "Love Never Dies". What is absolutely fascinating about Drew Sarich, is the fact that he speaks perfect German although he hasn't been in Austria for long.
For musicals like "Rudolf" he had to pronounce words especially clearly since he should sound like an Austrian monarch. In an interview he said that once he had gotten the role, he had to study really hard to memorize all those fancy old words that are rarely used nowadays. Since Americans have difficulties uttering sounds like "r, ü, or ö" he had to practice several hours every day and learn in what way you have to shape your mouth and move your tongue so that it sounds Austrian. -> hard work I bet!
The hard work definitely paid off though, because now he pronounces everything perfectly fine. In a former interview you can hear that he learned German via learning texts of musicals because he uses words or pronounces them the way people in the 19th century did...veeerry funny haha : D. Yesterday I watched a recently done interview, and he really improved. Now he doesn't sound like a guy from the 19th century anymore, but more like a German : D - he can't really do the Austrian accent : P.


 I've already seen "Rudolf" a couple of times and afterwards I always start thinking about the Habsburger era and the truth behind the myth. So I always end up googling crown prince Rudolf or his parents on the Internet. And this story is indeed a very interesting one:

Crown prince Rudolf was the third of four children of emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Elisabeth, also known as "Sissi". The oldest sibling died at a very young age (2 years). The other children -except Marie Valerie -  were taken away from Sissi and brought up by Franz Joseph's mother and very strict educators. Rudolf, as he was the heir to the throne, had an especially tough childhood. He had to study several hours a day, work out, and had to know how to use various weapons. Rudolf was -llike his mother- a very sensitive child and to make him braver one of the educators once left him in the woods for a whole night and sometimes he was waken up with gun shots. Rudolf grew up but because of his liberal attitude he was kept away from any political decisions. The young man composed anonym letters, in which he critized the monarchy and his father, and had them published under a pseudonym in the press. Rudolf had to marry princess Stephanie, who was also blood related to him, and a couple of years later his only daughter was born. And now the myth begins:

Rudolf, now 30 years old, got to know Mary Vetsera, a 17 year old girl who fell desperately in love with the crown prince. In the night of June 29, 1889 they, according to the historical documents of the monarchy, committed suicide in the castle of Mayerling. Today nobody really knows what happened because witness statements contradict each other. What we do know is the fact that, in order to keep Vetsera's death a secret, she was dressed, bound fast in a carriage (so that it lookes like she's alive) and transported out of Mayerling. Doctors performed an autopsy on Rudolf's body and, so that he could be burried in the family's tomb, it was stated that by looking at his brain one could see that he had been mentally dazed and therefore shot himself.
Some people said that one day Rudolf  had gone to his cousin, given her a box with documents, and told her to keep them safe and to not tell anyone - if she did, this would mean treason and he would be killed. After Rudolf's death those documents were apparently given to count Taaffee, his father's political advisor. Nobody knows where they are, or what they were about and why it would have meant treason, but there's a myth saying that Rudolf was part of the "Steinmaurer" and that they wanted to topple the regime. This would fit to the last emperor Zita's statement that this was not suicide, but brutal murder. She claimed that the "Steinmaurer" wanted to bring down emperor Franz Joseph by using Rudolf, but when Rudolf refused to help they killed him.


After Rudolf's death, his father had the room where they died converted into a chapel.  According to his youngest sister, his mother, Sissi, afterwards only wore black- expressing her grief.