.Anything is preferable to the truth Emperor Franz Joseph (1830-1916) gives this dire advice to
King Leopold II. (1835-1909) the baffled and bewildered father of his daughter-in-law Crown
Princess Stephanie (1864-1945) right after the tragedy of Mayerling.Was it really better to
conceal the course of events the cause and especially the second body found and therefore the
actual dimensions of this bloody deed? Was it not this policy of secrecy by the Viennese Court
concerning this double suicide which was carried out by Crown Prince Rudolf (1858-1889) and
his short-term mistress Mary Vetsera (1871-1889) on the 30th of January 1889 which led to all
other achievements by the very promising emperors son being relegated to triviality?Rudolfs
claim to truth and openness which he demanded from himself as well as his environment
blatantly contradicts the practices of the Viennese Court which threatens to submerge in a
swamp of intrigues and snobbery. Only few of Rudolfs contemporaries dare to point out this fact
on the occasion of his sudden death: Austria saw the germination of a monarch who did not
linger in fearful seclusion but stood in the centre of society who did not gain his
impressions from speeches and reports but directly from the mouths of the most excellent men
who did not want to be surrounded by dumb implements and submissive servants but who always
demanded openness and truth who did not look down on the masses with cool sovereignty but who
had true friends across all classes.
