The Otto von Habsburg Foundation’s website has been renewed and expanded with a digital archive

The Hungarian National Assembly decided on preserving the memory of Otto von Habsburg by adopting Act XCIX of 2016. A government resolution followed, which prescribed the creation of a foundation bearing the name of the former crown prince and Member of the European Parliament. The legacy, containing more than a hundred linear metres of papers, eleven thousand books and thirty thousand photographs, arrived in Hungary in the autumn of 2018. The Foundation’s primary mission – processing, digitising and making the archival materials accessible – began then, and this work, with the desired scholarly rigour and at the same time in accordance with the relevant rules, has continued ever since.

Back in November last year, with the Phase One iXH 150 MP reprographic system our team captured part of the material, the equivalent of 700 archival containers – which required particular attention and expertise – so that it would be digitised in the best possible quality.

© Otto von Habsburg Foundation – Tripont Foto Video Kft.

At the beginning of 2023, the digitised materials became available to the general public too on a new online platform. This system is a joint development of Tripont and the Austrian Treventus, adapted to the Foundation’s needs and to the look of the website.

To present the Foundation’s work more widely, its website has also become more user-friendly: the interface of the collection has become clearer, and the different types of units have been given clearly separate subpages:

• Under the archive menu item they have made available the history of the Otto von Habsburg Collection (fonds), a selection from Otto von Habsburg’s correspondence relating to Hungary between 1988 and 2011 and a list of his correspondents, as well as the many linear metres of typewritten foreign-policy situation reports produced over decades (1952–2007), which contain information and analyses relating to all parts of the world. Among the individual archival items, we can also browse in separate folders on the archive’s online interface.
• In their Library they keep Otto von Habsburg’s collection of books, newspapers and articles, which encompasses the printed writings of their namesake’s public career of several decades, part of the specialist literature used in his work, gift volumes received from his admirers and friends, and newsletters and documentation sent to him by virtue of the offices he held at various organisations. Their range of periodicals consists of press products linked to his person; his articles can be found in these or in the form of press cuttings. At present we can search among the writings published in the newspapers Magyar Hírlap, Új Európa and Vorarlberger Nachrichten.
• Under the photo and audiovisual collection menu item you can find information about their photographs and view several dozen photographs from Otto von Habsburg’s life. You can also watch the video recordings on their playlist.
• Finally – but by no means least – searching in the archive has been given its own icon, promoting efficient and quick research in their databases.

In the future too, the Otto von Habsburg Foundation will continue to pursue its aim of providing, from its collection – with the help of the ever-growing database available online – access to Otto von Habsburg’s correspondence, photographs and writings.

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