Habsburg: Last Austro-Hungarian heir to be buried

The funeral of the last heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Otto von Habsburg, is set to take place in the Austrian capital Vienna.

His body will be buried in the Imperial crypt amid pomp and ceremony associated with the former empire. His wife, who died last year, will also be buried.
European royals and political leaders, many from nations that his family ruled over, will attend the ceremony.
Otto von Habsburg, a former MEP, died earlier this month at the age of 98.
Thousands of people have been paying their respects before the coffins of Mr Habsburg and his wife in one of Vienna's churches.

Although Mr Habsburg's body will be buried in the crypt where his ancestors lie, his heart will be taken to Hungary for burial at an abbey in Budapest on Sunday, in accordance with a Habsburg tradition.

A passionate advocate of European unity, he served as a member of the European parliament for two decades.
His son Karl Habsburg said his father witnessed huge changes in Europe during his life.
"It would always be wrong to only remember him in the context of the old monarchy or only remember him in the context of the European Union. I think he should be remembered in the whole arch that his life has been creating...over the whole changes that happened to Europe in his lifetime," he said.
The BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna says that there have been some complaints that the pomp surrounding the funeral is out of place in a republic.
'Life in exile' Mr Habsburg was born in 1912, six years before the collapse of the empire at the end of the First World War.
He spent many decades exiled from Austria after his family fled in 1919, but relinquished his own claim to inherit the empire in 1961. Five years later he was allowed to return to Austria.
He was an opponent of the Nazis and spoke out against Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938.
In 1989 he helped organise the Pan-European Picnic demonstration on the border of Austria and Hungary.
The border was briefly opened, an event credited with helping usher in the fall of the Berlin Wall months later.
Mr Habsburg then dedicated himself to having the former communist-ruled states of eastern Europe brought into the EU.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso paid tribute to him as "a great European... who gave an important impetus to the European project throughout his rich life".

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