Publisher's Synopsis
The family entails library of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen is from the private library of Emperor Franz II / I. emerged who declared his collection to be an indivisible inheritance of the dynasty (Fideikommiss). As a result of its union with the private libraries of his successors and other Habsburg holdings, it became the family library of the dynasty par excellence. Plans to rededicate the collection to a Habsburg museum and thus an identity-creating memory space for the dynasty and the monarchy were obvious, but ultimately failed because of the implementation. Instead, it evolved into a scientific library that was increasingly used by the general public. This structural change to a public collection finally came to an end with the nationalization after the First World War.
