On a February day in 1853, His Majesty and his adjutant, Count Maximillian O’Donell, were on a walk on the bastion near the Carinthian Gate. Franz Josef I observed the military exercises in the moat.
The gentlemen continued their walk and did not notice how a small, confused-looking man with long hair crept up on them and tried to stab the emperor with a kitchen knife. The head of state instinctively turned around and only received a blow to the back of the head. The knife did not hit him. The Emperor’s companion, Count O’Donell, and the master butcher and landlord Josef Ettenreich von der Wieden, who happened to be passing by, grabbed the attacker and pinned him to the ground.
Who was this man actually? He was the 21-year-old Hungarian tailor Johann Libenyi from Csakvar. His goal was to free Hungary from Habsburg rule. Soldiers nearby arrested the assassin, who was sentenced to death in a military trial. Behind this tragic story lies Emperor Franz Josef I’s love affair with Margit Libenyi, the dancer of the Court Opera Ballet and the perpetrator’s sister.
The young lady made a career in Viennese ballet history under the pseudonym “Mizzi Langer”. Johann Libenyi knew about his sister’s relationship with the head of state and was therefore very critical of her. This further encouraged his revolutionary plans . The tailor therefore decided to carry out the assassination attempt on Emperor Franz Josef I.
Margit Libenyi, alias “Mizzi Langer”, was also to be sentenced . However, the emperor prevented the prosecution, ended the relationship and gave his former lady of the heart a lifelong pension. In gratitude for his rescue, Franz Josef I had the Ringstrasse Cathedral, better known as the Votive Church, built at today’s Schottentor between 1856 and 1879.
Time Travel Tips:
1) The former “Kärntertor” was located at the intersection of Kärnterstraße and Walfischgasse. This is where the emperor ‘s walk with his aide Count Maximilian O’Donnel began. The assassination itself must have taken place on the site of today’s State Opera.
2) The house in which the assassin, Johann Libenyi , lived was located in the former Schmidtgasse No. 653, Aspernbrückengasse 3 in Vienna’s 2nd district.
Editor: Michael Ellenbogen
Sources: Tartaruga Ubald, Der Wiener Pitaval, ed. Seyrl Harald, Edition Seyrl, 413 pages, ISBN 3-901697-08-X, Vienna-Scharnstein, 2000
