Die Throne stürzen

Throne stürzen, Die, title first given in 1951 to a group of three novels of recent history published by B. Brehm: Apis und Este (1931), Das war das Ende (1932), and Weder Kaiser noch König (1933). The powerfully written and detailed novels cover the period 1903 to 1922.

Apis und Este begins with the assassination of King Alexander of Serbia and Queen Draga by members of the conspiracy led by Colonel Dimitrijević (known as Apis) and continues through the years of Austro-Serbian tension, culminating in the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand (von Österreich-Este, hence the Este of the title) and his consort at Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, and the ensuing hasty and undignified interment (‘dritter Klasse’) and mourning dictated by the view held in court circles that the Archduke had married beneath his rank. Das war das Ende opens with the death of the Emperor Franz Joseph, and describes the attempts of his successor Karl to make a separate peace, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk following the Russian Revolution, and the collapse of the central powers (involving the abdication of the German and Austrian emperors) before the allied offensives of the summer and autumn of 1918. Weder Kaiser noch König concerns the two unsuccessful attempts made in April and October 1921 by the ex-emperor Karl to regain his throne and his subsequent death in Madeira in 1922.